NFL Backup Quarterback Rankings 2026

The following Backup Quarterback Rankings are based on guesswork, dead reckoning, dream logic, out-of-date information, personal preferences, a few coin flips and a futile effort to overfit scattered/contradictory data points onto a smooth continuum. 

The second-ranked backup on this list may be no better than the 12th-ranked backup. #32 might turn out to be better than #15. We have no idea. Everything we think we know about the past and future of these rarely-seen backups is heavily distorted by opportunities, situations, supporting casts and other factors. This entire exercise is silly and largely pointless.

But it’s also fun! So let’s do it.

Tier 1: The “Get You Through a Month” Backup QBs

If forced to start four games due to a starter's injury, these quarterbacks should be able to manufacture victories against their teams’ weaker opponents, perhaps surprise a tough opponent, and generally hold down the fort until the starter returns. 

Not Ranked: Michael Penix, Atlanta Falcons

It looked like Penix would be named the Falcons starter when this feature was written and assembled. I don't want to disrupt the flow by placing him somewhere in the middle and taking Tua Tagovailoa out. Based on recent accomplishments and upside, Penix could arguably rank first on this list. Based on his injuries and his lack of eagerness to get back on the field this summer, Penix probably should rank around where Tua ranks, if not lower.

1. Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers

Jones ranked 12th in DYAR last year despite playing just eight games. In one of those starts, a victory over the mighty Rams, his top targets were Kendrick Bourne (10 catches for 142 yards), Christian McCaffrey (8-82) and Jake Tonges (7-41-1). So “great supporting cast” arguments against Jones doesn’t really hold up. 

Jones’ reputation may have been bursting with helium back when he was Tom Brady’s heir apparent, but he’s still probably better than at least a half dozen Week 1 starters.

2. Snoop Huntley, Baltimore Ravens

Lamar Jackson’s longtime stunt double has led his teams to a 7-9 career record when forced to start, including a 2-3 record for the 2024 Dolphins. Most of the wins came in low-scoring games against the Browns, Falcons or Dark Ages Patriots, but Snoop also led victories over the Bears last year and the Steelers in 2022. 

Snoop does everything just well enough that coaches don’t have to rearrange the offense when he enters the game, and he has played often enough to keep from dry-rotting on the bench.

3. Davis Mills, Houston Texans

The perfect quarterback to get you to 23 points if the defense spots him the ball at midfield a few times. Mills generally avoids sacks and turnovers, a useful skill for any backup, but especially one on a team with a defense good enough to win games with field goals and field position. 

4. Fernando Mendoza, Las Vegas Raiders

This is a reasonable default ranking for a first-round pick who did not do enough to seize an immediate starting job. If thrust into the lineup before he and the Raiders are ready, Mendoza would provide plenty of talent, peppy energy and (critically) the likelihood of improving as he goes along. 

Kirk Cousins, who has thrown for 5,229 yards and led a mediocre franchise to a 12-10 record over the last two seasons, would rank first among backups, or (at worst) second behind Mac Jones. 

5. Joe Flacco, Cincinnati Bengals

Flacco belongs in the company of Vinny Testaverde, Earl Morrall, Steve Deberg and a handful of other legendary backup quarterbacks and long-time NFL survivors. Hall of Famer George Blanda is also on that list, and I would love to see Flacco kick a few late-career field goals for a Super Bowl contender to truly redefine his legacy.

Flacco’s Browns and Bengals went 2-8 when he started last year, but the Browns were pitiful and the Bengals lost a few shootouts where he played very well. He can still throw very hard while standing perfectly still, and old age has granted him the common sense to keep targeting Ja’Marr Chase over and over again instead of trying anything fancy. 

The Bengals scored 30+ points in three of Flacco’s starts last year. Not many quarterbacks on this list could produce multiple 30+ games in one season, with or without the Bengals receivers. 

Flacco could arguably be ranked higher, but he’s at an age when skills evaporate suddenly and the next sack could be the last. 

