NFL Power Rankings: Ranking projected starting quarterbacks for 2026 season

With the 2025 NFL Season now officially over, we can turn our attention to the 2026 NFL Offseason and all the fun it will bring. In today's NFL, the quarterbacks have taken center stage, and no team is going to consistently win without strong quarterback play, period.

We'll see many teams across the league get aggressive at the quarterback position this offseason, for better or for worse. In some instances, the offseason quarterback decisions end up working out, but others just blow up in a team's face, kind of like the Russell Wilson trade by the Denver Broncos back in 2022, for example.

Ahead of what promises to be a wild offseason, let's power rank all 32 projected starting passers for the 2026 season. We'll do a bit of predicting here as well and take a stab at predicting quarterback trades and also making rankings based on the potential 2026 production.

Power ranking all projected starting QBs for the 2026 NFL Season

Unranked - Fernando Mendoza, Las Vegas Raiders

Fernando Mendoza is very likely getting dradted by the Las Vegas Raiders and will surely emerge as the team's Week 1 starter, but he's not yet taken a snap in the NFL, so instead of ranking him 32nd, we'll do a much more fair 'unranked' spot for the time being.

31. Shedeur Sanders, Cleveland Browns

Shedeur Sanders ended the year as the starter for the Cleveland Browns, but he truly didn't play well. It's hard to see how Sanders makes it as a franchise quarterback, and he might not even be backup material if his rookie season tells us anything.

30. JJ McCarthy, Minnesota Vikings

At the moment, JJ McCarthy has to be seen as the leader in the clubhouse to start for the Minnesota Vikings in 2026. He did have an encouraging final month or so of the season, so that could bode well for his chances to breakout in 2026.

29. Kirk Cousins, Arizona Cardinals (Projected signing)

When the Atlanta Falcons officially move on from Kirk Cousins, one of the only spots he may actually be able to start for a team would be the Arizona Cardinals, a team very likely moving on from Kyler Murray in some capacity this offseason. Cousins probably has a bit left in the tank, but it can't be more than a year or two.

28. Michael Penix Jr, Atlanta Falcons

Michael Penix Jr has to be the answer for the Falcons in 2026, or the team is going to face a major rebuild. He played OK in 2025 but still has much to prove, as he suffered a knee injury and could not finish the year.

27. Malik Willis, Miami Dolphins

With the Miami Dolphins expected to move on from Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason, the team will need a new starting quarterback. The Dolphins new head coach is Jeff Hafley, who recently spent time with the Green Bay Packers, where backup quarterback Malik Willis really did himself a ton of favors. Willis is going to sign a modest deal this offseason and could get, perhaps, $30 million per year on the open market.

With the obvious connection to the Dolphins with Hafley in the mix, this signing makes a lot of sense, but Willis has not had this type of success week-over-week, obviously, so we cannot rank him very high for that reason alone.

26. Bryce Young, Carolina Panthers

Bryce Young didn't really play all that well in 2025. He was thoroughly below average, but still managed to play the best football of his career. That should tell you a lot about this player going forward...

25. Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans

Cam Ward was beginning to put things together for the Tennessee Titans down the stretch in the 2025 NFL Season, and I am truly excited to see how he could breakout in 2026 with an offensive coordinator in Brian Daboll who has done this before.