We Predict the Remaining Free Agent QB Signings

Let's talk about the quarterback market.

As of the taping of this at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 12th, we have Kyler, um, seemingly on the doorstep with the Vikings, but also taking Zoom meetings with teams that will need a quarterback in 2027.

So, he's essentially thinking about leapfrogging the, the free agent market and, and what that might look like.

Do we have a better sense of where All these guys are gonna land, Garoppolo, um, Kirk Cousins, um, some of these names that we're familiar with that I still think who could be quality starters.

And my sub-question to that is, Is Gardner Minho the, is that what they're rolling with in Arizona?

I mean, I don't know.

What's your sense of what's going on?

So, all right, so like I do think Kyler winds up in Minnesota on a one-year deal, minimum league minimum, yeah, and like a chance to, I, I think it's what's best for him.

I think it's probably what's best for the Vikings at this point.

I'm excited to see what, what, what KO can do with him there.

I think that there's a real chance for them, um, to that, I think there's a chance for that to be a good marriage.

Um, Garoppolo, I, I, I mean, going back to, I might have written it two months ago, like I thought he was going to the Cardinals, um, just because I know what that Rams staff thought of him and how much they think of him, and it does make me wonder, did he overshoot his market a little, you know, and that they decide to bring in Gardner Minho, but Minho's deal is at a level where you could.

Now I don't know if you want to, but you could still bring Jimmy Garoppolo in and then just open a competition among the three of them, Brissett, Garoppolo, um, Minho.

Either way, I think the Cardinals are doing what a lot of teams are doing right now.

I think the Browns are doing it.

I think the Jets are doing it.

I think the Cardinals are doing it, which is bridging the 2027.

And, uh, you know, I do a radio show every week with Brady Quinn, and we were talking about all the different quarterbacks in next year.

Can he still play at this point?

I mean, he's, he looks great.

I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, uh, you know.

Maybe I'll reach out to the old right-hander and see if he'd be available for the, uh, I always believed in he was one of my favorite Notre Damers of all time.

I mean that was like peak high school Connor years where it was like Brady Quinn to Jeff Samaria.

I just always thought he was gonna be a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback.

I mean, we were going through some of the names and like, I mean, it's Dante Moore, CJ Carr.

Arch Manning, Trinity Chambliss, Mayava at USC, Sam Levitt at LSU, Julian Sa at Ohio State, Lenora Sellers.

Brady informed me of this guy, Messammaker, who I'm not really all that aware of, was at North Texas, has now transferred to Oklahoma State.

DJ Lagway was a high-end recruit at Florida, now at Baylor.

Um, you know, like there's, so there's, I mean, there's just like a lot of names, you know what I mean ?

Like, and The point I made to him, which I, I'd, I'd make here too, is there's no like Caleb Williams or Drake May, like.

Three years ago in 2023, we knew, like at this point in 20203, that in 2020204, those guys were gonna be top five picks.

Like, same thing with Trevor Lawrence, if you remember going back further.

Same thing with Justin Herbert.

Like there were just certain guys, like, and I don't know if there's anybody that I put in that category, but there are so many of them, you know what I mean?

There's like a dozen of them .

And so if there's a dozen of them.

Maybe 5 hit.

And now you have 5 first-round quarterbacks.

And a lot of these guys have the physical ability.

So, I think what the Cardinals are doing is bridging the same way the Jets are bridging, the same way the Browns are bridging .

I'm sure you could give me a couple of other teams that are doing this, just looking at the draft order, you know, but I think, you know, everybody recognizes that.

Fernando Mendoza is going first to the Raiders, and then after that, you might not have another franchise-level quarterback from a talent perspective in this year's draft.

And so, you know, I know a lot of those teams are sort of planning now on OK, like how do we get to 2027, you know, Miami, I think, would be in that category too, um.

And I think it's hard too for some of these first-year coaches, right?

Like you take Jeff Halley in, in Miami and you take, uh, you take Michael LaFleur in Arizona.

It's, how do you, how do you sort of marry the, we need to be drafting high enough to get one of these guys next year, but still field a competitive enough team and put a competitive enough quarterback out there where you can still sell your program because your players aren't gonna be, I mean, 80%, like 90% of your players aren't gonna be into, oh yeah, like wait till next year, you know what I mean?

You still have to sell those guys on this year, which is why Jeff Halley goes and gets Malik Willis, you know, which is why, um, you know, Mike LaFleur is part of bringing in Gardner Minho.

It's like, how can we create something where You know, we're bridging the next year, but we're also at least giving our players a fighting chance to perform this year.

That's why I thought, and I wrote this at the time, that's why I thought Malik Willis was the, one of the best moves in free agency, because Malik is the perfect bridge quarterback.

I, I really like watching him.

I had a lot of fun watching him.

But I think I could probably, you know, if you were to force me to put all my life savings on polymarket as to whether I think this guy will be the Dolphins' quarterback for beyond the next season and a half, I would say no.

Uh, you know, I, I just think that's the, the nature of the league, you know.

But what the Dolphins did, and I think is brilliant, is they're gonna draft a quarterback next year.

But what they did for now was that they just bought the idea of effort and potential and possibility, right?

Which is fun.

Like, at, at the very worst, Albert.

Malik Willis and A Chan on the field together is gonna be fun, OK?

And, and, and, and if it works, great.

Um, and, and then you extend it, and you don't need to draft a quarterback.

If it doesn't work, and I put work in air quotes, because what's gonna happen is, Dolphins will probably miss the playoffs.

Halfley will start feeling it in the 2nd year.

Same with the GM.

So that's when you bring in the rookie quarterback.