6. Justin Fields, Kansas City Chiefs

We’re about to roll through a bunch of former first-round picks who were starters for several years before sliding into roles as backups for hire. Most of these quarterbacks have plenty of raw talent and enjoyed some early-career success. But all of them failed to develop. They still play like rookies after many years in the NFL.

Fields lands at the top of this list because he is just at the start of his slide. The pure talent, and the stress that talent can put on a defense, remain obvious. The more he plays, the more likely he is to endure a 9-sack afternoon (Broncos, Week 6 of 2025), but that’s true of just about every backup. 

Fields looked bad in the preseason, and some camp notices were alarming, but Andy Reid and Eric Bieniemy would (or will) probably switch to something like the triple option if forced to get through three weeks of Fields. Three weeks of Fields running the triple option sounds more appealing than three weeks of just about anything you will read below.

Four years from now, Fields may be thought of the way the next few quarterbacks are thought of today. 

7. Mitch Trubisky, Tennessee Titans

Trubisky spent two seasons in Buffalo mopping up meaningless Week 18 games. He threw five touchdowns in two Week 18 victories for the Bills, plus a sixth after relieving Josh Allen at the end of a 2025 Week 17 blowout of the Jets. It’s great work if you can get it. 

Trubisky held off quasi-challenges from both Will Levis and Herndon Hooker this preseason, though he was the prohibitive favorite to back up Cam Ward due to his “steady veteran” status. He still possesses many of the traits that made him a serviceable starter from 2017 through 2020. 

Trubisky has a lot in common with the next two guys on our list, and while he’s less impressive/interesting/amusing than they are, he’s also less likely to do something catastrophic if forced into the lineup. 

8. Carson Wentz, Minnesota Vikings

Wentz got sacked on 10.1% of dropbacks in 2025, which was a higher rate than J.J. McCarthy (a perfect 10.0%) but a lower rate than Max Brosmer (16.5%). Wentz’s tendency to try to solve cryptograms in the pocket before launching yolo balls may actually be getting worse with age, which is remarkable. 

Wentz still physically looks like an NFL starter and can really sling it. But he keeps stumbling through two-turnover, high-sack-rate losses, even though he has Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison to throw to. At 33, Wentz isn’t getting any more athletic, and there is no evidence that he’s getting more reliable, either. He’s just getting older. 

9. Jameis Winston, New York Giants

Winston is Wentz with better branding. Both quarterbacks produce similar results off the bench – one thrilling touchdown, two turnovers that look like scenes from an Abbott & Costello movie – yet social media will roast Wentz like a hunk of brisket while making goo-goo eyes at Winston. Aww look at Jameboo. He CAUGHT a touchdown pass! He’s making snow angels. It’s been weeks since his last three-interception game. And Winston has serious, credible allegations of misconduct in his past, while Wentz’s only crime is being a ninny! Perhaps it's easier for most folks to root for someone with an obviously messy past like Winston than someone who puts all of their effort into looking tidy like Wentz.

Whatever. Both Winston and Wentz can go about 2-2 if forced to start for a month but 2-6, with turnovers in buckets, if forced to start for two months. 

10. Mason Rudolph, Pittsburgh Steelers

It takes a certain type of individual to back up both Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger without being driven barking mad, to survive the Kenny Pickett/Mitch Trubisky era with his relative dignity untarnished, to shrug off a season as Will Levis’ middle reliever in Tennessee, to physically/professionally survive hurling an alleged racial slur at Myles Garrett and to earn some level of trust from both Mike Tomlin and Mike McCarthy. Rudolph is that individual. 

Rudolph game-managed a victory over the Bengals off the bench last year, then kept things close in a non-terrible performance against the Bears. If you expect more out of a backup quarterback, you probably expect too much. 

11. Tyrod Taylor, Green Bay Packers

The problem with making Tyrod Taylor your backup is that you are likely to end up getting to know your third-stringer. 

