Top five quarterback situations in the NFL right now

As the name might suggest already, this is not just a ranking of the five best quarterbacks in the league, but instead, it includes the entire depth chart of each team. So as good as Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson have been, they won’t appear here since I don’t think Tim Boyle or Geno Smith should put them in the conversation. Instead, some other teams might not field one of the elite signal-callers in the game, but their group of three gives them the edge.

While I didn't mean to exclude teams with only two QBs on the roster, it worked itself out that all of them carried three.

#1 New Orleans Saints

After going back and forth, I ended up giving the New Orlean Saints the top spot here. While you can certainly question Drew Brees’ lack of arm strength down the road last year, he has looked almost flawless in the only two games he started this year and that rest he got might even help him down the stretch. Filling in for him was Teddy Bridgewater, who I was convinced with early on since Sean Payton did not ask him to push the ball downfield at all, but improved with every start. And then New Orleans has their version of Mr. Do-It-All in Taysom Hill, who they put in on special teams and run certain packages with, but can also flat out play quarterback if you give him the chance to.

The only reason I didn’t immediately go with the Saints number one is that they will probably lose Teddy for nothing, since he will get 20-25 million dollars per year in free agency, and that Drew is 40 years old. So Hill might actually be the long-term solution if Drew decides to stick around for another year and they can't retain Teddy, which could be pretty good for them down the road from what I have seen from him in limited preseason action.

#2 Carolina Panthers

The team I thought was really close to the Saints were their division rival Carolina Panthers. While it looked like one of the worst QB situations at the start of the year with Cam Newton looking like a shell of himself coming off shoulder surgery in the offseason and nobody with any real experience behind him, nobody might be set up better for the future in terms of different options than this group.

Kyle Allen has been excellent taking over for Cam, going 5-1 as a starter with some big-time throws and consistent play on a run-first offense. I am also very high on their third-round pick Will Grier, who I had as my 75th overall prospect coming out of West Virginia. The confidence he plays with and how tough he is to put hands on inside the pocket make him a great developmental player. And then there’s Cam, who I have been critical of a lot in recent years and hasn’t looked like the MVP he is, but still has all the tools that made him one. With him headed to IR and his status still being up in the air to some degree, Carolina “only” landed at number two.

#3 Baltimore Ravens

One of the crews I don’t hear a lot of people talk about is in Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens never used to carry three quarterbacks when Joe Flacco was still that sturdy, yet inconsistent presence.

Lamar Jackson is the most exciting player to watch in football right now. His passing skills and command of the offense is vastly improved and just doesn’t give a damn who he is playing. Robert Griffin III has looked great in limited action these last two years and has certainly helped Lamar not get onto the same tracks as he did after that phenomenal rookie years. And the third guy is sixth-round pick Trace McSorley. He was a true gamer at Penn State, who can do a lot of the same stuff from an athletic perspective as those other guys can. He is pretty small and still needs time to learn, but you can do far worse as your QB3 than this young man, who earns crumbs. So they are set up pretty well for now and the future.

#4 Jacksonville Jaguars

Last week when I picked my midseason NFL award winners, I mentioned Gardner Minshew as one of my candidates for Offensive Rookie of the Year. He had been outstanding for the Jacksonville Jaguars up to last weekend’s London game against the Texans, where he ended the contest with four straight turnovers.

Of course, everybody jumps on that performance, but before that game, he was 4-3 as a starter with 12 touchdowns compared to one pick. However, it is all coming together somehow for Nick Foles to enter the action in the role he plays best – coming off the bench and going on a run, now in the AFC where that race for the second wildcard spot at least is wide open. Joshua Dobbs also deserves to be mentioned here. The former fourth-round pick by the Steelers is a former rocket science student with a rocket arm, who flashed every once in a while in Pittsburgh.

#5 San Francisco 49ers

Rounding out the top five are the San Francisco 49ers, who many would have picked as the worst QB situation in the league just two years ago. They traded for Jimmy Garoppolo midseason and ended up winning their final five games after going 1-10 up to that point. Being picked as a darkhorse team last year, Jimmy tore his ACL early on and had several mediocre showing to start 2019.

In last week’s Thursday Night game at Arizona he, finally showed that he can take over games if the run game can’t get going. With how the market has evolved, that 100-million dollar contract doesn’t look that huge any more and they have him secured until 2022 now. Nick Mullens had that incredible debut against the Raiders last season when nobody even knew who he was, and multiple teams inquired about him at the trade deadline accordingly. Finally, San Francisco was competitive in all but one of C.J. Beathard’s five starts last season. The former third-round pick out of Iowa has been at least serviceable for them in a backup role.