Every year, the coaching carousel spins first. Then, the quarterback carousel whirls.
It’s coming soon. Veteran quarterbacks will be cut, traded, signed. Teams will reshuffle their depth charts with changes at the most important position on the team.
In a recent item about the potential contract prospects of Packers (for now) backup Malik Willis, some of the veteran options were listed. Here’s a look at the various teams that will have decisions to make regarding veteran quarterbacks currently on the roster, or to be added once the new league year begins.
Dolphins: They have a decision to make about Tua Tagovailoa. The Dolphins owe him $54 million in 2026. The two-year (or one-year, if they choose to rip the Band-Aid in one motion) dead-cap charge for cutting Tua would be $99.2 million. They need to decide what to do with Tua, and whether to add a veteran — like Willis. They’d surely love to find a way to trade Tua, even if it means selling some of the cap charge to another team by attaching a draft pick to Tua’s contract. And since they owe him every penny of his 2026 pay, they could choose to keep him around. (That would fully guarantee another $3 million for 2027, however.)
Jets: Justin Fields likely will be cut. Half of his $20 million salary for 2026 is fully guaranteed. They’ll likely be looking for a veteran, possibly on a short-term basis, to run new coordinator Frank Reich’s offense.
Steelers: They’re willing to wait for Aaron Rodgers, which would take them out of play for a veteran in the early days of free agency. Willis or Cousins could be intriguing options, if they find out before March 11 that Rodgers won’t be returning.
Browns: Who knows what they’ll do? Deshaun Watson is under contract for another year, at $46 million. Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel are, too. Will the new half-regime led by coach Todd Monken want a veteran from the outside?
Ravens: In the unlikely event the Ravens trade Lamar Jackson, they’d need a new quarterback — presumably one with starting experience.
Colts: Daniel Jones, who is recovering from a torn Achilles, likely will be back. Anthony Richardson has one year left on his rookie deal; he’s under contract for 2026 at guaranteed pay of $5.385 million. If Jones leaves, the Colts would need another veteran.
Raiders: They owe Geno Smith $18.5 million for 2026. Another $8 million becomes fully guaranteed on March 13. Would someone trade for him at $26.5 million? He could be cut. The Raiders also could keep him as the bridge to Fernando Mendoza, if they make him the first overall pick.
Vikings: They want a veteran who’ll compete with J.J. McCarthy. That could make it harder to attract a veteran who’ll want a commitment that he’ll be QB1. Based on McCarthy’s performance and durability in 2025, however, most veteran quarterbacks with reasonable confidence would believe they can win a fair and square competition. If they believe the competition will be both fair and square.
Falcons: They haven’t committed to Michael Penix Jr. being the Week 1 starter, and for good reason. Penix is recovering from his latest ACL tear. Cousins could, in theory, return after being released. That seems unlikely. Another veteran is possible for the new-look football operation led by Matt Ryan, Ian Cunningham, and Kevin Stefanski.
Cardinals: The moment Kyler Murray was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury that was supposedly healing, the message was clear — it’s over for Murray in Arizona. The Cardinals owe him $36.8 million for 2026, with another $22.55 million in 2026 pay and 2027 salary hitting the books early in the 2026 league year. If not traded, he’ll be cut. Willis could be an option for the Cardinals. Rodgers potentially could be a target, too.
With the Scouting Combine beginning soon, the carousel will start moving. Coaches and General Managers who take the podium on Tuesday or Wednesday will be asked pointed questions. Agents will meet with teams.
Tyreek Hill is on the open market.
He’s posted himself working out in Kansas City.
The Chiefs could use some help offensively.
Eric Bienemy just returned to the organization as offensive coordinator.
Are you connecting the dots, too?
If it seems inevitable that Hill will rejoin the Chiefs at some point, head coach Andy Reid threw a little cold water on that notion during his Friday press conference.
