The veteran quarterback market has been active this NFL offseason.
Geno Smith was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders by the Seattle Seahawks, who then agreed to terms with the top free-agent quarterback, Sam Darnold. Daniel Jones, Darnold’s ex-Minnesota Vikings teammate, signed with the Indianapolis Colts on a one-year deal to compete for the starting job with Anthony Richardson. Justin Fields is going to the New York Jets.
But to Chase Daniel, co-host of FS1’s “The Facility,” the best move could still be coming.
“If Minnesota signs (Aaron) Rodgers,” Daniel told FOX Sports, “I think that’s easily the best situation for any veteran quarterback.”
An NFL passer for more than a decade himself, Daniel provided his insights on the veteran quarterback carousel to this point — and what could still happen — with the league awaiting free-agent news on Rodgers and Russell Wilson.
How would you assess the QB moves to this point?
Daniel: “It’s pretty interesting, right? What’s crazy is that I never would have thought last year — at the beginning of the year — that the whole domino and this whole quarterback conversation would be Sam Darnold. Like, ‘Sam Darnold, what’s he doing? Where’s he going? How much is he getting paid?’ That’s crazy, but rightfully so, because he played really well last year: 4,300 yards, 35 touchdowns. And then him going to Seattle was a little bit surprising to me, especially because they traded DK Metcalf and they cut Tyler Lockett. They have JSN (Jaxon Smith-Njigba). That’s great, but they don’t have a lot of offensive line help. Just sort of tells me that Minnesota didn’t want to pay Darnold what his value is worth. So I like it … just not a lot of weapons around him.
“Then the next full domino is Justin Fields, who goes to the Jets. I like it. It’s too much money (two years, $40 million) to turn down. He’s got a full runway to be the starter. And I do think that’s awesome. I do think that they can win some games. Is this a franchise quarterback signing? No. It’s a ‘Let’s have Justin until we can find our franchise quarterback’ (move).
“And then you have Daniel Jones with a $14 million deal with the Colts. Like, what?
“And the last two people are potentially two Hall of Famers in Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, who don’t have a team yet. No one would have thought this would’ve happened. And the whole reason why all this is happening, and why you’re seeing some of these quarterbacks that maybe you wouldn’t think get a job elsewhere, is that I don’t think teams believe in the top two quarterbacks in this year’s draft. And that’s Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders. So teams are sort of telling you what they think about these guys.”
Should Russell Wilson sign with the Browns or Giants?
Which of these veteran QB moves has been the best? What about the worst?
Daniel: “If Minnesota signs Rodgers, I think that’s easily the best situation for any veteran quarterback. And the Vikings are sort of caught with their pants down a little bit because they tried to re-sign Daniel Jones. I’m not exactly sure if J.J. McCarthy is the guy just yet. I think that could end up being the best.
I think a good one is the Jets with Justin Fields. … I was with that offensive coordinator, Tanner Engstrand, in Detroit, where he was an offensive quality (coach). I saw the qualities that he had. He’s coming over running a spread offense. This is the first time really in Justin Fields’ career that he can have an offensive coordinator build an offense around him. We never saw it in Chicago. We didn’t see it in Pittsburgh. I like that move a lot.
Did the Jets make a smart move by signing Justin Fields?
“The Seahawks are a puzzling situation because you trade away, in my opinion, probably a better quarterback because you didn’t want to pay him $10 million more a year. He still got you 10 wins, almost made the playoffs, and then you trade away your best receiver. It’s just a defensive head coach (Mike Macdonald) that makes a little bit of a puzzling move in free agency that I’m just not super on board with yet.”
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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