NFL Teams Still Scrambling for a Quarterback After Free Agency Frenzy

Kyler Murray posted “Godspeed” on social media and walked out of Tempe for the last time. No tearful press conference. No standing ovation. Just a two-time Pro Bowler—the No. 1 overall pick from 2019—absorbing the quiet indignity of being released while Arizona still owes him $36.8 million. Meanwhile, Tua Tagovailoa was landing in Atlanta on a league-minimum deal, a concussion survivor turned cap casualty turned bargain-bin savior. And somehow, impossibly, Malik Willis—six career starts, a passer rating that makes you wince—had just become Miami’s $67.5 million franchise investment.

By March 11, the quarterback market had already eaten itself alive. Three franchises got answers, chaotic as those answers may be. Others are left staring at the wreckage.

Arizona Cardinals

Here’s the brutal reality of Arizona’s offseason: they’re bleeding $47.5 million in 2026 dead cap and $7.2 million more into 2027 for a quarterback who played five games last season. Foot injury in Week 6. Done. Murray threw for 962 yards, six touchdowns, three picks, and then watched Jacoby Brissett—steady, reliable, absolutely unspectacular Jacoby Brissett—post a career-best 64.9 percent completion rate with 3,366 yards and 23 touchdowns.

The Cardinals went 1–11 in those Brissett starts. And with the prospect of the 37-year-old veteran starting at State Farm Stadium next season, online betting sites couldn’t be less impressed if they tried. The latest online gambling at Sportaza odds list the Cardinals as a whopping 18/1 outsider to reach the playoffs next season, the longest odds of anybody and by some distance.

New head coach Mike LaFleur, the Kyle Shanahan disciple who inherited this smoldering dumpster fire, hasn’t panicked publicly. But his free agency fingerprints tell the real story. Arizona signed interior lineman Isaac Seumalo to a three-year deal, added Tyler Allgeier at running back, and patched two more offensive line spots. LaFleur is building the infrastructure a franchise quarterback will need when he eventually arrives. That’s what an honest rebuild looks like. Trenches first. Everything else second.

Which is why the No. 34 pick matters so much. Mock drafts project Arizona trading back into the late first round for Alabama’s Ty Simpson—3,567 yards, 28 touchdowns, five interceptions in 2025, a pro-ready play-action operator whose intermediate accuracy screams LaFleur’s system. The plan writes itself: Brissett bridges for a year, Simpson develops, and the infrastructure around him matures—starter by 2027.

Unless someone jumps Arizona for Simpson first. Unless the kid isn’t as pro-ready as the tape suggests. Unless Brissett goes 2–15 and the owner starts making calls the front office doesn’t want to receive. Can a franchise absorbing a nuclear dead cap hit afford to get the draft wrong, too? That’s the question nobody in Tempe wants to answer.

Cleveland Browns

Somewhere in Cleveland, Deshaun Watson is rehabbing his second torn Achilles and convincing himself—maybe convincing everyone—that 2026 is his comeback year. It might even be true. But here’s what’s also true: Watson has played 19 games since arriving in Cleveland. The Browns guaranteed him $230 million. That’s roughly $12.1 million per game, for a quarterback who’s spent more time on the medical table than in the huddle… and even on those occasions that he was under center, he was hardly impressive.

They restructured his contract again in early March—converting the $46 million salary into bonus money to reduce an $80.7 million cap number that would’ve paralyzed the entire offseason. Front office accounting gymnastics, kicking the can down the road one more time. Watson’s contract is weighing this franchise down like nothing the NFL has seen before.

And the 2025 season was its own special cruelty. Shedeur Sanders, drafted fifth round, and Dillon Gabriel, taken third round, both arrived with moderate expectations and delivered little. The offense sputtered. David Njoku walked. Jack Conklin’s career ended. New head coach Todd Monken—a legitimate offensive architect who deserves better than this—inherited a quarterback room that could charitably be described as aspirational.

Monken’s best move this offseason might be manufacturing competition so brutal that Watson has to prove himself or step aside. Another Joe Flacco reunion provides veteran insurance—Flacco knows how to manage a game without torching the roster’s chemistry. A mid-round dart at Garrett Nussmeier or Carson Beck adds developmental depth without committing anything meaningful.

Watson, Flacco, Sanders, Gabriel, and a Day 3 prospect walk into training camp. The last man standing gets the starting berth on Week 1. Two of them are traded away, and Watson continues to cash big fat cheques regardless.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Aaron Rodgers is in shape. He’s staying in shape. He’s in “regular contact” with the Steelers. He just won’t tell anyone what he’s actually going to do.

On March 4, Rodgers sat across from Pat McAfee and stonewalled every direct question about 2026. No contract offer exists yet—no commitment in either direction. Just a 42-year-old Hall of Famer who delivered Pittsburgh an AFC North title, a Week 18 game-winning touchdown dagger against Baltimore, and a playoff berth—then disappeared into the offseason fog like he’s auditioning for a sequel nobody has greenlit.

 

GM Omar Khan is not amused. He’s keeping the door open publicly, but reports indicate that Kirk Cousins—recently cut by Atlanta in the Tua trade—has emerged as Pittsburgh’s primary contingency. Cousins makes football sense. He’s a four-time Pro Bowler, a play-action specialist, fully recovered from his own Achilles ordeal, and the kind of steady veteran bridge that lets Pittsburgh keep contending. At the same time, second-year quarterback Will Howard continues his development in the background.

Late-round intrigue spices the situation further. Taylen Green’s 4.36 forty at the combine has already landed in Pittsburgh scouts’ notebooks—a developmental dart with upside, the kind of Day 3 gamble the Steelers take with surgical patience. But let’s be real: if Rodgers returns, Pittsburgh is a legitimate AFC contender. If Cousins steps in, they’re a wildcard team at best.