No trade for Matthew Stafford, Rams announce QB will stay in Los Angeles
USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon discusses the news that Matthew Stafford will not be traded this season and instead return to the Los Angeles Rams.
Sports Pulse
With Super Bowl 59 now well in the rearview mirror, all 32 NFL teams are shifting their focus to the 2025 season. That will require many teams to re-evaluate what they’re doing at the most important position on the field.
Numerous teams across the NFL will be looking to make changes at the quarterback position. The Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants, New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans represent just a handful of the NFL teams that could end up with new starting signal-callers in 2025.
NFL free agency will begin to give fans an idea of how exactly the league’s quarterback landscape looks and which teams might look to eschew veteran starters for a chance at a top prospect in the 2025 NFL draft.
Several proven quarterbacks and long-time starters are set to be free agents in 2025. Here’s a look at the top free-agent quarterbacks of the 2025 offseason.
Rodgers hasn’t yet been released by the Jets, but he will be in advance of the 2025 league year. The four-time MVP is coming off a rocky two-year stint with the Jets but still posted solid numbers in 2024, completing 63% of his passes for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
Rodgers, 41, profiles as a strong bridge quarterback. He should garner plenty of interest from quarterback-needy teams given the 2025 NFL draft is considered weak at the position.
Darnold is coming off a career-best season in Minnesota that saw him lead the Vikings to a 14-3 record while completing 66.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards, 35 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His 102.5 passer rating was easily the best of his career and ranked sixth-best in the NFL.
While Darnold enjoyed a great season, he faltered in Minnesota’s final two games. He completed just 43 of 81 passes (53.1%) for 411 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception across those contests and led the Vikings to just 9 points in each game. That will drive the 27-year-old’s value down slightly, though he still figures to land a starting job in 2025.
Fields started the Steelers’ first six games as Russell Wilson recovered from a calf injury. The fourth-year pro posted a winning record for the first time in his career (4-2) but ceded the job back to Wilson once the veteran was healthy.
Fields remains a dynamic runner – he is one of just three quarterbacks in NFL history to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season, alongside Michael Vick and Lamar Jackson – and completed a career-high 65.8% of his passes in 2025. The 2021 first-round pick turns 26 on the eve of free agency and could continue to grow and develop as a starter.
Wilson went 6-1 in his first seven starts with the Steelers and appeared en route to a bounce-back season. However, the 36-year-old struggled down the stretch, losing his last five starts during which his team averaged a paltry 12.2 points per game.
Still, Wilson has a Super Bowl ring, is a 10-time Pro Bowler and posted a winning record (6-5) despite his late-season struggles. That will be enough to make him a low-end, stopgap starter candidate.
Jones largely struggled across his five-year stint with the New York Giants, but his 2022 season inspired hope he could develop into a solid starter. He completed 67.2% of his passes for 3,205 yards, 15 touchdowns and five interceptions during that season while adding 708 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
Jones has struggled to replicate that performance since and was released by the Giants late in the second half of the 2024 NFL season after posting a 2-8 record. His turnover issues (47 interceptions, 50 fumbles across 70 games) remain problematic, but perhaps his brief stint with Kevin O’Connell’s Vikings unlocked his untapped potential.
With Darnold potentially leaving in free agency, the Vikings may want to see if O’Connell can continue to mold Jones in 2025. The soon-to-be 28-year-old would provide the team with a solid bridge to 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, who missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury.
Mariota didn’t play a lot in 2024, but he showed why he was once the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NFL draft. The 31-year-old completed 34 of 44 passes (77.3%) in relief of Jayden Daniels and notched 364 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions while adding 92 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.
Mariota’s success may have been a product of Kliff Kingsbury’s quarterback-friendly system. It also could be a sign that the 10-year veteran finally put everything together after struggling to stay healthy for several seasons. Either way, his athleticism, accuracy and leadership skills make him a high-quality backup in whom several contenders and quarterback-needy teams should be interested.
Brissett is an experienced backup quarterback with 53 touchdowns to just 24 interceptions across 53 career starts. His 19-34 record won’t impress many, but the 32-year-old simply doesn’t turn the ball over, as he is tied with Rodgers for the lowest interception percentage (1.4%) among qualified passers in NFL history.
Brissett, 32, completed just 59% of his passes for 826 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in five starts for the Patriots last season. He needs a better supporting cast to find success as a fill-in starter, so his best role is likely as a backup quarterback on a playoff contender.
Consider Winston the anti-Brissett. The 2015 No. 1 pick is more explosive as a passer but has struggled during his career with turnovers. He continued his roller-coaster performance in 2024 with the Browns, completing 61.1% of his passes for 2,121 yards, 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
Perhaps no game is a better microcosm of the Winston experience than his performance in a 41-32 “Monday Night Football” loss to the Denver Broncos in 2024. Winston threw for 497 yards and four touchdowns in that high-scoring game. However, the 31-year-old also threw three interceptions, including a back-breaking pick-six with the Browns trailing by 2 points in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
With that in mind, contending teams may not be willing to trust Winston as a backup given his gunslinger mentality. He’s a better fit for a team needing some excitement and veteran leadership in its quarterback room.
In 14 career starts, Rush has a 9-5 record and has completed 60.7% of his passes for 3,463 yards, 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He is a steady backup, and while he occasionally struggles against top-tier defenses, he has generally proven that he can keep a solid roster competitive. That makes him a strong backup despite his lack of mobility.
Wentz is now 32, so his chances of repeating the success he had in 2017 when he finished third in the NFL MVP voting, have all but evaporated. Still, he has made 94 career starts and has a 47-46-1 record with 153 touchdowns and 67 interceptions. He can be a decent fill-in, and his last two seasons of work alongside Andy Reid and Sean McVay should make him one of the more intriguing journeyman signal-callers available.
