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.
Cardinals Clips
The Cardinals previously introduced the coordinators on Mike LaFleur’s staff, announcing the hires of special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and the return of defensive coordinator Nick Rallis.
On Friday, the Cardinals announced the rest of the staff, which includes 10 holdovers from the previous season. Besides Rallis, others who are staying are offensive line coach Justin Frye and Cristian Garcia, who is moving from linebackers to safeties.
The strength and conditioning staff is still being finalized and will be announced at a later date.
Staff announced Friday:
OFFENSE
Coordinator: Nathaniel Hackett
Pass Game Specialist: Connor Senger*
Quarterbacks: Matt Schaub
Running backs: Matt Merritt
Wide receivers: Tony Sorrentino
Offensive line: Justin Frye*
Assistant offensive line: Chris Cook*
Tight ends: Jake Moreland
Quality Control: Brett Ekkens
DEFENSE
Coordinator: Nick Rallis*
Defensive line: Pete Kwiatkowski
Assistant defensive line: Alec Osborne*
Inside linebackers: Rod Wilson
Outside linebackers: Matt Feeney*
Cornerbacks: Zac Etheridge
Defensive backs: Cristian Garcia*
Quality Control: Brent Jackson
SPECIAL TEAMS/SUPPORT
Coordinator: Michael Ghobrial
Assistant special teams: Sam Sewell*
Director, Football Strategy: Kenny Bell*
Assistant to head coach: Jay Razzano*
* - returning from 2025 staff
Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony for a new Cardinals practice facility likely wasn’t supposed to be contentious. It got that way, a little.
Via Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic, owner Michael Bidwill faced several questions about the fact that his franchise doesn’t have a team president.
Asked why the team doesn’t have a president, Bidwill said, “I am the team president.”
Asked why the team doesn’t have a president who is independent from ownership, Bidwill said, “I am the team president.”
Asked whether that’s the best way to operate the team, Bidwill said, “Next question.”
Only seven NFL franchises don’t have a president. The others are the Cowboys, Giants, Buccaneers, Bengals, Steelers, and Colts.
The Cardinals have a G.M., a COO, a CFO, a chief legal officer, and a chief people officer.
A team president would add an expensive line item to the budget. By doing the job himself, Bidwill avoids that expense. Which turns whatever the salary and benefits for the team president would be into additional profit.
Mike LaFleur wasn’t hired as the Cardinals’ head coach until February 1, which meant he was behind most other head coaches in building his staff. But LaFleur thinks that might be a good thing.
LaFleur says it’s true that many good assistant coaches already had their 2026 jobs lined up at the time LaFleur started the process of looking for assistants, but he believes the late start gave him an opportunity to take a look at coaches he otherwise might not have considered.
“Every day in January and early February, guys are getting plucked off,” LaFleur said. “But there’s so many good coaches out there, so you just go through the process. You lose one but sometimes when you lose one it might be the best thing that ever happened because you end up finding the next one that’s a better fit for us. You learn some things about some guys you might not have interviewed. Challenges, but I can flip it and say it’s actually a good thing.”
LaFleur said he got the only offensive coordinator he ever wanted in Nathaniel Hackett, and that he took some time to get to know the Cardinals’ incumbent defensive coordinator, Nick Rallis, and decided he was the best coach for the job. LaFleur said he’s close to having his full staff hired. And it’s a staff he likes.
The NFL recently won an arbitration ruling that prevents the NFL Players Association from publishing (but not from creating) team-by-team report cards.
The first owner to be available to reporters since that development was Michael Bidwill of the Cardinals. He landed 30th among all owners in last year’s report card — and his team finished dead last.
During a press conference held in connection with the groundbreaking on the organization’s new practice facility, Bidwill was asked about the report cards.
“Well, feedback’s a gift,” Bidwill said, via Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com, “but also I knew what our plan was and I was going to make this multi-generational decision when this parcel became available to build the best possible facility and performance center that’s player-first, for the Cardinals and for our future.”
Weinfuss added that "[t]he majority of Bidwill’s response was from his talking points throughout the Cardinals’ groundbreaking event.”
Despite Bidwill’s comment, the message from the league collectively is that feedback is a scourge. The NFL attacked the process, trying mainly to kill the process and not simply to stifle publication of the results.
The owners have little accountability to anyone. The report cards represent an effective tool for making them accountable to their employees.
The good organizations embrace the feedback and make changes. The bad organizations attack the feedback and/or the process that creates it.
Once upon a time, shouting down dissent was un-American. In recent years, it’s becoming distinctly American, as it relates to those who currently have the wheel.
