18. Washington Commanders (Daniels, Mariota, Kaliakmanis)
Just about everything went wrong for the Washington Commanders in the 2025 season. Jayden Daniels was only on the field for seven starts, so we saw a lot of Marcus Mariota last year. Mariota is a fine backup and is honestly one of the better backups in the NFL. He does have a solid track record of production as a starter and is no slouch.
However, Daniels playing less than half the time in 2025 is a cause for concern. If this is the beginning of an injury history, the Commanders are in trouble, and no matter how good your backup is, no team is going to sustain winning when the starter is out for this long.
Ideally, Daniels gets back on the field for all 17 games, and Washington can then feel comfortable about investing in him for the long-term. Mariota's spot as a backup does provide some optimism that he can get the team a win or two if Daniels misses a game here and there.
17. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Mayfield, Browning, Bazelak)
Baker Mayfield and Jake Browning highlight the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback room, coming in at No. 17 in our power rankings. Mayfield and the Buccaneers' offense had a down year in 2025, but when Mayfield is playing at his best, there really arean't many passers who are better.
Jake Browning is a functional, trustworthy backup, and this room as a whole just isn't a major issue for the team right now. The main issue for the Bucs has been a limited ceiling and some poor coaching.
If this team can't get back to that 10-ish win tier in 2026, while also capturing the NFC South title, there could be some major changes made. Mayfield is good enough for this to happen, as he was playing out of his mind as recently as the 2024 season.
16. Houston Texans (Stroud, Mills, Mertz)
CJ Stroud and Davis Mills form a solid quarterback duo. Mills is a good backup who went 3-0 in relief of Stroud during the 2025 season, and that's honestly more than you'd ask for from your QB2. Unfortunately, Stroud has been rather average these past two seasons, so the low-ish spot in this ranking is primarily because of that, but as a pure backup quarterback, Mills' standing in a backup quarterback ranking would be a lot higher than No. 16.
The Texans are getting us to the halfway point in our quarterback room power rankings.
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