Quarterback competitions heading into NFL preseason: Patriots, Steelers, Raiders, Vikings
Week 1 of the NFL Preseason officially begins on Thursday, and there are a handful of teams that will be holding an open competition for starting QB.
The NFL preseason is officially underway after Thursday’s Hall of Fame Game from Canton. The Chicago Bears beat the Houston Texans in a shortened game from Tom Benson Stadium, but that was just the tip of the preseason iceberg.
Later this week, the rest of the 32 teams will begin their preseason schedules leading up to kickoff to the regular season the second weekend of September. As always the storylines this time of year revolve around the quarterbacks. It’s been an offseason full of big money deals for some of the league’s most promising quarterbacks, but there are a few teams that still don’t have their QB situation sorted out.
We aren’t likely to see many starting quarterbacks padding up this week, but there are a few teams that will need to get their gunslingers on the field as soon as possible. Some battles will be for the second or third string position, but some teams still need clarity when it comes to their first string signal caller.
New England Patriots
After decades of stability at the QB position, Patriots have grown all too accustomed to cheering on a team with no direction under center. Since Tom Brady left, there has been a quarterback carrousel that hasn’t slowed down, and at the moment, there looks to be no end in sight. Mac Jones was touted as the heir to the job, but he has been dealt away after three years in New England. Bailey Zappe is still on the roster, but the Pats took two QBs in this year’s draft which should tell you how comfortable they are with the situation in Foxborough. Drake Maye was taken with the third overall pick and Joe Milton III was taken in the 6th round. At the moment Zappe and Jacoby Brissett are the only one’s with NFL experience.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Like the Patriots, the Steelers have cut ties with their one-time quarterback of the future, Kenny Pickett. Unlike the Patriots, the Steelers have two quarterbacks with tons of NFL experience. They went out and signed Justin Fields after the Bears decided to part ways with the dual threat QB to make room for No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. Plenty of people in the Windy City wanted Fields to stay after finally finding some consistency at the end of last season. Fields seems like a perfect fit in Pittsburgh. He’s a tough, gritty quarterback that can run the ball, and started to show that he can be a pocket passer last year. Right before bringing Justin Fields, the Steelers brought in shunned quarterback Russell Wilson from Denver. After a disastrous couple of years in the Mile High City, Russell signed a one year deal with Pittsburgh and will now be battling Fields for the starting job.
Denver Broncos
The Broncos may have moved on from Russell Wilson, but they didn’t have much of a contingency plan for what comes next. The situation with Wilson forced their hand, and now they are left having to improvise with one of the most inexperienced, unproven quarterback rooms in the league. Zach Wilson is another one of those quarterbacks that has been let go by the team that took him in the first round only a few years ago. He came from New York to try to battle for the QB1 job, but he will have to top Jarrett Stidham who has played just eight games over the last two seasons and Bo Nix who was drafted 12th in this year’s draft after what seemed to be a decade at the University of Oregon. Sean Payton is a quarterback coach who was not convinced in the slightest with Wilson. He may not have the best quarterback room in the league, but at least he gets to start from scratch with these guys. We have seen Payton turn good QBs into champions like he did with Drew Brees. First he’s going to have to choose who his QB1 is going to be, and then he can worry about turning them into quarterback that can lead his team to somewhere the Broncos haven’t been in a while.
Las Vegas Raiders
The Jimmy G days are over in the Las Vegas, and at the moment the Raiders have a couple career backups as the favorites to take the QB1 job in Sin City. Gardner Minshew is a guy that every fan base loves having as a back up because he is capable of coming off the bench and winning a few games, but if he’s been a back up since 2020, it´s for a reason. Aidan O´Connell impressed in his rookie year, playing 11 games in the 2023 season and completed 62% of his passes. He threw 12 TDs and 7 INTs while passing for 2,218 yards but those are far from numbers that are going to guarantee you a starting role. Anthony Brown Jr. spent the 2022 seasons on the Ravens´practice squad before starting Baltimore´s Week 18 game against the Bengals. He was released by the Ravens the next season, and is now looking for his first season on an NFL roster from Week 1. The final option for coach Antonio Pierce is Carter Bradley, and undrafted rookie from South Alabama who spent the last six years in college. He threw for 2,660 yards and 19 TDs in his final year with the Jaguars.
Minnesota Vikings
Finally, the Minnesota Vikings are set for an interesting preseason after seeing Kirk Cousins sign a mega deal with the Atlanta Falcons. Sam Darnold is listed as their first string QB on their depth chart. The third overall pick in the 2018 Draft played one game with the San Francisco 49ers last year after two seasons with the Carolina Panthers. He has yet to prove himself a starting QB in this leauge, which is good news for J.J. McCarthy, rookie QB and National Champion with the University of Michigan. Nick Mullens played the final five games for the Vikings last year. While he did have three 300+ yard games, he threw eight picks and just seven TDs while winning just one of those five games. The only game he won was a 3-0 final against the Raiders. The final option for Aiden O´Connell is Jaren Hall, a fifth round draft pick in last 2023 draft. He played three games last year, completing 13 of 20 passes for 168 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT.