QB crowded NFL camps are talk of the town
NFL Notebook
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EAGAN, Minn. -- The quarterback position took even more heat -- and hits -- than usual last season around the NFL.
Ill-timed injuries to Daniel Jones, Patrick Mahomes and Bo Nix left their teams in the lurch. Joe Burrow, Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson had trouble staying healthy. Others once targeted and trained as franchise players were either sidetracked or discarded, as J.J. McCarthy, Kyler Murray, Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa found themselves on insecure ground.
Training camps always present a fresh start. Jones, Mahomes and Nix have been cleared for full activity, stabilizing or energizing the huddle in Indianapolis, Kansas City and Denver. Cincinnati, Washington and Baltimore are plenty happy to turn anew to Burrow, Daniels and Jackson. Murray (Minnesota) and Tagovailoa (Atlanta) flew to new places for welcomed scenery changes.
After all 32 reset buttons have been pushed, though, a handful of teams have reported with varying levels of intrigue and scrutiny surrounding the most important position on the field. Here's a closer look at the camps where there's either a legitimate competition for the season-opening starter or a measure of uncertainty:
Since Cleveland got its NFL team back in 1999, the Browns have made the playoffs just three times -- and won only one postseason game. There's no arguing the connection to the perpetually shuffling depth chart at quarterback, with 42 different starters over those first 27 years.
Atlanta had a hot seat on the offseason quarterback carousel, cutting Kirk Cousins to clear salary cap space after two unfulfilling seasons and signing Tua Tagovailoa after Miami dumped him and ate a record $99 million in dead money against the cap.
Cousins' status immediately got complicated when the Falcons drafted Penix eighth overall in 2024, who is coming off a knee injury.
Penix had not yet been cleared for full-team work when the Falcons were last on the field at minicamp, so health and experience make Tagovailoa the front-runner for the job, though new head coach Kevin Stefanski has publicly declared this an open competition.
J.J. McCarthy struggled with consistency and injuries that further hindered his opportunities to learn and improve in his debut with the Vikings last season, so the club reopened the search this year and found Murray available for the veteran minimum salary.
The Vikings have not given up on McCarthy, the 10th overall pick in the 2024 draft, and they'll split turns with the first team offense at least for the early stage of training camp. But if Murray is healthy, after spraining his foot last season and missing time between 2022-23 to recover from knee surgery, he's the clear favorite.
The Dolphins didn't give $45 million guaranteed to Malik Willis for him to take turns. Their new leadership from Green Bay -- general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley -- became enamored with the 27-year-old over his two seasons as backup for the Packers.
With only three starts over the last three years, plus three more as a rookie with Tennessee in 2022, however, Willis is unquestionably unproven. Quinn Ewers took over for a struggling Tagovailoa and made three starts late last season, and the 2025 seventh-round draft pick performed well during spring practice sessions to present a potential alternative should the Dolphins need to consider one.
After moving on from Murray, the Cardinals landed on this short list of quarterback uncertainty -- until satisfying veteran front-runner Jacoby Brissett with a new contract and formalizing his place atop the depth chart on Sunday. Fellow journeyman Gardner Minshew and third-round draft pick Carson Beck are waiting behind him in case a significant injury or costly interceptions were to give new head coach Mike LaFleur pause at some point this season.
Brissett, who's in his 11th year in the NFL, started 12 games last season after Murray's injury. He passed for a career-high 3,366 yards, but Arizona finished 3-14. After switching teams five times in five years, Brissett has stayed put for the first time since a four-season stint with Indianapolis. He was the starter for the Colts in 2017 and 2019. Minshew, who's on his sixth team in eight years in the league, was the primary starter for the Colts in 2023 after replacing then-rookie Anthony Richardson.
The best long-term outlook of the group clearly belongs to Las Vegas after taking Heisman Trophy and national championship winner Fernando Mendoza with the first pick in the draft. The Raiders under new head coach Klint Kubiak also brought in a sturdy bridge to that bright future by signing Cousins to help ease the rookie in.
Cousins is on top of the depth chart to start camp and the favorite to lead the Las Vegas offense in the opener, which would stop a streak of six straight quarterbacks drafted No. 1 overall starting their season opener -- following Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow and Murray. Baker Mayfield in 2018 with the Browns was the last quarterback who didn't start his first game as the first overall pick.
Elsewhere:
– The Minnesota Vikings suspended defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander for three weeks without pay following a drunken driving charge for an incident in April. Alexander's suspension will be in effect until Aug. 13. That's two days before their first preseason game. Hennepin County court records show Alexander pled guilty July 16 to a gross misdemeanor charge of third degree driving while impaired. He was arrested at about 4 a.m. on April 26 after his vehicle was stopped in the middle of an intersection in a Minneapolis suburb. A police officer found him unresponsive and witnessed him failing field sobriety tests.
– The Philadelphia Eagles are set to make two-time Pro Bowl selection Jalen Carter the highest-paid defensive tackle in NFL history, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The sides announced that they agreed to terms on a four-year extension through the 2031 season. The contract includes $106 million guaranteed. Carter has 13.5 sacks in 43 career games and was crucial in the Eagles' Super Bowl win in the 2024 season.
– Denzel Ward agreed to a two-year extension with the Cleveland Browns that will make him the highest-paid defensive back in the NFL, a person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. The five-time Pro Brown cornerback, 29, will sign a two-year extension worth $62.2 million -- including $52.3 million guaranteed. The $31.1 million average surpasses the $31 million average when Trent McDuffie signed a four-year, $124 million contract with the Los Angeles Rams after being traded by Kansas City in March.