QB Carousel: Predicting the Landing Spots for Top Available QBs

With the NFL league year and free agency officially two weeks in, the quarterback market, oddly enough, hasn’t seen much action thus far.

Mike Glennon was the hot name on the market and was quickly snatched up by the Bears while journeymen like Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley — who both showed promise with Chicago last year — headed west for San Francisco.

Outside of these three names, and a few backups here and there, the market is largely the same as it was on March 9th when free agency opened. With names like Colin Kaepernick, Jay Cutler and of course Tony Romo still out there though, there’s plenty of quarterback dominoes yet to fall.

Predicting their landing spots is a tricky venture seeing as the overall market has been scarce for these players but with plenty of teams still in need of help at the position, something has got to, eventually, give.

Colin Kaepernick

The story of Colin Kaepernick has been one of the wildest in NFL history. After bursting onto the scene and looking like one of the league’s elite quarterbacks of the future, he has floundered horribly to the point of being benched for the likes of Blaine Gabbert. Yikes. Now the former second round pick of the Niners has hit free agency and with no suitors yet to emerge, it has caused many to assume his national anthem protests are a large part of the reason.

Regardless of his political stance or his severe dip in production though, Kaepernick should eventually land himself a job. At this point it doesn’t appear he’ll land in a starting role but could very easily find himself as a backup with the potential to be groomed back into a serviceable starter somewhere like Arizona. Given his age and athleticism, if he has the proper coaching (Bruce Arians) and a chance to really sit and learn behind an older quarterback (Carson Palmer), there’s a chance he could still be someone’s QB of the future.

Prediction: Arizona Cardinals

Jay Cutler

The connotation around Jay Cutler is certainly one full of negatives. Yet there’s also a sense of “what could have been” with the former first round pick. After showing promise in his first few years in Denver, he was shipped out to Chicago where he has largely been underwhelming, showing flashes of brilliance but far more baffling miscues.

Cutler’s lack of overall interest is somewhat puzzling as outside of Romo, he’s certainly the most accomplished and probably the best option left. At this stage of his career, the 11-year vet is what he is but that’s not to say he couldn’t still be a solid bridge starter for a team with plenty to surround him with like the Texans who are both in need of a veteran presence at quarterback to hopefully steer the ship while they develop a rookie.

Prediction: Houston Texans

Chase Daniel

Chase Daniel has been a career backup to this point but has gotten the kind of buzz that comes from a few stellar relief appearances and is now poised to land a starting gig among the few open jobs out there. He’s been one of the league’s top backups with New Orleans, Kansas City and Philadelphia and was recently released in order to find that potential starting spot.

Daniel’s limitations are obvious and what he has shown already is likely to be his ceiling at this point in his career. Like Cutler though, the career backup has a shot to be a solid bridge quarterback for a team like the Jets, that’s looking to rebuild. New York has already expressed interest in Daniel and given their current situation at the position he’s likely to win the job easily and give the team a chance to find and develop a rookie or even Christian Hackenberg, behind him for a few years. The Jets have signed McCown but since the Jets QB situation raises more questions than answers, signing Daniels could be a formidable step to a long-term solution.

Prediction: New York Jets

Robert Griffin III

A career that saw him get drafted number two overall has become a disastrous implosion for Robert Griffin III. He won the 2012 Rookie of the Year award while looking spectacular but has since seen his career derailed by a combination of injuries, plateaued talent and coaching sabotage.

His signing with Cleveland last year was supposed to be a career renaissance for the quarterback but instead saw him get injured multiple times and miss 11 games. As tough as it may be to fathom, there’s a good chance that RGIII has played his last snap as an NFL quarterback. His injury history and clear lack of talent progress simply don’t make him an enticing enough option for any team to really invest anything in and unfortunately could mean the end for Griffin.

Prediction: Free Agent

Tony Romo

He may not technically be on the free agency market yet, but with Dallas still attempting to trade him before his inevitable release, Tony Romo is very much available. There has been plenty of speculation on where Romo will eventually land and how that will occur but one thing that’s been clear is that the 14-year veteran will be playing somewhere else in 2017.

The common belief is that the veteran QB will land with either Houston or Denver which is a pretty safe bet to assume. However, this has all the makings of a Peyton Manning 2.0 move and you have to think the savvy John Elway is going to pull off this move to vault the Broncos back into title contention. Despite the Denver GM’s comments that they are happy with what they have at the position, there is little doubt that he’d be able to pass up on Romo given the opportunity to acquire him once he “officially” hits the market.

Prediction: Denver Broncos