The NFL’s free agency period is under two weeks away. Pending free agents can kick-start negotiations with other teams beginning on March 9 and all signings and trades can become official at the start of the new league year on March 11.
Naturally, the quarterback position will garner plenty of attention across the next two weeks given the thin crop of first-round-caliber passers in the 2026 NFL Draft. This offseason’s free agency class of quarterbacks is intriguing in that many of the top options come with their own set of question marks to sort through.
Let’s take a look at the top five unrestricted free agent quarterbacks set to become available along with their possible team fits/landing spots, contract projections and a prediction of where they will end up.
Quarterback’s listed ages are as of Sept. 9, the start of the 2026 NFL season, and seasons of experience include the 2026 season.
5. Marcus Mariota
Age: 32 | Season: 12th | Current Team: Washington Commanders
The former second overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft has seen it all in his NFL career. He entered the league anointed as the Tennessee Titans’ franchise savior. He earned a second chance at being a full-time NFL starter with the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 before returning to life as a journeyman, backup quarterback/spot starter. Mariota was steady when filling in for the injured Jayden Daniels with the Washington Commanders in 2025, throwing for 1,602 yards passing (200.3 passing yards per game), 10 passing touchdowns and five interceptions for a passer rating of 91.3.
The New York Jets make plenty of sense for Mariota. As the owners of the 2026 NFL Draft’s second overall pick, they’ll likely just miss out on Indiana Hoosiers’ Heisman Trophy-winning, national champion quarterback Fernando Mendoza. However, the Jets could be a team on the rise with that No. 2 overall pick and four of the top 44 picks in the 2026 draft. They need a capable body who can come out and start most of the games in another rebuilding year after having three passers start at least four games for them in 2025. Following Justin Fields’ flameout in which he averaged a career-worst 6.2 yards per pass attempt, Mariota can be a decent enough passer to continue the growth of Garrett Wilson and others on New York’s offense. However, he won’t be good enough to elevate them out of having another high pick in 2027, which is the perfect time for the Jets to make their move to acquire a legitimate passing prospect. New York will have three first-round picks this time next year.
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4. Joe Flacco
Age: 41 | Season: 19th | Current Team: Cincinnati Bengals
Joe Flacco helped keep the Bengals’ offense afloat, for the most part, when Joe Burrow was sidelined with a turf toe injury in 2026. He helped Ja’Marr Chase set Cincinnati’s single-game catches record, connecting with him 16 times for 161 yards and a touchdown on 23 targets in a 33-31 home win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on “Thursday Night Football.” Flacco doesn’t have a lot of gas left in his tank at 41 years old, but he could be a solid spot starter on a team with weapons like he was last year.
The Atlanta Falcons fit that criteria with 2025 first-team All-Pro running back Bijan Robinson, 2025 second-team All-Pro tight end Kyle Pitts (set to be franchise-tagged) and former top 10 pick wide receiver Drake London. Plus, Flacco already knows new Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski’s playbook from his multiple tours of duty with him on the Cleveland Browns. With Michael Penix Jr. suffering a torn ACL in Week 11 against the Carolina Panthers, he might not be ready to start the 2026 season. That could lead to Flacco beginning the year as Atlanta’s Week 1 starting quarterback with the franchise expected to release Kirk Cousins.
3. Aaron Rodgers
Age: 42 | Season: 22nd | Current Team: Pittsburgh Steelers
If Aaron Rodgers decides to play football in 2025, the NFL’s all-time passer rating leader (102.2) will likely have two options he’ll legitimately consider: return to the Pittsburgh Steelers to reunite with his former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, or serve as a one-year, stop gap starter ahead of J.J. McCarthy with the Minnesota Vikings.
McCarthy’s 2025 season was so rough — ranking dead last in the NFL in completion percentage (57.6%), touchdown to interception ratio (11-12) and passer rating (72.6) — that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah lost his job as general manager just a year after inking a multiyear contract extension with Minnesota. Who better for McCarthy to learn from in an NFL gap year of sorts than the league’s all-time leader in touchdown to interception ratio (4.3, 527-123) in Rodgers? Rodgers will also be able to pick up head coach Kevin O’Connell’s playbook quickly after playing for Matt LaFleur in his last four seasons with the Green Bay Packers. Both O’Connell and LaFleur worked as offensive coordinators with the Los Angeles Rams under Sean McVay.
2. Malik Willis
Age: 27 | Season: 5th | Current Team: Green Bay Packers
Malik Willis is the mystery box of the 2026 free agent quarterback class. He only threw 89 passes for the Green Bay Packers when starter Jordan Love was injured, but he was incredibly efficient on those throws, especially when going deep. Willis hit on 13 of his 16 throws of 20-plus air yards across the last two seasons for 456 yards and a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Overall, he completed a whopping 79% of his 89 passes (70 for 89) while averaging 10.9 yards per pass attempt and producing six passing touchdowns to no interceptions. That’s good for a sparkling 134.6 passer rating.
In his one start of 2025 in Week 17, he lit up the Baltimore Ravens for 288 yards passing and a touchdown on 18 of 21 passing while also rushing for 60 yards and two touchdowns. That stat line gave Willis the most passing yards per attempt (13.7) by any quarterback with at least 50 rushing yards in a game in the past 50 seasons, minimum 20 passes thrown per CBS Sports Research.
After flaming out as a 2022 third-round pick of the Tennessee Titans and then rising again while learning from Matt LaFleur and Love in Green Bay, Willis is ready for another chance at being an NFL starting quarterback. The Pittsburgh Steelers would make plenty of sense given their cap situation (39.3 million in effective cap space, the eighth-most in the NFL per OverTheCap.com) and their offensive ecosystem. New head coach Mike McCarthy helped develop Aaron Rodgers into a Super Bowl MVP and multi-time league MVP, and he helped Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott evolve into being the 2023 NFL MVP runner-up after helping elevate his footwork and football IQ. Willis could raise his game as a passer in McCarthy’s West Coast offense while throwing deep to DK Metcalf, and he would give the Steelers a quarterback they could build around for years to come. That’s been missed in Pittsburgh since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
1. Daniel Jones
Age: 29 | Season: 8th | Current Team: Indianapolis Colts
Daniel Jones was playing like an early-season NFL MVP candidate for the Indianapolis Colts before a fibula injury transformed into a torn Achilles injury in Week 14. Jones produced career-highs in completion percentage (68%), passing yards per game (238.5) and yards per pass attempt (8.1) in his lone season starting for the Colts. His production played a big role in Indianapolis going all in and trading two first-round picks to the New York Jets in order to acquire All-Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner. That move pretty much forces the Colts to pay what they have to in order to retain his services because they no longer have a viable draft pathway to acquiring a young quarterback. Plus, Anthony Richardson has been unable to stay healthy as well, which is why the Colts went out and signed Jones last offseason. If Jones can stay healthy, he showed enough to indicate that he can be Indianapolis’ long-term starter under head coach Shane Steichen.
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