Taylor suffered two separate injuries for the Jets in 2025, which is why the world was introduced to Brady Cook at season’s end. A 2023 rib injury with the Giants gave the world Tommy Cutlets. Current Broncos offensive coordinator Davis Webb threw his only NFL passes because Taylor suffered a concussion after just a few plays in relief of Daniel Jones in 2022. Taylor entered 2021 as the Texans starter, but two separate injuries allowed us to meet Davis Mills. And, of course, the Justin Herbert era began when Taylor suffered a punctured lung, and a little sideline malpractice, in the Chargers 2020 season opener. 

When healthy, Taylor has enough mobile game-manager juice to lead one or two victories over unprepared or down-and-out foes. Everything after that is borrowed time.

12. Marcus Mariota, Washington Commanders

Tyrod Taylor 2.0: a former competent-enough starter who has spent years as a somewhat-mobile, oft-injured backup. Mariota relieved Jayden Daniels multiple times last year before suffering an MCL sprain that forced the Commanders to turn to Josh Johnson.

(Johnson, currently unemployed and therefore unranked, would probably hover in the late 20s on this list.)

A fair question to ask: what would Mariota look like on the Texans, where 20 points are usually enough to seal a victory? And what would Davis Mills look like playing for a team whose defense cannot stop anyone, forcing him to throw 50 passes against the Broncos?

The answers: we don’t know, it doesn’t matter much, and the separation in quality between backup quarterbacks isn’t all that great anyway. Mariota threw an overtime interception to lose a 16-13 game to the Dolphins last year. That doesn’t help his “bad situation” or "heady game manager" arguments very much. 

13. Gardner Minshew, Arizona Cardinals

You know Minshew. He has the athleticism of some 35-year old deputy offensive coordinator, but he plays like a recess scrambler, and he looks like a limo driver who buys booze for the prom couples.

Minshew alternates between bridge starting jobs with no expectations (Colts, Raiders) and sinecures behind established starters (Eagles, Chiefs). He scammed a Pro Bowl selection for his work with the 2023 Colts, but he had one job last year – get the Chiefs to the end of the season when Patrick Mahomes got injured – and he held it for just 13 attempts before getting injured himself. He’s in good company with Taylor and Mariota: veterans with loosey-goosey play styles, experience and name recognition. 

14. Tua Tagovailoa, Atlanta Falcons

[See Not Ranked note at top.]

Tua resembles crafty junkballers Mariota and Minshew athletically at this point in their careers, even though he is a few years younger. Tua is also like Mariota and Tyrod Taylor because there’s such a high risk that he wouldn’t make it through a multi-game relief stint in one piece.

Tagovailoa is the youngest quarterback in this paragraph and entered last season as a starter, so he should probably rank higher. But he looked older than Andy Dalton in his preseason appearances and appears to have lost his job to a quarterback who wasn’t able to fully participate in practice until late August. So …

Tier 2: The "Get You Through a Game" Backup QBs

None of the following quarterbacks will panic if forced to enter a close game in the third quarter. They could all preserve a victory, then look pretty competent orchestrating a customized game plan for one (1) spot start. It will probably all go downhill quickly after that. These quarterbacks lack the tools, experience and/or recent success that the Tier 1 quarterbacks possessed, or are now over-the-hill and approaching the River Styx. 

15. Tyson Bagent, Chicago Bears

Bagent has thrown six regular-season passes in the last two years. His reputation is built upon:

• Ben Johnson’s absolute devotion to him;
• His two-year, $10 million contract, which is really just a symbol of that devotion;
• Two game-managed 2023 victories at a point when both fans and coaches were weary of Justin Fields’ playground tendencies.
• Preseason excellence: three touchdowns and one interception this year; a 13-to-2 career preseason touchdown-to-interception ratio.

Johnson’s endorsement means something. The rest means little. Rhetoric and vibes only count for so much in these rankings. So Bagent ranks above the interchangeable bounce-around veterans and fading prospects but below most of the experienced backups who were once real-life starters and who we see once or twice per year. 

16. Spencer Rattler, New Orleans Saints

Rattler is a pesky, fumbly pepperpot who will try to make too much happen. He probably isn’t that much less effective than Saints starter Tyler Shough. But Shough was drafted by the current Saints coaching staff and led a silly little winning streak against weakling defenses in 2025, while Rattler soaked up a bunch of losses to playoff-caliber opponents. 

Rattler isn’t good, mind you. But I have the feeling that Shough will end up somewhere in the high middle of this list three years from now. 

17. Joshua Dobbs, Detroit Lions

Dobbs is the thinking person’s Gardner Minshew. Both quarterbacks appear to be better at guessing their way through hopeless situations than executing any sort of gameplan. Both have better backstories than portfolios. Dobbs has more in common with Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary character than he does with most of his peers, which makes him extra-easy to root for. 

Dobbs wandered off the street in the middle of training camp, learned a few plays after a comical preseason debut, and ended up winning the Lions backup job after Teddy Bridgewater retired. Another feel-good story for the Passtronaut! But Dobbs is a wildly inaccurate passer, so he will still look like he’s making things up as he’s going along, even when he isn’t.

18. Andy Dalton, Philadelphia Eagles

Dalton looked unplayable in the preseason until he enjoyed some success off the bench against soon-to-be-cut Bengals defenders in the finale. He started one game for the Panthers last year; the Bills defense sacked him seven times and forced him to commit three turnovers. Dalton’s 2024 “success” with the Panthers boiled down to one strong game against the woeful Raiders, then a graceful slide back to the bench behind a chastened Bryce Young. 

Dalton turns 39 in October. He’s a well-paid deputy offensive coordinator. The Eagles will turn to Tanner McKee if Jalen Hurts misses more than a few series. Dalton is only ranked this high as a Lifetime Achievement Award. 

19. Drew Lock, Seattle Seahawks

Lock has looked phenomenal in the last two preseasons, with five touchdown passes and just one interception. Playing for one of the NFL’s deepest teams no doubt helps a bit. 

Lock was a fumbly-stumbly disaster when tasked with starting five games for the Giants in 2024. He’s a Diet Carson Wentz who would mix big plays among bigger mistakes if forced to play for an extended stretch.

20. Sam Howell, Dallas Cowboys

Howell led the NFL in sacks and interceptions in 2023, his lone season as a starter for Washington. He’s a strong-armed scrambler who is more likely to hold onto the football in the pocket until he gets dumped than to freelance. He bounced from the Seahawks to the Vikings and Eagles before beating Joe Milton for the Cowboys backup job. 

Howell turns 26 on September 16th, so he’s very young for a failed starter who has played for five NFL teams. He may have found a safe, lucrative niche in the backup ecosystem: younger and faster than the journeyman mentors, but more reliable than the playground scramblers. 

21. Kenny Pickett, Carolina Panthers

Pickett, like Howell,

• Arrived in the 2022 draft,
• Flunked a starting opportunity in 2023, and
• Has now been employed by five NFL organizations (Steelers, Eagles, Browns, Raiders, Panthers) in the regular season or offseason.

Pickett was a first-round pick (Howell was a sixth-rounder), played briefly in 2024 (after the Eagles clinched everything) and 2025 (a catastrophic start for the Raiders), and put up impressive preseason numbers this summer, though so did Howell. If forced to start a game, Howell will make some effort to make things happen, while Pickett will tentatively paint by numbers. 

My opinions of Pickett may be too heavily shaped by last year’s 31-0 loss to the Eagles and by how badly he bollixed a giftwrapped starting opportunity in Pittsburgh, but I would prefer to have Howell on my bench.   

22. Tommy DeVito, New England Patriots

One out-of-nowhere three-touchdown game can buy a quarterback a year or two of backup duty. Such games usually come against bad opponents and are the result of customized mommy-meal game scripts, and the quarterback often backslides quickly once other teams get film of his five favorite plays. But none of that matters: one success pays the bills for multiple failures.

Name recognition can also buy a backup a year or two of employment opportunities. That can backfire for guys with baggage, but it helps to have been memorable enough that coaches think you must have done something noteworthy at some point. Tommy Cutlets, like Snoop Huntley and The Passtronaut, comes preloaded with some personality traits and a backstory. If he has a nickname, he HAS to be pretty good.

DeVito is broadly similar to Tyson Bagent: former UDFAs who upstaged their troubled starters in a handful of 2023 games. Bagent ranks ahead of DeVito due to preseason stats and coaching endorsements. Both have shrewdly positioned themselves behind young, unquestioned starters for teams with well-regarded coaching staffs. Both will be offensive coordinators by the early 2030s if they wish to be. 

23. Trey Lance, Los Angeles Chargers

Lance hasn’t thrown a regular-season touchdown pass since 2022. He went 20-of-44 (45.5%) for 136 yards (3.1 yards per attempt) and an interception in a meaningless Week 18 cameo last year. He struggled to hold of DJ Uiagalelei to keep his backup job this summer, and Uiagalelei was such an inaccurate college passer that he could throw from a pier and miss the lake.

Lance should have been a fifth-round pick like Easton Stick, his predecessor at North Dakota State and on the Chargers bench, and like his eventual Bisons successor Cole Payton. The pandemic turned Lance into a Mystery Box instead, and the 49ers filled him with all their hopes and dreams. Lance’s credentials as anything more than a fringe backup are tied to his status as a former third-overall pick. That status keeps buying him extra opportunities, but it also makes him look like a perennial disappointment. The next backup competition that he loses may be his last.

24. Anthony Richardson, Indianapolis Colts

Here’s legendary Indianapolis columnist Bob Kravitz on Richardson, from his Musings of an Old Sportswriter newsletter:

If you’d have asked me a few months back, I would have sworn Richardson had a foot-and-a-half out the door. But here’s the truth: Nobody wanted him. I mean…nobody. And it’s not like the Colts were holding out for a major return. They would have dealt him for a ham sandwich. But there are still lots of questions about his health, specifically his vision after that terrible and fluky injury last season. Teams weren’t willing to touch him with a 10-foot pole.

So he’s back, probably in the last place him and his agent thought he would be.

Kravitz is “thrilled” to see Richardson get this fourth chance, and so am I. He has the raw talent of an All-Pro. He turned 24 in May. He’s proven he can lead some victories by being the biggest/fastest kid on the schoolyard, and he looked semi-competent at times in the preseason. If he’s learned some life lessons over the last two years, why let some future team benefit from it? Why throw the lottery ticket away?

Richardson still ranks very low, as you see. But if we’re wrong about him, there’s a chance that we are really, really wrong. 

25. Jarrett Stidham, Denver Broncos

Stidham is as close as you can get to the coach grabbing a helmet and running onto the field himself. 

Stidham had exactly one good element-of-surprise throw in his arsenal in the AFC Championship Game. He has been the teacher’s pet for both Sean Payton and Josh McDaniels. The only reason Stidham is not already an offensive coordinator is because backup quarterbacking pays better.

Tier 3: The "Get You Under the Cap" Backup QBs

All of these backups work cheap. That and a vague wisp of “potential” are their only qualifications. 

26. Stetson Bennett, Los Angeles Rams

Rams backup quarterbacks are a psyop.

Bennett has not thrown a single regular-season pass in four NFL seasons. Sean McVay stashed him behind Jimmy Garoppolo as his QB3 in 2024 and 2025, and McVay may still have Garoppolo on speed dial.

Bennett threw three interceptions in the 2023 preseason, then five in 2024. He turned things around in the 2025 preseason, throwing five touchdowns (but two interceptions), then rushed for two touchdowns in a matchup earlier this August where it looked like the Saints somehow managed to strap helmets onto their dead cap space. 

I haven’t seen Bennett do anything but execute the McVay playbook tutorial (outside zone handoff, play-action boot pass) and sail occasional deep shots downfield against third-stringers since he autopiloted a Georgia superteam to college championships in 2021 and 2022. He’s small and has a C+ arm. He has at least shaken his maturity issues from college, and thank heavens, because he turns 29 in October. 

Bennett’s a forever intern who McVay keeps around because he doesn’t want to admit that he made a (minor) draft mistake or failed to develop a quarterback.

27. Kyle Allen, Buffalo Bills

A master of the art of camouflage, Allen hides behind Josh Allen whenever he can. If Josh Allen is unavailable, he hides behind Jared Goff, or disguises himself as Mason Rudolph and blends in with the Steelers bench. Allen was Cam Newton’s backup and quasi-challenger long ago, but he has thrown three regular-season passes since 2023. 

Other 30-year old journeymen with starting experience might seek out mentor roles and the increased opportunities for playing time that come with them. I admire Allen’s dedication to making the most money and pursuing championships while doing the least work possible.

28. Quinn Ewers, Jacksonville Jaguars

Memory can play tricks on all of us.

Ewers, a collegiate winnersauce quarterback who lasted until the seventh round of the 2025 draft because he’s smallish, slow-footed and noodle-armed, led a 20-17 victory over the Buccaneers in Week 17 last year. He threw just 22 passes for 172 yards in that game, most memorably a long touchdown to someone named Theo Wease on a play where the Buccaneers in coverage reacted to the throw as if someone dropped their PS5 controllers down a staircase.

Ewers’ other great 2025 accomplishment was leading a 97-yard fourth quarter scoring drive in Week 16 to cut the Bengals’ lead to 45-21.

Somehow, an “Ewers is pretty good” narrative, fueled by Ewers’ residual collegiate star power, rose from the football realm’s cumulative disdain for Tua Tagovailoa. That narrative – and Ewers’ itty-bitty contract – allowed him to be grandfathered through a regime change as the Dolphins backup, then sparked the Jaguars’ interest in him after he went 1-for-8 with an interception in his first preseason appearance this summer. Remember: James Gladstone and Liam Coen can perceive things that no one else can see. 

Ewers will still be getting backup jobs based on his Longhorns success and that time Tykee Smith decided to run randomly toward the sideline instead of covering Theo Wease until at least 2031. 

29. Shedeur Sanders, Cleveland Browns

Sanders is similar to Ewers in many ways: college fame, tiny flickers of rookie success buried in a dung heap, a narrative that wags the dog. Ewers was better last year – Sanders was shockingly terrible – but played less, wasn’t put in as many bad situations and doesn’t add any scrambling value. 

Sanders also shares some similarities with Stetson Bennett. He could end up being the formerly-immature prospect who “figured things out” if he hides quietly on the bench for a year or (more plausibly) cuts his interception rate in half and his sack rate by a third. 

30. Kyle McCord, Miami Dolphins

McCord had a fine training camp by most accounts, then threw four touchdown passes in the Packers preseason finale, then got sent to the Packers AAA affiliate in Miami. McCord would be a third-stringer on at least 25 other rosters. 

31. Jalon Daniels, Buccaneers

I like the idea of Daniels. The Bucs just made a toolsy NIL-era six-year college quarterback their minimum-wage backup. It’s like making the dude who has been knocking around baseball's minor leagues for years your long reliever/spot starter. Baker Mayfield doesn’t need a mentor and would probably bite a challenger, and the Bucs aren’t built to win anything if Mayfield misses more than a game. So why not?

Daniels is probably not that different from Sam Howell, but Howell has NFL starting experience, and that does count for a lot. 

32. Cade Klubnik, New York Jets

Klubnik’s claims to NFL competence hinge on his 2024 season at Clemson and a few positive press clippings from July. He went 6-of-13 with an interception in his preseason finale, and the Jets brought Will Levis and Jack Plummer in for tryouts last week. The Buccaneers seem genuinely excited about Jalon Daniels. The Jets seem to already be trying to distance themselves from their fourth-round pick. 

Tier 4: Third Stringers!

Let's get nuts.

Only quarterbacks who were on an active roster (not the IR or a practice squad) are ranked below. The decimal rankings are my best guess as to where they would go if they were backups, not third stringers.

24.1: J.J. McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings

McCarthy is a lot like Trey Lance and Anthony Richardson: three beneficiaries of NFL draft wishcasting based on traits or, in McCarthy’s case, intangibles.

