We've reached conference championship week in the NFL, which means we're creeping toward the 2025 offseason. Teams will have many decisions to make across their rosters, but as we know, it starts at quarterback.
This upcoming free-agent quarterback class lacks brand recognition. The biggest name heading toward the market is Sam Darnold, who enjoyed a renaissance season in Minnesota and will remain in the news cycle until a decision is made regarding his immediate future. Much of the rest of this class relates to organizational security.
That's right: It's time to talk backups. But before we do that, let's check in on a couple of notable starters whose spring fortunes will significantly affect the outlook of some clubs in 2025.
It sounds as if the first year of the Wilson-Steelers partnership, while ending in disappointment, at least convinced Wilson he wants to return to Pittsburgh. He's 36 years old, so bringing him back isn't quite the long-term quarterbacking solution Pittsburgh has sought since the end of the Ben Roethlisberger era, but it's the best option the Steelers have at the moment. They'll need to work out the financial side of it, which shouldn't be nearly as difficult as it might have been with Wilson a few years ago. It's also not going to move the needle a ton in Pittsburgh, where fans are openly tired of watching their team reach the playoffs and promptly bow out. The future hasn't arrived in Pittsburgh yet, though, and after Mike Tomlin rode with Wilson through the end of their season -- even while the Steelers offense gradually declined -- logical minds would think he'd prefer to stay with Wilson instead of buying into the potential of Justin Fields again, despite the potentially higher long-term ceiling of the younger QB.
We've already explored the many directions in which Darnold's career can proceed in 2025 after he posted a career season. He has the chance to earn quite a raise with a team seeking an answer at quarterback. But after winning 14 games and narrowly missing out on the NFC's top seed, the Vikings are entering uncertain territory in 2025. First-round draft pick J.J. McCarthy has never started a regular-season game and is coming off a meniscus injury that ended his rookie season in August. There's no guarantee he'll step in and find success immediately. Thus, the Vikings might find themselves wishing they still had Darnold -- so why not find a way to keep him with a financially competitive deal and an opportunity to fight for the job? Sure, it might create a dynamic like the Eagles once saw with Carson Wentz and Nick Foles, but that drama is still worth enduring if it means avoiding a disaster scenario.
Jayden Daniels is unquestionably the future in Washington, but as has often been said, the second most important player on an NFL team is the backup quarterback. Mariota proved this when the Commanders lost Daniels in their Week 7 win over Carolina, a romp in which Mariota tossed two touchdown passes after Daniels exited. He showed it again in the regular-season finale, leading a frantic final drive that ended in a last-second, game-winning touchdown pass to Terry McLaurin. Those moments are what keep teams afloat, especially clubs that rely heavily on their quarterback. Washington is enjoying the earliest stages of its turnaround right now, but consistency at the position is key to building on that success. The Commanders can stay competitive with a backup like Mariota available to replace Daniels if needed. Just ask Miami how things have gone without Tua Tagovailoa in recent years.
Miami has paid dearly for failing to have an adequate backup plan behind Tua Tagovailoa, sending Skylar Thompson out for a playoff game in the 2022 season and turning back to him in 2024 after Tagovailoa's latest concussion forced him out of action for a month. Thompson didn't last a full game this time around before being replaced by Tim Boyle. Huntley's first appearance wasn't great, either, but by the time a hip injury forced Tagovailoa out late in the season, after Huntley was given time to digest Mike McDaniel's offense, the former Pro Bowl quarterback proved capable of handling the job. Huntley even led the Dolphins to a road win over the Browns before losing the regular-season finale. He's done this before, replacing Lamar Jackson in Baltimore and keeping the offense afloat. Simply put, he should be Miami's backup in 2025. It's the smart move.
After a very promising rookie season, Drake Maye is clearly the guy in New England. Joe Milton III's lone start made us all wonder whether the Patriots might have two starting-caliber quarterbacks on their roster. But a veteran coach like Mike Vrabel likely knows he'd be foolish to embark on a new season with a young quarterback without insuring the position with a capable, proven veteran like Brissett. Brissett's 2024 performance shouldn't matter when it comes to assessing his value to the Patriots in 2025; New England owned a dysfunctional operation that couldn't protect the quarterback or establish a presence on the ground. These struggles led to Jerod Mayo's firing. With Vrabel now in charge and Josh McDaniels running the offense, the Patriots are seeking stability, and nobody embodies that (albeit with a lower ceiling) better than Brissett. It's a good business decision to keep somebody like Brissett on the roster behind Maye.
This can change drastically depending on what the Browns do in March. But first, we must assess where the position stands with the team entering the offseason. It's fair to believe Deshaun Watson never plays another down for Cleveland, and Dorian Thompson-Robinson proved in 2024 he's not good enough to regularly play quarterback in the NFL. That leaves Winston (along with restricted free agent Bailey Zappe) as the only viable option on this roster before the start of the new league year. At one point during Winston's stint as starter, some believed he was playing himself out of Cleveland's price range to retain him after the conclusion of his one-year deal, but as we could all foresee happening, the turnover-prone vet ended up making enough mistakes to lose his job and likely bring that price back down. Coach Kevin Stefanski seemed to tire of Winston's volatility, based on his decision to bench him for Thompson-Robinson (and, in Week 18, for Zappe), and I cannot envision a scenario in which the Browns don't add to the room this spring. How they do so will directly influence whether Winston returns or heads elsewhere. If they swing a deal for a veteran like Kirk Cousins, consider Winston's career in Cleveland over. But if they don't, and instead stand pat before using a draft pick on a quarterback, it would behoove them to stick with a known quantity like Winston. By the time the draft arrives, we'll likely already know how the Browns intend to proceed.
