10 Best Quarterbacks Hitting the Market This Offseason Part 1

By BetOnline February 4, 2020

0 Comments

BY ADAM GREENE

We’ve already discussed Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Philip Rivers and how they’re not coming to your franchise to save the day. I also dropped in Ryan Tannehill there, who will undoubtedly get a lucrative new deal with the Tennessee Titans. The guy I didn’t mention, Dak Prescott, will most certainly get Jared Goff money from the Dallas Cowboys or be tabbed with the franchise tag.

None of those guys are hitting the market and, if they do (the old fellas), your team (unless it’s the New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints or Los Angeles Chargers) are in the mix. It’s just the way it is.

So if you’re looking an upgrade at quarterback and don’t have the NFL draft capital to grab a near sure-fire NFL starter like Joe Burrow or Tua Tagovailoa, it won’t hurt to look over the cast-offs to try to find that next guy that turns into a franchise savior.

It’s happened before. Kurt Warner was pulled off the free agent market and brought the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl and got himself a gold jacket in the process after two teams thought he was done. Jim Plunkett was considered a draft bust by the team that picked him (the New England Patriots) until he took his third team, the Oakland Raiders to two Super Bowl championships. He too is now enshrined in Canton.

Brees was a free agent in 2006, coming off shoulder surgery with the then San Diego Chargers. Not only did he take the New Orleans Saints to their only Super Bowl championship in 2009, he’ll be fitted for a Hall of Fame jacket on the first ballot himself.

Trent Dilfer (Baltimore Ravens), Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Earl Morrall (Baltimore Colts), Joe Kapp (Minnesota Vikings), Billy Kilmer (Washington Redskins), Doug Williams (Redskins), Steve Young (San Francisco 49ers), Brett Favre (Green Bay Packers), Kerry Collins (New York Giants), Rich Gannon (Raiders), Jake Delhomme (Carolina Panthers), Nick Foles (Philadelphia Eagles) and now Jimmy Garoppolo (49ers) all started Super Bowls for teams after being acquired as free agents or in trades.

It happened for them. It can happen for teams this year. Sometimes all a guy needs is a good coach and a change of scenery.

And before you look for his name atop the list, forget Cam Newton right now. In a league with 32 NFL Franchises, there aren’t 32 NFL franchise quarterbacks on the planet. Newton is unquestionably a franchise quarterback and Matt Rhule would be a fool to let ownership, however misguided, let Newton walk out of the building if he wants to keep playing football.

If I’m Rhule, I’m champing at the bit to get Newton in my QB room and start drawing up plays for a guy with a rocket launcher for an arm, that can run like a deer and already has an NFC Championship and NFL MVP trophy in his closet.

This list will be comprised only by quarterbacks I feel will actually be available as free agents or at affordable prices via trades.

So click on to Part 2 and let’s stack these guys up in order.