Albert Breer on QB Market Taking Form, Titans Rebrand, Thanksgiving Eve Football?

It's not hard to see a scenario where 4 or 5 of them hit.

All right.

Welcome in to the Report for Friday, March 13th.

As you can see, we're on location here on a shoot.

Got a great story coming for you next week and we will have more on that when we get there.

But for right now, we wanted to wrap up the first week of free agency by hitting three topics.

And the first one, it's a little less serious topic than we've dealt with over the course of the last few days.

That's the Titans rebrand and they unveiled new uniforms last night, brings a lot of us back to our childhood.

Um, it shows, I think the Titans are listening to their fans and embracing the history of the organization, which, of course, begins all the way back in 1960 with the Houston Oilers, and they were the Houston Oilers for 3.5 decades.

Uh, before the move to Tennessee, first to Memphis, and then, of course, in 1999 to Nashville, and I can see what the Titans are trying to do here.

They're trying to thread the needle.

Between being Tennessee's team and still wanting the identity of Nashville, and then of course, embracing the history because everyone loved the Oilers throwback.

So I actually like the look on the surface.

This is one of those where for one reason or another, it wasn't like instant like I love them.

Like I was that way with the Chargers uniforms when they changed them in 2020.

It's one of those that I like, but I need to see it on the.

Field first, but I, I thought, I think the colors pop, you know, I think the, the, the color scheme, there's a reason why it worked for Houston for so many years.

You do have like the six-string guitar pattern on the sleeves, so that's kind of cool.

Um, we'll see, we'll see.

Maybe it'll grow on me over the course of the next few weeks and months, and when we get to the season, then I'll be able to make a final judgment when I actually see the uniforms out there.

I consider myself an expert on this.

When I actually see the, uh, you know, forms out there, that's when we'll be able to give you a final grade on how these uniforms wind up looking.

Um, all right, so our second topic is where some of these teams are with the quarterback market starting to take shape.

So now we know where some of the minimum guys are going.

Tuatungavalo will play on the minimum for the Falcons.

Uh, Kyler Murray will play on the minimum for the Minnesota Vikings.

Geno Smith was another guy who was in that category.

He'll play for a little more than the minimum for the Jets.

The Jets and Raiders were able to work out a win-win scenario where Geno also wins.

He gets an extra million bucks.

The Jets take on, um, a little bit more.

More money to be sure that they get the player rather than him going out there to the market.

The Raiders get a little bit of a, a pay cut and uh get, get to, get to take out a little less of the money, and then, you know, of course, they get to move a pick up about 20 slots.

So this is something that works for everybody.

So those three guys are off the market.

As it stands right now.

The only job, the only quarterback job that hasn't been filled for 2026, if you really take a comprehensive look at the landscape would be the Steelers.

We'll see what Aaron Rodgers decides.

Uh, the Steelers are one of these teams that, of course, you have to look at as one that could draft one, but I do think the makeup of the next two draft classes has affected the way that the quarterback market has played out, and there are a number of teams that we're gonna get to this here in a second.

That are punting on 2026 to get to the 2027 draft.

So, to explain this again, we're gonna hit the makeup of the two draft classes.

In 2026, you have one guy who is seen as a real first-round prospect by most people, and that's Fernando Mendoza.

He will probably, almost certainly, definitely be gone um at first with the first overall pick to the Raiders.

So, if you're a team that isn't drafting first overall, and you look at this and see, OK, where is this gonna go from here, it's difficult to see there being an answer in the draft.

Ty Simpson's a good prospect.

Is he a great prospect?

Most people would tell you no.

Is he somebody's long-term answer quarterback?

Most people would say no.

Um, same goes for Garrett Nussmeyer, Drew Allers coming back off of an injury.

So I'd say most NFL people look at this draft and say, There is one long-term starting quarterback answer in the draft, and that's Fernando Mendoza, and he's gonna be gone first overall.

Next year is a different story, and I'm gonna just rattle off some names here.

Me and my producer Kent Brown just brainstormed the list.

I got Arch Manning at Texas, CJ Carr at Notre Dame, Dante Moore at Oregon, Julian San at Ohio State, Trinidad Chambliss.

At Ole Miss, Darian Mensa at Miami, Brendan Soarsby at Texas Tech, Sam Levitt at LSU, Lenoris Sellers at uh South Carolina, John Mattier at Oklahoma, Jaden Viava at USC.

That's 11 names and That may not even be a complete list.

So you don't have what you had two years ago, which was a couple of guys who had been on the NFL's radar for some time.

Like if you had asked people in 23, is Caleb Williams is gonna be the first overall pick.

Is Drake May gonna go in the top 5.

Most NFL people would tell you, absolutely, those guys are gonna both be top 5 picks.

So you don't have the guy who's sort of locked in a year ahead of time as a top 5 pick, but you do have a lot of names.

And if you take those 11 names, it's not hard to see a scenario where 4 or 5 of them hit, and now all of a sudden you've got a really quarterback rich first round.

So that's what teams are seeing.

And now I think you look at a group of four teams that seem to be punting to 2027 when it comes to drafting a quarterback.

I think the Cleveland Browns are on that list.

They're treading water right now with Deshaun Watson and Shado Sanders and Dylan Gabriel in their quarterback room.

The Jets, they go and make the move for Geno Smith.

