We’ve recently taken a look at the coaches on the hot seat for 2025. This week, a reader asked the same question as it relates to quarterbacks.
Plenty of them are feeling the heat, or should be, this season. Let’s take a look at each spot, based on the loose arrangement of the conferences and divisions that has been tattooed onto my brain.
Justin Fields, Jets: His contract has $10 million in guarantees that spill into 2026. That’s not enough to guarantee him two years as the starter. He needs to do enough in 2025 to earn 2026 — and beyond.
Tua Tagovailoa, Dolphins: His contract guarantees his pay through 2026. If the Dolphins fall flat and change coaches, the next coach likely will want a fresh start at quarterback. While the cap charges will complicate a split before 2027, every high-end quarterback contract eventually leads to a big cap charge when the relationship ends. The next coach (and the next G.M., if owner Stephen Ross cleans house) may want to rip the Band-Aid off in one motion.
Aaron Rodgers, Steelers: He says he’s pretty sure this is his last year. If he doesn’t play well enough for the Steelers in 2025 and if he wants to keep playing in 2026, the Steelers may give him the same cold shoulder that Russell Wilson got after 2024.
All Browns quarterbacks: With Jacksonville’s first-round pick in their back pocket, the Browns could be in position to get a future franchise quarterback in next year’s draft. That raises the stakes for every quarterback currently on the Cleveland roster. Because there’s a chance none of them will be the starter in 2026.
Daniel Jones and Anthony Richardson, Colts: It already feels like Jones will be the Week 1 starter. He’ll then have a chance to lock the revolving door the Colts have had since Andrew Luck retired. If he doesn’t, the Colts will be looking elsewhere in 2026. As to Richardson, his best play is to play better than he ever has, if and when he gets the chance.
Trevor Lawrence, Jaguars: Every new coach wants his own quarterback, except when the coach inherits a true franchise quarterback. But Tony Dungy landing with Peyton Manning doesn’t happen very often. And it’s not clear whether Lawrence is a short-list franchise quarterback. He was on track to be one as of 2022. The past two years haven’t been good enough, long-term contract notwithstanding. What do coach Liam Coen and G.M. James Gladstone want? If Lawrence doesn’t play better in 2025 than he did in 2024, Lawrence and everyone else may find out in 2026.
Geno Smith, Raiders: He’s being mentioned simply to say he’s not on the hot seat. He has $18.5 million in guarantees for 2026, and his close ties to Pete Carroll will keep Smith around for at least two years. (Unless, of course, a certain minority owner decides otherwise.)
Dak Prescott, Cowboys: He’s probably not on the hot seat, because his $60 million per year contract would wreak havoc on the salary cap if the Cowboys were to cut or trade him (yes, he has a no-trade clause, but he can waive it) in 2026. The complication for the Cowboys is that his $45 million salary for 2027 becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. They’re basically stuck — all because they waited too long to give him his second contract, and then waited too long to give him his third contract.
Russell Wilson, Giants: If he’s the Week 1 starter (if Jaxson Dart lives up to his first-round draft stock, Wilson shouldn’t be), the clock will be ticking. Immediately. In 2004, the Giants benched Kurt Warner after nine games for Eli Manning, even though the Giants were 5-4 at the time. When Dart is ready, Dart will play. Even if Wilson makes it through 2025 without getting benched, he’ll have to do plenty to keep Dart on the sideline for 2026.
Jordan Love, Packers: He’s not on the hot seat per se, but he needs to play better in 2025 than he did in 2024. If not, he will be on the hot seat in 2026. The wild card in Green Bay is new CEO Ed Policy, who operates as the de facto owner of the team.
J.J. McCarthy, Vikings: He’s getting his shot to play, after a knee injury wiped out his rookie season. Anything other than an outright disaster will ensure his status for 2026. At worst, he’d have to compete with a more established veteran next year.
Tyler Shough, Saints: He’ll need to do enough in 2025 to earn the chance to do well enough in 2026 to get the Saints to not pursue the grandson of Archie Manning in 2027. (And, yes, I think Arch Manning will spend two years as a college starter before entering the draft.)
Bryce Young, Panthers: In year three, he needs to continue the growth he showed late in the 2024 season, in order to secure a fourth season, the fifth-year option, and ideally (for him) a second contract.
Kyler Murray, Cardinals: His contract gives him two more years of financial security. But this is the team that drafted Murray a year after using the 10th overall pick on Josh Rosen (not Lamar Jackson). So who knows what the Cardinals will do if Murray doesn’t propel the team into contention this year?
Sam Darnold, Seahawks: He has a one-year deal, as a practical matter. And the Seahawks seem to really like rookie Jalen Milroe. Darnold will need to play very well to secure his status for 2026.
Matthew Stafford, Rams: It’s not the “hot seat” as much as it’s a mutual understanding that player and team are taking things one year at a time. After the season, both sides will have to recommit. Whether the Rams will want to do that depends on how Stafford plays in 2025, and on their other options for staffing the position in 2026.
