There are going to be some veteran passers available this offseason. Let's make the case for three of them to remain starters in the NFL. The three QBs we're going to talk about here are Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins. All three are very likely not returning to their 2024 team.
And it was a short tenure for each QB on this team. It's the previous generation of QBs hitting the very tail-end of their careers, and it's actually kind of sad when you think about it. The prime eras of Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers were truly something, and even Kirk Cousins himself was pretty darn good when he was at his best.
Well, there could be a case for all three QBs to still be starting on a team in the 2025 NFL Season. Let's make the case for all three passers.
2025 NFL Offseason: Making the case for 3 notable QBs to remain starters
Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Rodgers came back from a torn Achilles and played in all 17 games for the New York Jets in 2024. However, the Jets will be moving on. The one thing to note here is that while Rodgers is clearly not his old self, he has still been modestly effective over the last two full seasons he played. In 2024, he put up 28 touchdowns against 11 interceptions for a 90.5 passer rating, which is solid.
He completed 63% of his passes. From Week 8 through the end of the 2024 NFL Season, Aaron Rodgers actually threw 18 touchdowns against four interceptions for a 97 passer rating.
For that 10-game stretch, Rodgers was playing at a 31/7 TD:INT pace over a 17-game season. There was a clear stretch in the back-half of the 2024 NFL Season where Rodgers was playing at a pretty high level, which is notable. Some team has to be looking at the second half of his season and perhaps rightly assuming that he was also getting back to 'normal' from his torn Achilles.
Usually, the further out someone gets from the recovery, the more 'normal' they get. This seems to be the case for Aaron Rodgers. He is one of the 32 best QBs in the NFL right now, and some team will sign him for a year.
Russell Wilson
Russell Wilson has now been on three teams over the span of four seasons. The former Super Bowl champion is washed up, unfortunately, and what he cannot do as a QB is becoming more maginified as he gets older and slower. For most of his career, Russell Wilson has never been a QB who can play on time and in rhythm.
The dropback passing game has not been what he does the best. What made Russell Wilson into an all-time great for about a decade with the Seattle Seahawks was the off-script QB play and him being truly legendary with the deep ball. It was a lot of play-action passing. Russell Wilson was able to play at such a high level for about 10 years.
And when he was in his mid-30s, that's when the regression began. He was efficient on paper in 2023 with the Denver Broncos. His passer rating was 98, but the Broncos passing game was inconsistent, as Wilson was not able to work the intermediate or middle parts of the field, which is crucial for an NFL-caliber passing game.
He then signed on with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and we saw more of the same. The Steelers were not as good of a situation as the Denver Broncos were in 2023, so Wilson simply didn't play as well. However, since the start of the 2023 NFL Season, Russell Wilson has a 13-13 record. He's thrown for 42 touchdowns against 13 interceptions.
That's good for a 97 passer rating. He's completed 65.3% of his passes during this stretch. Like Aaron Rodgers, you can see that something is just barely still there, and with how hard it is to find efficient QB play in the NFL, Russell Wilson still may be one of the 32 best in the NFL.
A team like the New York Giants or Las Vegas Raiders who may need a one-year rental should look to sign Russell Wilson.
Kirk Cousins
Kirk Cousins was on pace to have the best year of his career back in 2023 with the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings and Cousins parted ways following 2023. The veteran QB signed a four-year, $180 million deal with the Atlanta Falcons, and about halfway through the season this past year, things were looking great.
However, it felt like Cousins was declining right before our eyes, but the type of QB he plays his one that can be successful late into the 30s and even into the 40s. The big issue with Cousins was the torn Achilles back in 2023, and the fact that he seemed to go backwards with his production. He got worse as the season went on.
If you ask me, Kirk Cousins still has plenty left in the tank - he'll be another year removed from the Achilles tear, and he's a pocket passer, so he won't need to be super mobile anyway. Kirk Cousins had a 103.8 passer rating in 2023 with the Vikings and was completing nearly 70% of his passes.
He was completing 66.9% of his passes in 2024 with the Falcons, and from Week 1 through Week 9 of this past year, Cousins threw for 17 touchdown passes against seven interceptions for a solid 101.9 passer rating.
Kirk Cousins was also on pace to throw for well over 4,000 yards. Historically, there haven't been many QBs of the 21st century who have been this efficient for this long in the NFL. Kirk Cousins has a career passer rating of 97.4, throwing for 288 touchdowns against just 126 interceptions.
This is still an efficient player at the QB position. Perhaps this was just a rough patch for Cousins. Let's not pretend that other QBs have not gone through something like this before. A team like the Cleveland Browns could use Cousins for a year - Kirk Cousins would reunite with Kevin Stefanski. The QB will also not be too expensive on the open market, and with the Browns dealing with Deshaun Watson's contract, a cheap option for a year like Kirk Cousins makes a lot of sense.
There you have it; we made the case for Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins in 2025.