NFL QB Market

Over the past couple days, I’ve gone through the NFL QB situations team by team to determine which teams will be in the market for a new QB. Here’s Part 1 and Part 2 in case you missed it. The punch line is that there are 10 teams who in in various levels of panic mode over their QB situation, and the Seahawks level of desperation is somewhere around the middle of that group.

The next step is to look at the QBs available. You should also remember that we’re only talking about QBs who are good enough to counted on as an NFL starter, and will be ready in week 1. Unfortunately, there are only 3 in my opinion, and 1 wild card:

The Franchises

Peyton Manning – Assuming that his arm strength continues to return, and that he’s released as expected, Manning is the premier QB available. He’s one of the best QB ever to play the game, and while he’s near the end of his career, there’s no reason to doubt that whatever team he signs with will be an instant Super Bowl contender.

Matt Flynn – Aaron Rogers’s understudy in Green Bay. is a free agent and looking for his chance to shine. In his limited opportunities, he’s looked very good. He still not a sure thing by any means. Whichever team signs him better hope that he’s closer to Matt Schaub and less like Kevin Kolb.

Robert Griffin III – Griffin is the only QB in the draft who’s ready to start in week 1, and isn’t already set on which team he’ll end up with. I don’t think Griffin is quite as good as all the hype surrounding him, but I don’t doubt that he’ll be an above average NFL QB.

The wild card in the QB market is David Garrard. It’s debated whether or not Garrard is really a franchise QB, but that might not stop a team from scooping him up in order to fill a void at the QB position. Garrard should be especially interesting to Washington. Mike Shannahan’s offense is built for a QB like Garrard. Just looks at all the milage he was able to get out of Jake Plummer when he was with Denver.

I haven’t included Andrew Luck on this list, because I didn’t include the Colts on the list of teams needing a QB.

The 2nd Tier

The 2nd tier QBs are those that too good to be content as a backup, but not good enough to lead a franchise to a Super Bowl.

Kyle Orton – After struggling in Denver in 2011, Orton moved on to KC and played reasonably well. A year ago, Orton was considered to be a borderline franchise QB, but now the shine has faded off his star. Orton isn’t likely to get interested as a long term answer at QB, but he still offers a significant upgrade for many teams looking for a QB.

Jason Campbell – Was having a tremendous season before landing on IR. Like Orton, Campbell is an upgrade over a number of starting QB in the NFL, but isn’t someone teams will look to as a long term answer at the position.

Chad Henne – Henne never really got a chance in Miami. He worked his way past inferior players only to get injured. Henne is still young, so it’s possible that a team will take a chance that he will continue to improve with more playing time. The problem is that he never looked quite like a franchise QB even when he was healthy.