Albert Breer on if Tua or Kyler Will Return in 2026, Falcons QB Options, Raiders DC

All right.

Welcome in.

It's the Brew Report for February 12th.

We are now into the offseason.

Appreciate you guys following us to the Super Bowl and the entire 2025 season, but now we're turning the page with a mailbag edition of the Brew Report.

As always, you can get more answers to more of your questions.

More detailed answers online at the MMQB.

com with the print edition of the mailbag.

But as always, we are gonna get to 3 of your questions right here, right now.

And the first of the questions comes from Lawrence, that's at vista_test2.

Lawrence asks, who has Clint Kubiak worked with or may have a relationship with that could be in the running for his defensive coordinator hire.

Clint Kubiak, of course, the new head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders coming off of a Super Bowl championship as the offensive coordinator of the Seahawks.

And so, you dig through his past, you start to look at who he's got relationships with, and the first name.

That was plugged in there, um, over the last couple of weeks that I had heard was actually Jim Schwartz.

The Raiders had sniffed around on Jim Schwartz.

The Browns still have Schwartz under contract for this year.

They've got an option on him for 2027, so they control his rights.

And I'm not honestly not sure that Schwartz realistically wants to go to a place like Vegas right now.

The reason why, He may think it's better for him to sit out the year and keep his powder dry potentially for the Philadelphia Eagles in 27 if Vic Fangio decides to retire next year after deciding to come back for this particular season.

Schwartz, of course, has relationships in the Eagles organization, Howie Roseman thinks the world of him.

So, I think what you have to do if you're a suitor for Jim Schwartz right now is, you have to convince the Browns to let him out, which won't be easy.

And then B, you have to convince him that you're a better option than the Eagles would be a year from now.

So, my guess would be you, that one will not happen, although the Raiders have sniffed around on Jim Schwartz.

Some other names, they sniffed around on Dino Vaso, who was a hot name, Houston secondary coach as defensive coordin.

Coordinator candidate.

He was a candidate in Vegas.

He was a candidate in Arizona.

He was a candidate in Cleveland.

He has done an extension in Houston now, so it looks like he's not going anywhere.

Joe Woods is the Raiders' secondary coach.

He was there with Pete Carroll.

Clint Kubiak has a relationship with him.

Um, I, my expectation is that Joe Woods will be in the staff and same, will be on the staff in some capacity, in what capacity we'll see.

Joe Cullen, um, who is an experienced defensive coach and could lend some know-how to, to, to Clint Kubiak, having been around some great head coaches and John Harbaugh and Andy Reid.

He's the D-line coach in Kansas City.

I would expect that Joe Cullen will get a look, um, in the Raiders off defensive coordinator search.

And then if you're talking about somebody he potentially could bring with him, the Seahawks pass game coordinator, a guy named Carl Scott, could go with him.

Um, and then there's the outside possibility, and I don't think this is gonna happen.

The outside possibility.

The Seahawks' defensive coordinator, Aiden Durday, who does not call plays in Seattle, goes to Vegas.

Now, I think Mike McDonald might be amenable to letting Durday go to Vegas, but is that the best thing for Durda, who interviewed for the Falcons job, who interviewed for the Browns job, who may be in the precipice of getting a head coaching job, I think he's a really good head coaching candidate, would be the best thing for him to be to go call plays somewhere ?

Or would it be to stay put with a team that should contend for a Super Bowl again next year, which would keep him hot on the head coaching circuit.

I think the best call for him would probably be to stay, but we'll see what happens there.

But that's just some names to go through.

The good news for the Raiders is there's not a lot of competition.

It's them and Arizona right now, um, looking for defensive coordinators in Arizona.

You have some different names, Wink Martindale, Aubrey Pleasant.

Um, to join Mike LaFleur's staff.

Question number 2 comes from JG that's at Jjima 94.

Between the Cardinals and Dolphins, which is more likely to have their high-priced quarterback on the roster on opening day in 2026?

I think neither do.

Um.

But it's important to look at the financials of this.

Now, I'll throw you a 3rd quarterback in that group on the trade market, and that would be Mac Jones.

And I'm giving you Mac Jones's name because I think it illustrates how you're not just trading quarterbacks, you're trading contracts.

I think Mac Jones would bring home a way better return.

Than Kyler Murray or Tuatungavaloa.

Now does that mean he's a better player?

Not necessarily, but he's got a much better contract.

He is under contract next year for less than $5 million to the San Francisco 49ers.

So a team can trade for him, and they have his contractual rights for 2026 at a very low rate, which not only gives them those rights, but gives them leverage if they want to negotiate something longer.

In the case of Kyler Murray and Tuatungavaloa, there's over $50 million guaranteed left on those deals, and other teams know that the Dolphins or the Cardinals may be forced eventually to do what the Broncos did with Russell Wilson, which is bite the bullet and eat all the money and, and move on that way.