That’s a lot of names. But it’s no surprise. There aren’t many true, unquestioned, year-after-year franchise quarterbacks. And the teams that don’t have one are always hoping to find one.
It has created more quarterback movement in recent years than ever before. Plenty of the names listed above will be on the move in 2026.
Free agent cornerback Stephon Gilmore wants to play a 14th NFL season.
“I want to play this year,” Gilmore said on The Money Down podcast. “It’s got to be the right situation. You know what I’m saying? It’s got to be the right situation for me. You know what I’m saying? I’m not just going to sign anywhere, so it’s got to be the right situation.
“I still love the game. I still can contribute. It’s just got to be the right place.”
Gilmore, who will turn 35 in September, visited the Cowboys’ team facility in April before they drafted Shavon Revel Jr. in the third round. Gilmore spent 2023 in Dallas.
He played 15 games for the Vikings in 2024, totaling an interception, nine pass breakups and 56 tackles.
Gilmore began his NFL career as a first-round pick of the Bills in 2021 and also has played for the Patriots, Panthers and Colts.
In 2019, Gilmore was the league’s defensive player of the year, but he hasn’t made the Pro Bowl since 2021.
The NFL seems to be tiptoeing through a political minefield, when it comes to coexisting with the current administration. The Vikings are exercising no such discretion, as it relates to one specific sticking point for the upper reaches of the executive branch.
Via Andrew Krammer of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Vikings conducted their fourth annual diversity summit in June.
Assistant head coach Mike Pettine oversaw the three-day event. He said there was “never any doubt” that it would continue.
Minnesota’s program “focuses on exposure and preparation for entry-level NFL jobs and fosters networking, despite diversity, equity and inclusion efforts being rolled back nationwide.”
The league canceled its annual accelerator program, which would have been held at the ownership meetings in May. When the issue came to light only a week before the accelerator was due to happen, the league characterized it merely as a postponement.
It’s a sensitive point for the league, based particularly on multiple answers given by Commissioner Roger Goodell to questions on the topic when he met with reporters to cap the May 2025 meetings.
For example, Goodell interrupted a question that referred to the situation as a “cancellation” to say this: “It’s not a cancellation. We established that we’re doing this in 2026.” Also, when asked if he was concerned about the optics of the situation given the current political climate, Goodell said this: “I’d be concerned about being reported correctly in the context of we had the accelerator program earlier this year. We’re committing to do it again next year. So there’s no miscommunication on what our intention is. We are very focused on continuing our efforts in this area. We believe it’s been helpful in identifying talent, helping great talent develop. That’s what our focus has been. That’s what our focus will continue to be.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion generally are under attack. The league has insisted that it is not softening its commitment to those goals. And while the cancellation of the May 2025 accelerator program contradicts that claim, the Vikings’ diversity summit shows that not everyone is treading lightly.
At a time when it seems like many are running scared, on an assortment of issues, we’ll say this: Good for the Vikings.
As Netflix inches toward potentially acquiring a full package of games, some of the streamer’s eventual competitors are reluctant to help the company produce quality content on Christmas.
According to FrontOfficeSports.com, ESPN and Fox are reluctant to loan talent to Netflix for the 2025 Christmas doubleheader.
Per the report, ESPN talent will not appear on the Cowboys-Commanders and Lions-Vikings games on December 25. Fox talent is not expected to participate.
Last year, Fox said no to a request to lend Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady to Netflix for Christmas. Eventually, the network allowed Greg Olsen to work one of the two games. ESPN allowed Laura Rutledge and Mina Kimes to work the Christmas games.
CBS produces the Netflix games, making CBS far more likely to allow its one-air talent to work the games. NBC’s Devin McCourty was involved in last year’s broadcast, too.
It’s unfortunate for the folks who would like to take on the extra work. Since the Christmas games are happening on days when the NFL isn’t otherwise playing, it’s not distracting them from their primary jobs.
And so it seems petty, frankly, for the networks to deny their employees the chance to spread their wings. It also becomes a bargaining point for future employment contracts, with talent seeking express permission as part of their deals to participate in one-off productions with other networks.
One of the greatest players in NFL history will be back in this fall to talk about the sport he dominated.
ESPN confirmed to Andrew Marchand of TheAthletic.com that Randy Moss is expected to make a full-time return to Sunday NFL Countdown in 2025.
It’s great news. Moss was diagnosed last November with bile duct cancer. He missed the final two months of the season, but he returned for the Super Bowl.
A 2018 Hall of Famer, Moss starred for the Vikings from 1998 through 2004. After two subpar (by his normal standards) years in Oakland, he had one of the best seasons in league history by any receiver in his first year with the Patriots.
Moss joined ESPN in 2016, after a stint with Fox.