Hopefully, efforts to quiet disagreement will make those who disagree more willing to do so. The fact that the NFL and the owners don’t want disagreement should galvanize players to use their collective voice to express it.
The Cardinals officially broke ground on their new training facility and business offices.
“It is a multi-generational decision that we discerned,” owner Michael Bidwill said, via Darren Urban of the team website. “I wanted to make sure it was player-first, performance-first, and we leveraged the Cardinals headquarters to have the most greater good for the state of Arizona and the city of Phoenix as possible.”
The Cardinals have called Tempe home since 1990 and were badly in need of an upgrade to their facilities, which currently sit on 14 acres. They will relocated to a 217-acre site in north Phoenix, which the Cardinals purchased at a state land auction for $136 million.
The new facility is scheduled to open in 2028.
The team’s football facilities and its business offices will sit on 30 acres, with the remaining acreage mixed-use, with housing and an entertainment district among the development over the next several years. Bidwill said the design will allow the whole area to be walkable, even in the heat of the summer.
The Cardinals will have three grass practice fields as well as a fieldhouse with a full-size turf field. A new expanded locker room will house the players.
“Everyone loves being in Arizona as a whole, and to have a state-of-the-art facility like this will only do great things for the community, but also for the players,” Cardinals safety Budda Baker said. “Investing into our futures is definitely exciting.”
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?
Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur wasn’t ready to talk about the team’s plans for Kyler Murray at his introductory press conference early this month and he didn’t have much more to say about the quarterback at a press conference on Wednesday.
The assumption has long been that the Cardinals and Murray will be parting ways before the 2026 season. Murray only played in five games last season before going on injured reserve with a foot injury, which made him unlikely to return even before the change from Jonathan Gannon to LaFleur reset the direction of the franchise.
The manner in which a split would happen remains a question mark because Murray’s already been guaranteed $36.8 million for the 2026 season and LaFleur would only say that the team is talking about how to best move forward.
“Just like everything else on the roster, open conversations in this building,” LaFleur said, via the team’s website. “No timeframe on that.”
A solution ahead of the start of the new league year would be the best case for all involved and there’s a more specific milestone in place even if LaFleur didn’t reference it on Wednesday. Murray will have his 2027 base salary of $19.5 million guaranteed if he’s on Arizona’s roster on March 15 and that’s not something the Cardinals will want to swallow as part of the price of parting ways with the quarterback.
That should leave release or trade as the two options as the Cardinals prepare to start over at both quarterback and head coach in 2026.
The early weeks of the offseason are the time for connecting dots. Sometimes, multiple different dots lead to a common connection.
Currently, it’s believed that the Steelers will be the only viable option for quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2026. But what about the Cardinals?
The most obvious link is offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The Broncos hired him to be the head coach in 2022, at a time when it was believed the Packers would be ready to trade Rodgers.
That didn’t happen until 2023. By then, Hackett was working for the Jets — who traded for Rodgers.
Now, Hackett has landed in Arizona. Which will need a quarterback, if/when Kyler Murray is traded or released.
There are more connections than Hackett. New coach Mike LaFleur most recently served as offensive coordinator of the Rams, and Rodgers was reportedly the Plan B for the Rams if Matthew Stafford had left in 2025.
LaFleur’s brother, Matt, coached Rodgers for four years in Green Bay. And while the relationship was strained at times, Rodgers’s recent praise for Matt during a short stay on the hot seat left him “speechless.”
The only problem is that the Cardinals are the least competitive team in the very competitive NFC West. It won’t be easy for the Cardinals, with or without Rodgers, to make it to the playoffs.
Whether Rodgers or someone else, the Cardinals likely will be adding a quarterback. It makes sense to at least keep an eye on the possibility that the Cardinals will kick the tires on bringing Rodgers to Arizona.
The Cardinals formally introduced Nathaniel Hackett as their new offensive coordinator today, and head coach Mike LaFleur said Hackett was always the man he wanted for the job.
Hackett hasn’t been successful everywhere he’s coached. He went 4-11 and was fired before his first season was over as head coach of the Broncos in 2022, and he was stripped of his play calling duties during his last season as an offensive coordinator, with the Jets in 2024. But when LaFleur was asked about Hackett today, he said Hackett is viewed as a successful coach around the NFL.
“There’s so many factors in success,” LaFleur said. “He’s been very successful and is very well thought of, particularly within our profession. You guys believe one thing from this press conference it is, literally, I wanted him and nobody else. And he’s here.”
That might come as news to the other coaches who interviewed for the Cardinals’ offensive coordinator position, but LaFleur has the coach he wants for one of the most important jobs on his staff.