But I do, I do think both Miami and Arizona are of a mind right now to move on.

Both those quarterbacks.

Went through a really rough 2025 for different reasons.

Tua, of course, was benched by the Dolphins.

Kyler got hurt, but there was some just moving parts with all of that and the way that that happened that would lead you to believe that he is done in Arizona.

There are subtle differences in their contracts, OK?

The Tua contract has $54 million fully guaranteed in 2026.

So that money is locked in.

He's getting that money one way or the other.

Kyler Murray has $56.

3 million fully guaranteed total, but that money is split up.

So it's $36.

8 million in 26.

It's $19.

5 million in 2027.

And I think that that makes it a little more difficult to move Kyler Murray because you have that money spread out over two years, and there are bigger totals on top of the guarantees.

And so, I think Kyler Murray's contract is more difficult to move.

Kyler Murray is coming off of an injury.

So I think of the two, it's probably more likely that the Cardinals get stuck with Kyler Murray.

Um, you know, and I think in both cases, these teams are going to look for creative ways to move the contracts.

i.e., eating money and how do you go about eating enough money so you can give another team some value?

Well, I think you have to look at Justin Fields' contract last year with the Jets as an example .

The Jets signed him at $20 million per year.

It was a 2-year, $40 million deal.

I think you'd have to get the number under $20 million for this year and, you know, in the case of Murray potentially for next year, which you have to knock down the total number above just the guarantee to $20 million.

Will that work?

We'll see.

It's a, it's a tricky situation for both teams again.

The Niners have a real value that they can trade in Mac Jones.

Kyler Murray and Tuatungavaloa are not of value.

You might like them as players, you might like them as reclamation projects, you might believe that they could be the next Daniel Jones or Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold who just won a Super Bowl.

Um, but are you willing to take on the money to, to roll the dice on that?

That's the question.

And how much of the money are you willing to take on?

How much of the money are the Seahawks or Dolphins gonna have to eat?

For Miami or Arizona, it makes sense to at least explore this, of course, because you knock down the total that you're responsible for.

If those guys just go out and hit the open market now, no one's paying them over the total guarantee.

So now you're talking about those guys going out, hitting the market, and you're responsible for and, and, and, and all another team is going to be responsible for is the league minimum, and then the Dolphins and Cardinals get stuck with everything else via the offset.

Finally, question number 3, this is from One Time for the Fan, that's at one time for the Fan.

Who would be a good option for bridge slash backup quarterback for the Falcons due to the Pennick situation?

Michael Pennox, of course, tore his ACL late in the season.

Whether or not he's ready for week one is still an open question.

They're optimistic about that, but he's got a lot of injury history.

So this one's a little bit unpredictable.

And I think the Falcons do have to prepare for the possibility that he wouldn't be available for week one, or he wouldn't be available for day one of training camp, and you're gonna need a quarterback in there who can play to get your team ready for the season.

So, I think the first thing you want to do is look at Kevin Stefansky's history and who is out there as a player that might make sense because he knows Kevin Stefansky's system, because he can be a torchbearer for the program, and then when Michael Pennox comes back, he can be somebody who can be a resource to Michael Pennox.

So my first thought is Joe Flacco.

I know that sounds crazy.

I think Joe Flacco wants to keep playing.

I think the opportunity to reunite with Kevin Stefansky after the success that they had in 2023, that's three years ago now, um, would give Joe Flacco an incentive to go and sign with the Falcons.

I think Joe Flacco could be really good for Michael Penn, so that's one name.

The other name is Kirk Cousins.

And look, like Kirk has $10 million guaranteed for this year.

He's got a much bigger number on top of that.

They're probably gonna have to go through the song and dance of cutting him.

Could they entice him to come back and play again for the Falcons and be there as Michael Pennox's backup?

You say that this was, this would be an awkward situation, but would it?

Raheem Morris is gone , Terry Fontno is gone, Zach Robinson's gone.

All the guys who brought Michael Pennox in are gone.

You have a coach that Kirk Cousins is familiar with from Minnesota and Kevin Stanski in-house.

You have Matt Ryan there.

You have Ian Cunningham as, as the general manager.

Kirk Cousins, at least on paper, would make some sense separate from his.

Um, his background with, with the organization.

So those are two names that would make some sense for the Atlanta Falcons as they look to put together a viable quarterback room that will give them insurance against Pennox's injury.

Appreciate you guys coming out as always.

Always.

Appreciate you guys coming out all year.

Appreciate you guys sticking with us here for the offseason as we move forward.

I will be going away next week for a few days, uh, to go skiing with my kids, but the combines right after that.

We still have one more Breer report coming this week.

You can just leave your comments down below here on the YouTube page.

Be sure to do that.

You can also get to me on my Twitter um at Albert Breer, my Instagram at Albert_Breer, on my Facebook at Albert R Breer.

Again, appreciate everything you guys did and coming out all season long.

We will see you again on Friday.