NFL Trade Rumors
In the NFL, it all comes back to the quarterback in the end. This is a list of the last 10 Super Bowl champion quarterbacks:
It’s a pretty elite list of names. You could go back another decade and the same pattern would hold. Even the outliers — Foles, Darnold, etc — earned a ring because they played like the elite-level passers for a stretch. Foles infamously outdueled Brady in the Super Bowl, while Darnold was top ten or top five in most major passing categories in 2025. Championship teams can be built in a variety of ways, but the common ingredient is always a quarterback who makes plays when needed.
That’s why teams invest so many resources in chasing the possibility of a franchise quarterback. It’s also why we find it worthwhile every year around this time to spin things forward and look at which quarterbacks could be on the move next offseason.
Teams are becoming more and more aggressive in general with roster movement, and that has led to some big-time quarterback trades and signings since the turn of the decade. Brady left the Patriots in free agency to sign with the Buccaneers. There have been enormous blockbuster trades for guys like Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson and others. A healthy market for reclamation projects and castoffs has also developed, with Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith, Darnold and plenty more going from bust to quality starter. And of course, there’s still the draft, which used to be the only way to reliably find a long-term starter but remains an alluring way to hit it big with a young starter on a cost-controlled contract.
All these avenues have run shallow the last couple of years, with weak draft classes and warty veterans. But 2027 has the potential to be absolutely massive in terms of quarterback movement. There is a scenario in which half of the league either has a new starting quarterback or drafts a new quarterback of the future in 2027. Even if that lofty projection falls short, there should be plenty of fireworks.
Here’s a closer look:
The first step in this annual exercise to figure out which teams might be in the quarterback market is to group all 32-plus passers into buckets. The teams lucky enough to have franchise quarterbacks are obviously not going to be looking to add. That’s just a small minority of squads, though.
There’s also an investment factor. Teams that have sunk a big contract or premium draft pick into a quarterback will probably need a lot to push them to move on. It’s not impossible, as we saw the Dolphins and the Cardinals both eat a huge chunk of dead money to part ways with veterans this past offseason, but it’s a mitigating factor.
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