2025 Quarterback Carousel – What are the QB-needy NFL teams going to do this offseason?

2025 Quarterback Carousel – What are the QB-needy NFL teams going to do this offseason?

Liam Fogarty

At any given time, there are only 32 professional quarterback jobs in the world, and approximately 850 college football teams in the USA.

So why does it feel like there’s a QB talent drought at the highest level?

Does it just go to show how hard the most important position in sport is to play? Or are NFL Head Offices not doing enough to develop college players?

In my opinion, heading into the 2025 season, there are five teams in the league that are desperate for a new quarterback and another seven teams with incredibly shaky QB situations. That’s a third of the league with serious question marks around their signal callers.

Lucky for those NFL executives, I—a 20-something Australian bloke who’s never played a snap of American football and refuses to play Madden on the hardest difficulty—have analysed every team’s QB situation. I’m confident I’ve saved the five neediest teams simultaneously.

I’ll be working in draft order for this article, starting with the…

Tennessee Titans

Current QB: Will Levis
2024 Stats: 12 starts, 2,091 yards, 13 TDs, 12 INTs, 63% CMP, 41 sacks
TL;DR for 2025: Draft Cam Ward

Brian Callahan took over the Titans in January 2024 and has inherited quite a poor roster. You’d have to imagine if drastic improvement isn’t shown, he’ll be out of Tennessee just as quickly as he arrived.

Will Levis was drafted by the previous group of Titans’ coaches, and head coaches absolutely love drafting their own QB and starting from scratch. Levis has proven a lot of people right that he wasn’t worth a first-round pick in 2023. The guy that eats bananas with the skin on and puts mayo in his coffee has far too low a floor to be a franchise QB, and his ceiling isn’t that high either.

I think it’s $1.10 odds that the Titans take a QB with the first overall pick. While Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders split a lot of the experts currently, I think by draft time, Ward will be the consensus #1-ranked QB in the 2025 draft.

Will Cam Ward solve all of Tennessee’s issues? I guess we’ll have to find out, but the Mayo Man’s days are numbered in the NFL.

Cleveland Browns

Current QB: Deshaun Watson
2024 Stats: 7 starts, 1,148 yards, 5 TDs, 3 INTs, 63.4% CMP, 33 sacks
TL;DR for 2025: Re-sign Jameis Winston, trade Pick 1.02 to a QB-needy team, fire Deshaun Watson into the sun, draft a QB in 2026

The Browns did the most Browns thing ever by trading the farm for the injury-prone, sex-pest Deshaun Watson and giving him a $230M guaranteed five-year contract. Unless they’re OK with eating $172M in dead cap space in 2025, they’re stuck with the pile of human garbage for a few more seasons.

Deshaun takes up 26.52% of Cleveland’s salary cap in 2025. After re-injuring his Achilles, we don’t even know if he’ll be good to go come kickoff weekend. Given the limited cap space the Browns have, a rookie QB might be tempting, but they would more likely benefit by improving the team elsewhere in the draft and making Cleveland look more appealing for a free agent or rookie in 2026.

Jameis Winston is one of the more serviceable backups in the league and is a free agent this offseason. After the Watson injury, Jameis looked good for a stretch and would be an affordable way of securing a decent pick next year.

Re-sign Jameis and then either trade back with a team that’s in love with Shedeur or take Travis Hunter/Abdul Carter in the draft. The Browns’ rebuild can’t be fixed this offseason; it’s going to take time.

New York Giants

Current QB: Drew Lock? Tommy DeVito?
2024 Stats: Not worth looking up.
TL;DR for 2025: Trade for Kirk Cousins, draft Travis Hunter, focus on QB in 2026

I need to preface this by saying the Giants are my team. One thing I’ve been crying out for since Eli left is a franchise QB. I wanted Josh Allen in 2018, Dwayne Haskins in 2019, was keen for them to dump DJ after a year and take Herbert in 2020, and then was screaming at the TV for the Giants to take JJ McCarthy last year. None of those ever happened.

Now that Daniel Jones is officially gone and the Giants are finally able to draft a franchise QB, I don’t want them to. Shedeur Sanders could very well end up in Big Blue, and I wouldn’t be upset, but doesn’t it just make sense to go and get Arch Manning next year?

Travis Hunter would put bums on seats in NY, sell jerseys, and with Malik Nabers in town, there isn’t pressure for him to be WR1 like a lot of other teams drafting high would need him to be.

The Falcons need to move on from Kirk Cousins, who doesn’t have many years as a starter left. I say NY should throw a few peanuts at ATL to get Kirk, use him as a bridging QB, and then mentor Arch Manning in 2026. Anything is better than Drew Lock, and I’m happy if I never see any more NY Italian stereotype memes with Tommy DeVito ever again. 

Las Vegas Raiders

Current QB: Aidan O’Connell
2024 Stats: 9 starts, 1,612 yards, 8 TDs, 4 INTs, 63.4% CMP, 10 sacks
TL;DR for 2025: Shedeur Sanders

It was a combination of Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell in 2024 for Vegas. For once, it was a gamble that did not go Sin City’s way.

The QB room in LV is quite possibly the worst in the league. I’d argue neither of those two guys should have started a game in 2024, but that’s just the way it goes.

Shedeur Sanders could fall to Vegas at the 1.06, but it’d be in the Raiders’ best interest to go up and secure their guy before another team like New Orleans or a smokey like Seattle trades up ahead of them.

LV’s part-owner Tom Brady is a big fan of Sanders and might lend a helping hand to develop him if the Raiders end up drafting the Colorado signal caller.

New Orleans Saints

Current QB: Derek Carr
2024 Stats: 10 starts, 2,145 yards, 15 TDs, 5 INTs, 67.7% CMP, 8 sacks
TL;DR for 2025: Sign Sam Darnold for cheap

The Saints could cut Derek Carr and take the L on his salary, similar to how the Broncos moved on from Russell Wilson last season. Signing Carr hasn’t worked out, and while his contract is still a big cap hit, it’s easier to manage than Cleveland’s situation with Deshaun.

The Saints have the 1.09 pick and might miss out on the limited top-end QB talent in this year’s draft. Lucky for them, Sam Darnold had a stinker to end the year in Minnesota and will be a free agent this offseason.

With limited cap space for a QB, it makes sense to throw Darnold a lifeline, take a few unsexy linemen in the draft, and hope he replicates the regular-season production that saw the Vikings go 14-3 in 2024.