“Yeah, listen, we go through everything and everybody. That’s how [G.M.] Brett [Veach] does,” Reid said. “I don’t even know if Tyreek is healthy right now to do anything. So, I’m sure he’s working hard on that part of it, trying to get that all straightened out.
“But yeah, listen, we talk about everything. So there’s nothing happening there, but we know what you know — that he’s out there and cranking away, trying to get himself back to where he can play, period.”
Hill suffered a torn ACL during in Week 4, prematurely ending his10th season. He caught 21 passes for 265 yards with one touchdown before the injury.
Two of Hill first-team, All-Pro selections for receiver came with the Chiefs — in 2018 and in 2020. He also was a first-team, All-Pro returner as a rookie in 2016.
In his six seasons with the franchise, Hill caught 479 passes for 6,630 yards with 56 touchdowns in 91 games. He also had 84 postseason receptions for 1,081 yards with five touchdowns in 13 games, winning Super Bowl LIV with the Chiefs to cap the 2019 season.
Four years ago, Malik Willis was favored to be the first quarterback in the draft. He wasn’t.
At pick No. 86, Willis went third among all quarterbacks, behind Kenny Pickett and Desmond Ridder.
It never really clicked for Willis in Tennessee, and he became expendable after two seasons. The Packers obtained Willis for a seventh-round pick not long before the start of the 2024 season.
While he has been the clear No. 2 to Jordan Love for the last two years, Willis has made the most of his limited opportunities.
In 11 appearances with four starts for the Packers, Willis completed 70 of 89 passes (78.6 percent) for 972 yards (10.92 yards per attempt), six touchdowns, and no interceptions. His passer rating was 134.64. He also has 261 rushing yards on 42 attempts (6.2 yards per carry) for three touchdowns.
Yes, the sample size is small. But, yes, the impact has been significant.
And he’s less than three weeks away from free agency.
Where he goes, and what he’ll get, becomes one of the more intriguing questions of free agency. The coming class of free-agent quarterbacks is headlined by Aaron Rodgers and Daniel Jones. One is 42, and the other is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon. Both are generally expected to return to their current teams (Steelers and Colts, respectively).
Other current free-agent options for quarterback-needy teams include Russell Wilson, Marcus Mariota, Joe Flacco, Tyrod Taylor, Pickett, Zack Wilson, and Jimmy Garoppolo.
The Kirk Cousins contract adjustment from January guarantees he’ll be cut on March 11 or 12, so he’s essentially a free agent. Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa likely will be released, unless a trade can be worked out for either or both. The Jets also could move on from Justin Fields. And Mac Jones looms as a potential trade option, if the 49ers are willing to move him. (They say they’re not, but ‘tis the season for posturing.)
Then there’s Geno Smith, who already has $18.5 million fully guaranteed from the Raiders in 2026, with the remaining $8 million vesting on the third day of the 2026 league year. He could be available for trade, or he could be cut. (The Raiders also could keep him as the bridge to Fernando Mendoza, if they make him the first overall pick in the draft.)
Willis’s numbers are undeniable. Is he ready to be a full-time starter? And is a team ready to give him a starter-level contract?
As starter-level contracts go, the range is broad. The market tops, generally speaking, at $60 million per year. The bottom of the veteran starter market, as of last year, was $10.5 million for Russell Wilson (who started only three games). Fields has a $20 million average, and he received $30 million guaranteed on a two-year deal. (Fields also was eventually benched, after being publicly bad-mouthed by his thin-skinned owner.)
Sam Darnold, with only one viable suitor, received $33.5 million per year on a three-year deal from Seattle, which has quickly proven to be a steal. (In hindsight, he should have signed a one-year deal, like Jones did in Indy. With no other options, however, it wouldn’t have been easy to insist on a one-year commitment.)
Where will Willis fit? Much of it depends on the number of teams that pursue him. The Dolphins, who are now run by a pair of former Packers employees, are a team to watch — if they can wedge Willis’s contract into the cap wreckage of the Tua contract. The Cardinals, where Packers coach Matt LaFleur’s brother, Mike, is now the head coach, could make sense, too.
The Steelers could be an option, but they seem to be content to wait for Rodgers to make a decision. Which would take them out of play in the early days of free agency. The Vikings will be looking for a veteran to compete with J.J. McCarthy.
And don’t rule out the Ravens. If (and it’s not a big if but it’s still on the radar screen) they trade Lamar Jackson, they’ll need a quarterback, too.
Other teams that will or at least could be looking for a veteran quarterback include the Jets, Browns, Colts (if Jones leaves), and Falcons.
Someone surely will want Willis. The more teams that want him, the more money he’ll make.
The process will accelerate next week in Indianapolis, where every team will meet with every agent who represents every looming free agent in an annual swap meet of untraceable tampering that happens with no electronic footprints or popcorn trail.
Our guess is that Willis will land between $20 million and $30 million per year — unless a land rush emerges. If that happens, who knows? $35 million? $40 million? (While $40 million sounds like a lot, it’s still only 66.6 percent of the current market limit.)
Or maybe Willis will have the leverage and willingness to insist on a one-year deal that pays him a relatively modest salary but gives him another shot at free agency in 2027. (A no-tag clause would be even better, if not virtually impossible to finagle on a one-year deal.)
However it goes, it’s a story that isn’t getting the kind of attention it should, or that it will once teams start jostling for a chance to see whether Willis can do on a full-time basis what he did as a part-timer for the Packers.
His numbers suggest that he could be not just a capable starter but a potential superstar. With true franchise quarterbacks so hard to find, why wouldn’t someone roll the dice on the possibility of landing a player who could become one of the best quarterbacks in the league?
The Dolphins have a decision to make about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Few expect him to return as the starting quarterback for 2026.
Thanks, however, to the ill-advised contract that former G.M. Chris Grier gave Tagovailoa in 2024, when he was still signed for one more season, the Dolphins owe him $54 million in the coming year, with every penny fully guaranteed.
If the Dolphins cut Tagovailoa, they would absorb $99.2 million in cap charges. If they make Tagovailoa a post-June 1 designation, they’d be able to split the cap charges, with $55.4 million applying in 2026 and $43.8 million landing in 2027.
If the Dolphins opt not to use the device that spreads the cap consequences over two years, they’d take the full $99.2 million cap charge this year. That would clear him from the books for 2027.
Some in league circles think the Dolphins may do just that. Eat the full $99.2 million now. With the cap for 2026 projected to fall between $301.2 million and $305.7 million for the coming year, anywhere from 32.4 percent to 32.9 percent of the team’s total cap space would be allocated to Tagovailoa.
Taking the full charge in 2026 would fairly be characterized as a soft tank. By deferring $43.8 million into 2027, when the cap likely will be higher, the relative impact of the dollars would be smaller than it will be in 2026.
Still, it’s one of the options available to the Dolphins. If they release Tagovailoa without the post-June 1 designation, that’s what will happen — $99.2 million in dead money hitting the 2026 cap. Which would make it harder for the Dolphins to field a competitive team this year, but would put Tagovailoa’s contract in the rear-view mirror as of 2027.
The sudden free agency of receiver Tyreek Hill is complicated by his recovery from a serious knee injury. There’s another caveat to consider.
Hill remains the subject of an active Personal Conduct Policy review. The NFL confirmed on Tuesday via email that the probe is ongoing.
Last year, Hill’s estranged wife, Keeta Vaccaro, made specific allegations of domestic violence against Hill. The full details of her claims came to light in October 2025, after the NFL commenced its investigation in September 2025.
It’s unclear what the league will determine. If a violation is found, other incidents could become aggravating factors when punishment is determined — including the situation from 2014 that resulted in his dismissal from the Oklahoma State football team. In 2015, Hill pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation, in an incident involving his then-pregnant girlfriend.
The team that signs Hill will be assuming multiple risks. First, he may not be the same player following his knee injury. Second, he could be suspended at some point during the 2026 season.