Geno, obviously an older player, they're probably bridging to 2027, when they could have a high pick and be in position to take one of these guys, the Dolphins.

They go out and get Malik Willis, who gets a credibility play for them.

John Eric Sullivan, Jeff Hafley coming from Green Bay.

They bring the backup quarterback from Green Bay with them.

They'll give him a chance to compete on a week to week basis, but the long-term answer is more likely for them in next year's draft.

And then the Arizona Cardinals will be the 4th team.

They signed Gardner Minho, they kicked tires on Jimmy Garoppolo.

They have.

Jacoby Brissett, none of those guys are the long-term answer for the team.

So for the Cardinals, you're looking at a scenario where it's, again, how can we have a credible quarterback room that we can sell to our locker room, so Mike LaFleur in his first year as the head coach can build a culture, but also not sell all the way out and keep our powder dry, so to speak, so we'll be in position to draft a quarter.

Quarterback in 2027.

So it's interesting that you see now in the quarterback market, some of these short-term fixes where some of these teams are positioning themselves to draft one in 2027, and those aren't the only teams that could be involved in drafting one in 20207.

Like I said, the Steelers are likely to be in that mix.

Where are the Saints?

Um, what do they think about Tyler Shuck after seeing him for a full year?

That's TBD.

The Buccaneers right now are going into a contract deal with Baker Mayfield .

Will they re-sign him?

Will they go into the the contract year with him?

That remains to be seen.

The Rams, of course, you know, have been in this category for a little while.

What do they go and get their quarterback in the future.

The problem for them, of course, would be where they are in the draft order.

If they're as good as everybody thinks they're gonna be, then they'll probably be pretty low in the draft order, um, but they would be on the hunt for a quarterback.

Of the future in all likelihood a year from now, as they will be for the next few drafts until Matthew Stafford retires.

So, an interesting, complicated, different sort of quarterback landscape.

And, and right now, a couple of names that, you know, are still out there that we have to wait and see where they're gonna go.

Jimmy Garoppolo getting up the ties to Arizona.

Are they done at quarterback after signing Gardner-Minho?

That's an open question.

And then you have the, then then you have Kirk Cousins who, again, has all this experience.

Um, I don't know if he's gonna want to go somewhere in the minimum.

Um, he does have $10 million due to him from the Falcons, but I think he'd like to have something in place that would show some commitment to him as a starter .

Quarterback.

The problem is there aren't really any starting quarterback jobs out there right now.

So, does he look at going to a place like the Raiders where, you know, at least there, there'll be the opportunity to be the guy until Fernando Mendoza is ready, whether that's week 1, week 8, week 12, week 17.

I mean, who knows, but that might be the best opportunity for him to actually play early in the season in 2026.

So, a lots still out there , a lot floating around, a lot of teams again, I think playing the long game at the quarterback position.

As we come out of the first week of free agency.

Finally, our third topic, the news came out earlier this week that the NFL is investigating the idea of playing on Thanksgiving Eve.

On the surface, I really like it.

It would be really cool to have a game on that Wednesday night.

The question is functionally, how does this work?

And, you know, the way that they managed the Friday, the, the Wednesday Christmas games a couple of years ago was they stacked the Saturday before with 4 teams and then just had them all play each other again the following Wednesday.

Well, You can't do that for Thanksgiving because of the government rule that you can't, the NFL cannot play on Fridays and Saturdays in for most of September, for October, for November, and then into early December.

And so Friday, Friday and Saturday are not an option.

So you have to do either one of, you have to do one of two things.

You have to game it out on Thursday, right?

Like if somehow maybe you come up with a Thursday doubleheader and then have two of those teams play on, on, on Thanksgiving Eve the next week, or The two teams playing on Thanksgiving Eve would have to have a bye week ahead of time.

That's something the union would probably have to take a look at as well, because now those teams aren't getting a full bye week.

Those two teams instead are getting mini buys, and so it kind of creates a scenario for the players where you're going the whole year without playing a bye week.

It's complicated.

Uh, the other option, and I don't think that anybody wants this, but the idea that, that you could play coming off a Sunday, I want to throw that one out right now.

I can't imagine the NFL would do that.

I can't imagine the union would sign off on it.

Um, but we've seen that when there's money on the line, when there's a chance to create a broadcast window, the NFL usually finds a way to do it.

So will it happen here?

We'll see.

I think we'll have more news on that as we get closer to the owners meeting at the end of the month.

And remember, the schedule doesn't come out until May.

So we've got a little ways to go until they figure all this out, figure it out with the networks, all that different stuff, but the fact that you're hearing about it now tells me they're really working hard to see if they can make that happen and then they would have a weekend of games where you'd have.

Uh, Thanksgiving Eve event, you'd have the 3 games on Thanksgiving, you'd have Black Friday, Saturday's rivalry Saturday in college football, and then games on Sunday and Monday.

Uh, pretty crazy slate and again, like from a viewer's standpoint, I understand why people would want it.

Logistically, it remains to be seen how that'll work and I felt this way for a while.

I do think all the midweek games do have an effect on.

On the quality of play, the level of play, the injury situation across the NFL, no matter what they tell you, the, their data says.

Appreciate you guys coming out and I appreciate you guys following all of our coverage all week.

We've had a blast covering free agency for you.

You can, as always, leave your feedback down below here on the YouTube page or you can get to me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R Breer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

We'll see all of you guys next week.