Culture
Aaron Rodgers to Giants? Justin Fields to Jets? QB predictions for every NFL team
The first quarterback domino didn’t end up falling.
If the Rams and Matthew Stafford had gone through with a divorce — which felt like a real possibility for a few days as the Raiders and Giants were prepared to offer significant money and draft capital to reel him in — it would’ve caused a chain reaction throughout the league. The Rams might have turned their attention to Aaron Rodgers, or Sam Darnold, or someone else. And that would have changed the options available for the other teams seeking a quarterback.
Instead, Stafford is staying in Los Angeles, leaving quarterback-needy teams looking at a mostly uninspiring quarterback market, both in free agency and in the NFL Draft.
Last year, I predicted how all the quarterback openings would be filled and … didn’t do as terribly as I remembered. Some of my hits: Bears (Caleb Williams), Buccaneers (Baker Mayfield), Falcons (Kirk Cousins), Vikings (Sam Darnold), Patriots (Jacoby Brissett), Giants (Daniel Jones) and Seahawks (Geno Smith). The misses: Broncos (Sam Howell), Steelers (Kenny Pickett and Ryan Tannehill), Raiders (Jayden Daniels) and Commanders (Drake Maye). I also sent J.J. McCarthy to the Giants, Bo Nix to the Patriots and Michael Penix Jr. to the Seahawks.
Last season, I listed nine teams as open for business — and a few more that were on the fence. There are fewer obvious openings in this cycle, and fewer exciting options on the open market too.
The legal tampering period for free agency opens next Monday at noon ET, so this felt like a good time to look ahead and predict what teams will do at quarterback.
Let’s handicap this year’s field by first figuring out how many jobs are open, which jobs might be open, and which teams are already set at starting quarterback.
Safe, but something to prove
That leaves six teams as open for business: Browns, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers, Titans.
Notable options
Let’s run through the starting-caliber — or borderline starting-caliber — quarterbacks who could be available this offseason.
NFL Draft: Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, Jaxson Dart, Tyler Shough, Jalen Milroe
Free Agency: Aaron Rodgers, Sam Darnold, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Jameis Winston, Jimmy Garoppolo, Carson Wentz, Daniel Jones, Marcus Mariota
Trade/Potential cap cut: Kirk Cousins, Gardner Minshew, Kenny Pickett, Tanner McKee, Joe Milton
With the six “open for business” teams, plus four others that could get involved in the QB market, here are my predictions…
Browns: Kirk Cousins and Jalen Milroe
The rumblings out of Indianapolis were that the Browns preferred Cam Ward and perhaps aren’t high enough on Shedeur Sanders to pick him second overall. That might be a smokescreen, but Sanders isn’t widely considered that caliber of prospect anyway. Cousins has always made the most sense among the veteran options projected to be available this offseason — assuming the Falcons are not serious about making him the most expensive backup the league has ever seen — for a couple reasons.
The biggest: Kevin Stefanski was Cousins’ quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator with the Vikings for a couple years before the Browns hired him. Cousins is coming off a career-worst year (18 touchdowns, 16 interceptions) but it was his first season post-Achilles surgery, and he dealt with other injuries too. He’s definitely on the decline but is a perfectly serviceable bridge option, whether that’s to Sanders or if Cleveland takes a swing later in the draft on someone like Milroe. The former Alabama star is more of a project as a passer but is a legitimate weapon as a runner; Stefanski can incorporate him into the gameplan as a rookie.
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Giants: Aaron Rodgers and Jaxson Dart
The Rodgers-to-Giants possibility first became public once Stafford officially returned to the Rams, but there was buzz about the team’s interest in the 41-year-old all week during the combine. The Giants are exploring all veteran options, but the reality is that Rodgers is probably the best one, depending on their mileage on Darnold (who will be far more expensive than Rodgers).
From New York’s perspective, it’s a win-now desperation play for a general manager on the hot seat. Rodgers still has enough ability to serve as an inexpensive bridge option for a rookie, even if he experienced a steep decline in 2024 as he battled injuries, struggled to move around the pocket, was unwilling to take shots downfield and caused his fair share of drama. Even still, he was far better than any quarterback the Giants trotted out in 2024, and contrary to popular belief, Rodgers was viewed positively by the majority of the Jets’ locker room. Rodgers is more willing to tutor a young quarterback than many might realize, even if that plan failed with Zach Wilson. From Rodgers’ perspective, he might not have a better option than the Giants. He also recently bought a house in New Jersey and might not be eager to move unless an opportunity opened up in his home state (California). It would be a fair assumption to say that both Davante Adams and Allen Lazard would follow Rodgers to the Giants too.
The Giants could consider Sanders if he falls to No. 3, but the smarter play would be to load up with talent elsewhere on the roster. As for Dart: The Giants are flush with draft capital, with early second-, third- and fourth-round picks, plus an extra fourth. Dart seems to be the consensus third-best prospect at the moment, and some teams even have him ahead of Sanders. The Giants might be able to snag him at the top of the second round, but if not it wouldn’t be difficult for them to trade back up into the first round and get him — and then let him learn from Rodgers for a year.
Colts: Sam Darnold and Anthony Richardson
It was always going to be hard for Richardson to come back from checking himself out of a game due to fatigue. He has tantalizing tools but has not shown an ability to be a consistent, starting-caliber NFL quarterback yet, and the members of Colts leadership (particularly GM Chris Ballard) are on the hot seat. I wouldn’t even rule out a team calling the Colts about trading for Richardson, though his value is pretty low for someone drafted fifth overall two years ago.
Ballard, somehow, is getting another shot at finding a quality starting quarterback. Darnold is the top free agent available coming off a stellar 2024: 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. PFF projects Darnold to get a contract worth more than $40 million a year, so the Colts would be banking on him playing like he did before poor performances in regular-season-finale and wild-card-playoff losses.
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Jets: Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor
Taylor is on the Jets’ roster at a reasonable rate ($6.8 million cap hit) and it would not be shocking at all if he wound up being Aaron Glenn’s Week 1 starter. But there has been a lot of buzz about the prospect of the Jets going after Fields and it makes some sense — he’s young (25), mobile and might have some untapped potential, even if he’s been inconsistent as a thrower in the NFL. He was off to a nice start in Pittsburgh last year before they ultimately opted to bench him for Russell WIlson.
The most likely outcome for Fields this summer is that a team like the Jets gives him a one- or two-year prove-it type deal loaded with incentives, which would give him a shot at a bigger payday (a la Darnold) in a year or two. Fields has a history with Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson (they played together at Ohio State) and New York will have the cap space to sign him if they’re bidding against other teams — which sounds like a real possibility. PFF projects a one-year, $11 million deal but I think it will wind up taking more than that.
Signing Fields won’t preclude the Jets from taking a shot on a Day 2 or Day 3 quarterback prospect. My early prediction: Ohio State’s Will Howard or Syracuse’s Kyle McCord.
Raiders: Russell Wilson and Quinn Ewers
The Raiders were viewed as having a real shot at Stafford, largely because of the presence of Tom Brady. Most signs point toward the Raiders prioritizing proven veterans over unproven rookies, or even question marks like Fields or Darnold. Wilson is probably the next-best veteran on the market after Rodgers, and there are a lot of fun storylines that would come with him going to Las Vegas: He’d reunite with coach Pete Carroll and join forces with Brady, who Wilson lost to in Super Bowl XLIX.
The Raiders also have an early second-round pick (No. 37), and two early thirds (No. 68 and No. 73) and would be smart to add a developmental talent, like Ewers, after the first round.
Saints: Derek Carr and Shedeur Sanders
The Saints don’t really have much of an avenue to improve this position and might be stuck with Carr for now. New Orleans is already $47 million over the cap and wouldn’t get much relief by cutting Carr pre-June 1 ($1.3 million), and he’s unlikely to garner any trade interest at this point. So the Saints are more likely to just roll with him for one more year.
That wouldn’t preclude them from drafting someone. I think it’s conceivable at this point that Sanders drops out of the Top 5; he would offer the Saints a way out of the quarterback purgatory they’ve found themselves in since Drew Brees retired. If Sanders falls to No. 9 and the Saints are high enough on him, it’s worth taking the swing.
Seahawks: Geno Smith
The Seahawks will stay the course with Smith for at least one more season. He’s proven to be a perfectly capable, if inconsistent, quarterback at this stage of his career. Over the last three seasons he’s averaged 4,242 passing yards and threw 71 touchdowns and 35 interceptions — with 15 picks coming in 2024, the most since his rookie year with the Jets. He might have some value if the Seahawks opt to go in another direction, especially since they’d save $31 million in cap space by trading him, but I don’t see that happening.
Steelers: Daniel Jones and Tyler Shough
I’ll be honest, I had the hardest time predicting what Pittsburgh does. There is a lot of noise about the Steelers preferring to keep either Fields or Wilson, but that was also the noise about Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett last year and that didn’t exactly come to fruition. I think Fields will ultimately choose between the Jets and Steelers — and keep in mind that Pittsburgh benched him last season even though he was playing relatively well. If Pittsburgh brings him back while committing to him as a starter, though, that could give them the edge.
I ultimately decided to go with the Jets for Fields, but it’s a close call. As for who Pittsburgh winds up targeting if not Fields? I considered Cousins and Rodgers here, but Cleveland and New York just make more sense for both at the moment. I don’t think the Steelers will pick a quarterback in the first round. Jones would be an interesting low-cost flier, as he could be a good fit in Arthur Smith’s run-heavy offense, and Pittsburgh would be the best environment he’s been in as a starter in terms of culture, coaching and talent around him. Pairing Jones with a developmental Day 2 or Day 3 prospect would be a way of taking two shots at finding a starter — and Shough has some intriguing potential because of his size (6-5) and athleticism, though he has an injury history and will be 26 in the fall.
If the Saints do wind up moving on from Carr, he becomes a real possibility here too. I could also see Pittsburgh bringing in a third veteran quarterback to be part of the conversation — someone of the Carson Wentz, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jameis Winston, Gardner Minshew ilk.
Titans: Cam Ward
There’s been a lot of assumption that the Titans will trade out of the No. 1 pick to accumulate more assets. Has anyone ever stopped to ask why they wouldn’t just take the top quarterback prospect themselves? Will Levis is clearly not the answer. There are no other obvious solutions for a team that’s not quite a contender yet. And Ward at least has the potential to be something special, even if he’s not a surefire prospect like past No. 1 picks. The Titans have some pieces already in place to help him, including talented running backs (Tony Pollard, Tyjae Spears), a wide receiver (Calvin Ridley) and a couple first-round offensive linemen (JC Latham, Peter Skoronski). Maybe the Titans don’t view Ward as a potential franchise quarterback — or perhaps they value the potential of someone like Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter more. It’s certainly possible the Titans wind up trading out of this pick, but that’s far from a lock.
Vikings: J.J. McCarthy and Carson Wentz
For a while, the prospect of bringing Darnold back for another year while McCarthy works his way back from a torn meniscus seemed like a legitimate possibility. But as time as passed, and Darnold struggled in two big games, that began to feel less likely. Minnesota is very high on McCarthy’s potential, which he flashed in training camp and the preseason last year.
If Jones doesn’t get a starting shot elsewhere I think he’ll return to the Vikings as a potential stopgap until McCarthy is ready. But if not him, I still anticipate the Vikings adding a playable veteran at the position — I considered both Wentz and Jimmy Garoppolo here. I went with Wentz because, to me, he fits the Darnold mold of a former highly drafted quarterback seeking redemption. Wentz was an MVP frontrunner in 2017 before tearing his ACL. He had moments in both Indianapolis and Washington, but stints with both teams ended poorly. He’s been humbled as a backup the past two seasons, learning behind Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes and from both Sean McVay and Andy Reid. If there’s a coach who can get something out of Wentz, it’s Kevin O’Connell.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Rich von Biberstein / Icon Sportswire, Luke Hales, Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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