McCarthy led the Vikings to a few victories by executing easy-reader gameplans last year, just as Richardson did for the Colts in 2023 and 2024. McCarthy ranks below Richardson because the Colts have made peace with Richardson, while the Vikings would be happier if McCarthy just wandered off into the woods. 

24.2: Aidan O’Connell, Las Vegas Raiders

An immobile pine tree with a decent arm who avoids bloopers.

25.1: Case Keenum, Chicago Bears

He hasn’t thrown a regular-season NFL pass since 2023, so let’s place him right behind Jarrett Stidham, another veteran security blanket and deputy offensive coordinator. 

25.2: Cooper Rush, Atlanta Falcons

Another veteran security blanket. Rush looked absolutely hopeless in two 2025 starts for the Ravens. He had some success with the 2022-24 Cowboys, so there’s a chance he could get the Falcons through a game by handing off to Bijan Robinson 40 times. 

27.1: Ty Simpson, Los Angeles Rams

Simpson’s draft status is a function of Sean McVay’s evaluation of him. Therefore, it is illogical to rank Simpson ahead of Stetson Bennett.

27.2 Tanner McKee, Eagles

McKee threw two touchdowns in four attempts at the end of a meaningless 2024 Week 17 blowout, then two more in a meaningless Week 18 start against the Giants that same year. He has done nothing since, looking blah in last year’s Week 18 cameo and unimpressive this summer. He’s a poor man’s Kyle Allen: tall, sturdy and affordable.

30.1: Dillon Gabriel, Cleveland Browns

Lacks the baseline athletic capability to be anything but a fringe-of-the-fringe backup. Probably an offensive coordinator in training. (Gabriel is on IR right now, but this list just felt naked without him.)

30.2: Riley Leonard, Indianapolis Colts

Leonard has managed to lose his job to a grandpop and a guy who injures himself with workout equipment over the last ten months. 

33: Jalen Milroe, Seattle Seahawks

One of many collegiate stars with dubious NFL value hanging around the bad backup/good third-stringer tier, Milroe has three regular-season NFL touches, and one was a fumble. Here’s how he looked in the preseason. There's always a little buzz around him, but that's mostly because there is never any buzz around Drew Lock.   

34 Tie: Will Howard/Drew Allar, Pittsburgh Steelers

Not-quite-prospects with decent arms.

35: Taylen Green, Cleveland Browns

A playground scrambler type. The Arkansas film was OK. Possibly the best quarterback on the Browns payroll right now. I am only being a little facetious.  

36: Carson Beck, Arizona Cardinals

It’s one thing to give the Rams benefit-of-the-doubt on Ty Simpson. It’s another thing to give the Cardinals benefit-of-the-doubt on anything. Beck is very Quinn Ewers-like. I would have slapped some rating like 29.5 on him if he didn't get injured in the freakin' Hall of Fame Game.

37: Garrett Nussmeier, Kansas City Chiefs

Similar to Cade Klubnik: a major-program star whose college career went backwards at the end. 

38: Sam Ehlinger, Denver Broncos

A scrambler whose Colts lost all of his relief appearances to terrible teams back in 2022. This is what the pesky rookie you fell in love with in the fourth quarter of a preseason game typically looks like five years later, assuming that he's not selling real estate.

39: Cole Payton, Philadelphia Eagles

A future Sam Ehlinger.

40: Behren Morton, New England Patriots

If you think he deserves to be listed at the top of the third stringers because he can double as an emergency punter, I won't argue with you, and Mike Vrabel might agree with you. 

41: Brady Cook, Miami Dolphins

Spent four games last season demonstrating that he doesn’t really belong in the NFL. 

42: Joe Fagnano, Baltimore Ravens

I am sticking with my theory that the Ravens really miss Joe Flacco and want to keep someone similar around as a good luck charm.

43: Athan Kaliakmanis, Washington Commanders

Having watched plenty of Rutgers football over the last two autumns, I cannot really explain this. 

44: Kurtis Rourke, San Francisco 49ers

Last year’s fan self-insert character.

45: Jack Strand, Atlanta Falcons

This year’s fan self-insert character.