Multiple NFL Teams See Bad Quarterback Choices Ruin This Season And Cloud Future

Want to tear apart an NFL franchise? Want to delegitimize the coaching staff and the personnel department, and set the players on today's team against Hall of Famers from yesteryear in a battle with no winners? It's quite easy.

Blow the quarterback decision.

Screw up the most consequential call on the game's most important player and suddenly NFL legacy franchises become clown shows. Fans and owners get tired. And people get fired.

It is a nightmare, and it is all over the league this season. Again.

Look at the Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons, Las Vegas Raiders and Miami Dolphins and you can plainly see the troubles that come with failing to get the quarterback position right.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. - NOVEMBER 2025: Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy (9) walks off the field at the end of the game at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minn., on Sunday, November 16, 2025. Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears. (Photo by Carlos Gonzalez/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Vikings Got It Most Wrong

Let's consider the Vikings first, because they are the team that parlayed the biggest opportunity to make their quarterback situation right before they got it so horribly wrong – at least in the short term.

The opportunities the Vikings had to combine what is otherwise a playoff-caliber roster with a good QB decision were the most of any team in the NFL looking to make a choice last offseason.

It's well chronicled the Vikings could have re-signed Sam Darnold, or kept Daniel Jones on the promise of letting him compete for a starting job. They even could have added Aaron Rodgers in free agency. 

And faced with all those possibilities, the Vikings decided their starter must be second-year quarterback J.J. McCarthy no matter what. 

Except McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season with an injury, struggled as the starter. Then got hurt. Then returned and has continued to struggle.

So the Vikings could have driven a Cadillac but picked a Kia instead.

Vikings Extended Family Feud

What happens after that failed decision is a team that won 14 games last season has sunk to last place in the NFC North. 

Suddenly, coach Kevin O'Connell, who had a reputation as a quarterback whisperer, and general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who seemed to do no wrong adding quarterbacks to the roster, look foolish having picked the unproven McCarthy over everybody else.

And, in-fighting has resulted. After McCarthy struggled against the Bears on Sunday, with the exception of a couple of series late, pundit Sam Acho pointed out how McCarthy rallied.

Hall of Famer receiver Cris Carter responded, "Did you watch the first 59 minutes? 👎"

To which Greg Holcomb, who has been McCarthy's personal QB coach for years, responded by calling Carter "a F'kn clown."

CINCINNATI, OHIO - OCTOBER 26: Justin Fields #7 of the New York Jets passes the ball against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter in the game at Paycor Stadium on October 26, 2025 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

Jets Not A-Justin

Moving to the Jets: On Tuesday, multiple media outlets reported coach Aaron Glenn has decided to bench Justin Fields and start Tyrod Taylor on Sunday against the Ravens.

This decision has been weeks in the making and confirms Fields has little future in New York after signing a two-year contract worth $40 million in the offseason. If this doesn't confirm Fields isn't long for the Jets, maybe the owner throwing Fields under the bus weeks ago did.

The Jets, you should know, released Rodgers before signing Fields. And a very smart dude questioned the trade-off when the Jets made it in March.

So here's what happens next: If the Jets cut Fields next offseason they may have to absorb a cap charge as high as $22 million for the privilege of not having him on the team. 

Rodgers And Fields Costly To Jets

Combine that with the $35 million cap charge they're already going to carry for Rodgers and this team could potentially be on the hook for $57 million for two quarterbacks, neither of whom are the answers in 2026 or beyond.

That takes some kind of disastrous work to get multiple big-money quarterback decisions wrong.

Speaking of getting big investments wrong: I present the Atlanta Falcons.

Last year they signed Kirk Cousins to a $180 million free agent contract. And weeks later they invested the No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft to select Michael Penix Jr.

The Falcons thought themselves really, really smart doubling down on quarterback talent that cost a lot in cash and draft resources. 

Except Cousins was always good, but not great and he was less than that as the Falcons starter through last November. So the Falcons benched Cousins and inserted Penix Jr.

Dec 8, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Atlanta Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins (18) throws a pass against the Minnesota Vikings during the second quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Penix Nor Cousins Have Been An Answer

Cool? No, because Penix Jr. came to the team with a history of reconstructive knee surgeries. 

And here we are 11 games into his first season as a full-time starter and Penix Jr. is out at least the next four weeks and likely done for the season with, of course, a left knee ligament injury.

So the Falcons thought they had multiple great answers for their starting QB question, but haven't solved the problem as they pivot back to Cousins, whose play has been substandard.

Amid all that, the worst quarterback situation is often one that was originally painted as an answer.

And that's where we find the Cardinals with Kyler Murray, the Dolphins with Tua Tagovailoa and the Raiders with Geno Smith.

All three teams gave the starters big contracts that spoke to the teams' faith and trust they had the starters for the future.

It hasn't worked out.

HENDERSON, NEVADA - APRIL 07: Quarterback Geno Smith is introduced at the Las Vegas Raiders Headquarters/Intermountain Healthcare Performance Center on April 07, 2025 in Henderson, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Geno Smith: Blame Me

Murray is on injured reserve after playing unremarkably earlier this season. And Tagovailoa is tied for the league lead in interceptions with Smith. There has been no grand dividend on the investments.

All three teams are under .500 this year. All three quarterbacks have come under withering criticism about their play and whether they can recover the level they had before they got paid. They've even gotten ripped for saying bizarre things in their press conferences.

"I keep saying this," Smith said after Monday night's blowout loss to the Dallas Cowboys, "if something doesn't look right, blame it on me … If your kids mess up at school, blame it on me. If your car breaks down going to work, blame it on me."

This is not to say Murray, Tagovailoa and Smith are the biggest question marks on their teams. But that's not the point with players who are paid to be answers.