We've just seen this life cycle too many times, uh, to not assume that it's gonna, that, that's how it's gonna take shape.

And then Willis will be on to, to his next team.

But I think he fulfills that, whereas, If you're Arizona, like, And you're Lafleur and you got to set the tone in year one.

Gardner M chooses a tough pole.

Like, you know what I mean?

Like that's a tough, you know, even the 1st 4 weeks of the season, like, is any fan showing up and being like, yeah, buddy, like this is, this is what I'm paying $150 a ticket for, you know.

Well, yeah, well, I mean, it's even more important for your player.

Your players have to believe it too, you know what I mean, because that's a big piece of this is like, how do you sell your players on like, You should buy into everything we're doing and we're gonna give you the best chance to succeed.

So then you're rolling into year two, you know, and you do have to give them a chance and I think.

That's sort of, I think the Jets last year sort of like, cause I think Aaron Glenn has a lot of qualities to be um a really good, a really good head coach, but Uh, like, were they doing enough to sell their players on, we're gonna give you guys a chance this year, or, you know, Justin Fields doesn't play very well, and then you start dumping, you know, veteran players, it starts to feel like a death march for everybody.

You know what I mean?

Like, and like, you do need to establish like a baseline of like, here's what we're gonna be, here's what I'm looking to build.

Here's like our path there, and no, we're not there yet, but we're gonna give you guys some light at the end of the tunnel where you guys can perform well enough to keep your careers going, perform at a high level individually, and we're able to establish something as a team that can be lasting.

You can't just like we're not dealing with robots here, you know what I mean?

This isn't this isn't madden like, you know, you, you can't just be bad for like you just can't be like bad for a couple of years and expect like that these 24, 25, 25, 26 year old guys that have put their entire life into making it there are gonna continue to buy into what you're doing.

You can't, you know, I think that there has to be, um, an immediate.

At least show of potential, right?

And potential gets you through year one.

Progress gets you through year two, playoffs gets you through year three.

I mean, that's the coaching.

If you're taking over a truly, a truly bad program.

Maybe the best example is the 49ers in 2017.

Where they had, I mean, they had been through, they'd fired coaches 3 years in a row, right?

Like they fired Harbaugh, they fired Tom Sula, they fired Chip.

And then, you know, like the roster is sort of a wasteland.

And They were really bad at the beginning of that year.

They trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, and at the end of that year they win 5 in a row or 6 in a row.

I think they were like 0 and 9 and then 1 in 10, and then they won 5 in a row to get to 6 and 10, and that was really significant for them.

Now, the next year, Jimmy tears his ACL.

And they're bad again, but at that point, you've already shown the players, we've got something here.

You know what I mean?

And then they make the Super Bowl in year 3.

So, like I, I just think like that's a great example of, even if you're not very good, and everybody knows it, cause these guys aren't stupid, um, you have to give them some sort of like, this is where we're going, and here's why you want to be a part of this.

And Kyle very clearly did that, like everybody knew.

Everybody who was there knew like, Kyle's taken this place, this this this thing somewhere, you know.

Um, let's play a quick game before we get out of here.

Uh, I'm gonna just, and again, we're not beholden to this, but in the theme of the quarterback, uh, market, uh, I'm gonna just list some teams and let's both fire out, uh, uh, a prospective starting quarterback, um, Pittsburgh Steelers for 2026, Aaron Rodgers.

OK.

Um.

The Las Vegas Raiders, I think we, well, let me ask you this, Las Vegas Raiders, week one.

I think Mendoza.

But I wouldn't rule out like a Kirk Cousins or someone like that, OK, because Brady has done a bunch of interviews about how he said that Drew Bledsoe was instrumental, but I think Cousins could wind up in Indianapolis also, really?

Oh, I like that.

Now we're talking.

Um, OK, let's go to the Minnesota Vikings week one, Skyler.

OK, um, the Falcons.

I mean this is like a medical question, right?

It is a medical yeah it is a little bit of a question I mean.

I think it's gonna be really close, really close.

I'll say Pennck because they're invested in him.

But I think there's a real shot it's Tua, like I think it's gonna be close.

And I say that because he's got so much history with the knees, you know what I mean?

Like it's just.

I, you know, I, this is why this is the 4th torn ACL, 3rd, I believe, because he didn't he, well, he tear, tore each of them in like I thought he maybe he tore one twice.

I don't know.

I can't remember if it was the same knee, but there were, there were multiple.

So, um, I, I, I think this, I think it's the 2nd time he's torn whichever ACL it is, so.

Or maybe it's not, I like, I don't know, either way, I think it's a tough, tough recovery.

I think that one's gonna be really close.

Cardinals were looking at a Jacoby Brissett.

I think Brissett beats out Minho, yeah, and Minho is your, is your number 2.

And then did I ask you about the Vikings?

Yeah, Kyler, Kyler, um, so would you agree with that?

Would you, would you go the other way?

No, I don't think I would change it.

I go Daniel Jones in Indy.

I do think he'll make it back for sure, yeah, um, so that leaves like Kirk Cousins relegated to a backup role, Jimmy Garoppolo relegated to a backup role.

Joe Flacco relegated to a backup role again.

I mean, it's, you know, and yeah, there's some, I think, you know.

I do wonder with Garoppolo if he's playing the long game here and that like if Stafford retired because he really likes it in LA and McVeigh really likes him like is he maybe playing a little bit of the long game there, you know, like where it's like, hey, you know, if Matthew retires after this year, then I'm at the very least the bridge, you know, and then I'm in a position to kind of, you know, put my career back on the tracks, and that could be somebody's.

Short term, long-term answer.

Or long term, whatever however you put that longer term for short term.

Um, it's been a long week .