Do the Raiders have the only QB battle in the NFL?
By Levi Dombro
Which teams have their QB?
It is no surprise that most teams in the NFL have their quarterback situation figured out before OTAs begin, because the position is that crucial. For 22 of the league’s 32 teams, barring injury, we know exactly who will be starting on Day 1, although not all of these players fall into the same category. There are teams with bonafide stars, but some teams just lack a quality backup and are in a bit of a holding period with a bridge QB. The teams with star players are:
Buffalo Bills (Josh Allen), New York Jets (Aaron Rodgers), Baltimore Ravens (Lamar Jackson), Cincinnati Bengals (Joe Burrow), Houston Texans (CJ Stroud), Kansas City Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes), Los Angeles Chargers (Justin Herbert), Dallas Cowboys (Dak Prescott), Philadelphia Eagles (Jalen Hurts), and the Los Angeles Rams (Matthew Stafford).
There are also a handful of teams with very good QBs who are no-brainers to start, but I would not give the “superstar” delineation. These teams are:
Miami Dolphins (Tua Tagovailoa), Jacksonville Jaguars (Trevor Lawrence), Indianapolis Colts (Anthony Richardson), Chicago Bears (Caleb Williams), Detroit Lions (Jared Goff), Green Bay Packers (Jordan Love), Atlanta Falcons (Kirk Cousins), and the San Francisco 49ers (Brock Purdy).
The next tier of teams have a quarterback who is definitely a starter, but a low-end starter, and there are no real challengers at the backup position to dethrone them. You can win with these team’s quarterbacks, but not often because of them:
New Orleans Saints (Derek Carr), Baker Mayfield (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals), and Seattle Seahawks (Geno Smith).
Any team in the bottom tier would make a trade for a quarterback in the tier above, and the same is true for the middle tier. It would be hard to pry the superstar quarterbacks away from their respective teams, which is a testament to how special it is to have a player of that caliber. I could see Caleb Williams and Aaron Rodgers swapping places, as well as Trevor Lawrence and Matthew Stafford, but that is an assessment to be made at the season’s end, not right now.