EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The quarterback position took even more heat — and hits — than usual last season around the NFL.
Ill-timed injuries to Daniel Jones, Patrick Mahomes and Bo Nix left their teams in the lurch. Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson had trouble staying healthy. Others once targeted and trained as franchise players were either sidetracked or discarded, as J.J. McCarthy, Kyler Murray, Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa found
themselves on insecure ground.
Training camps always present a fresh start. Jones, Mahomes and Nix have been cleared for full activity, stabilizing or energizing the huddle in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Denver. Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore are plenty happy to turn anew to Burrow, Daniels and Jackson. Murray (Minnesota) and Tagovailoa (Atlanta) flew to new places for welcomed scenery changes.
After all 32 reset buttons have been pushed, though, a handful of teams have reported with varying levels of intrigue and scrutiny surrounding the most important position on the field. Here's a closer look at the camps where there's either a legitimate competition for the season-opening starter or a measure of uncertainty:
Since Cleveland got its NFL team back in 1999, the Browns have made the playoffs just three times — and won only one postseason game. There's no arguing the connection to the perpetually shuffling depth chart at quarterback, with 42 different starters over those first 27 years.
The latest was Shedeur Sanders, who fell to the Browns in the fifth round of the 2025 draft after they'd selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round. Sanders is now competing for the job with Deshaun Watson, the fallen star whose health problems and off-the-field trouble have limited him to just 19 games over the last five seasons. Watson last played on Oct. 20, 2024, before an Achilles tendon rupture and reinjury kept him sidelined in 2025. Rookie head coach Todd Monken had hoped to name a starter by the start of training camp, but the competition will last at least a few more weeks.
Atlanta had a hot seat on the offseason quarterback carousel, cutting Kirk Cousins to clear salary cap space after two unfulfilling seasons and signing Tua Tagovailoa after Miami dumped him and ate a record $99 million in dead money against the cap. Cousins' status immediately got complicated when the Falcons drafted Penix eighth overall in 2024, and the situation grew murkier yet last year when Penix tore the ACL in his left knee.
Penix had not yet been cleared for full-team work when the Falcons were last on the field at minicamp, so health and experience make Tagovailoa the front-runner for the job, though new head coach Kevin Stefanski has publicly declared this an open competition.
J.J. McCarthy struggled with consistency and injuries that further hindered his opportunities to learn and improve in his debut with the Vikings last season, so the club reopened the search this year and found Murray available for the veteran minimum salary.
The Vikings have not given up on McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft, and they'll split turns with the first team offense at least for the early stage of training camp. But if Murray is healthy, after spraining his foot last season and missing time between 2022-23 to recover from knee surgery, he's the clear favorite.
The Dolphins didn't give $45 million guaranteed to Malik Willis for him to take turns. Their new leadership from Green Bay — general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley — became enamored with the 27-year-old over his two seasons as backup for the Packers.
With only three starts over the last three years, plus three more as a rookie with Tennessee in 2022, however, Willis is unquestionably unproven. Quinn Ewers took over for a struggling Tagovailoa and made three starts late last season, and the 2025 seventh-round draft pick performed well during spring practice sessions to present a potential alternative should the Dolphins need to consider one.
After moving on from Murray, the Cardinals landed on this short list of quarterback uncertainty — until satisfying veteran front-runner Jacoby Brissett with a new contract and formalizing his place atop the depth chart on Sunday. Fellow journeyman Gardner Minshew and third-round draft pick Carson Beck are waiting behind him in case a significant injury or costly interceptions were to give new head coach Mike LaFleur pause at some point this season.
Brissett, who's in his 11th year in the NFL, started 12 games last season after Murray's injury. He passed for a career-high 3,366 yards, but Arizona finished 3-14. After switching teams five times in five years, Brissett has stayed put for the first time since a four-season stint with Indianapolis. He was the starter for the Colts in 2017 and 2019. Minshew, who's on his sixth team in eight years in the league, was the primary starter for the Colts in 2023 after replacing then-rookie Anthony Richardson.
The best long-term outlook of the group clearly belongs to Las Vegas after taking Heisman Trophy and national championship winner Fernando Mendoza with the first pick in the draft. The Raiders under new head coach Klint Kubiak also brought in a sturdy bridge to that bright future by signing Cousins to help ease the rookie in.
Cousins is on top of the depth chart to start camp and the favorite to lead the Las Vegas offense in the opener, which would stop a streak of six straight quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall starting their season opener — following Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Murray. Baker Mayfield in 2018 with the Browns was the last quarterback who didn’t start his first game as the first overall pick.
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