Everyone is waiting for Aaron Rodgers to decide whether he wants to stay with the Green Bay Packers, move on to another club, or retire. Then the quarterback dominoes may fall. (Associated Press)

At the Combine: Veteran QB market is all talk, no action

As of Wednesday, March 2, 2022

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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.

INDIANAPOLIS

Takeaways from the NFL Combine …

All the talk about veteran quarterbacks changing teams so far has been just talk.

“There’s always some chatter,” Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht said on the first day of the NFL Combine. “There’s always some talk. It’s usually a little more talk than it is action.”

With Tom Brady retired – for now – the Buccaneers have joined the list of playoff-ready teams in the market for a quarterback.

Bucs coach Bruce Arians isn’t optimistic about speculation of Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and even Deshaun Watson becoming available anytime soon.

The second tier of quarterbacks involving Las Vegas’ Derek Carr, Minnesota’s Kirk Cousins – even Atlanta’s Matt Ryan – hasn’t materialized.

The market for available quarterbacks was further weakened when news was reported of impending surgery for San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo on his right (throwing) shoulder. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Garoppolo will be sidelined until summer training camp, but there remains “significant interest” from teams looking to trade for him.

That’s one available quarterback, coming off shoulder surgery, for at least six needy teams.

“I mean, trades are just out of the question, I think,” Arians said. “You’ve got to have a partner. These guys aren’t just willingly calling, ‘Hey, you want my guy?’ I don’t see very many of these guys getting traded. There may be one. At max, two of the guys we think can take us to the Super Bowl. I like about eight of them, but they’re all playing for somebody else.”

Other teams openly in the market for a veteran quarterback include Denver, Carolina, Washington, New Orleans and Indianapolis (again).

New Denver GM George Paton said, “We don’t care if it’s free agency. We don’t care if it’s the draft. We don’t care if it’s a trade. We’re going to exhaust all options to try to get the best guy for the Broncos.”

Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera said that no cost would be too high for his team to fill its QB need.

“Does anybody care what the Rams traded for Matthew Stafford last year? No,” he said.

The Browns continued to state the narrative that they have no interest in the quarterback market. GM Andrew Berry reiterated on Tuesday that he expects Baker Mayfield to be healthy and return as Browns starter in 2022.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who are embarking on life without Ben Roethlisberger for the first time since 2004, say they want to add a quarterback. But few expect the Steelers to make a big splash.

“I would say we’re open to anything,” said outgoing GM Kevin Colbert. “We have two veterans in Mason Rudolph and Dwayne Haskins. They’ve both started NFL games, and they’ve won games. So we think we have two capable NFL quarterbacks. How we add to that, I couldn’t say because it will continue to evolve.”

High on Mitch

Because of the seeming lack of movement among the big-name QBs, Mitchell Trubisky is now receiving more love as an option for QB-starved teams.

The former Chicago Bears No. 2 overall pick-turned-Buffalo backup will be a free agent certain to receive interest from multiple teams.

Bills coach Sean McDermott said, “I really enjoyed our time with Mitch. Class act, entire family. Really, class people. It's hard to handle a situation where you're coming from basically a career starter to being a backup. That's a totally different dynamic, when somebody else is in front of the microphone a couple lockers down from yours.

“I thought Mitch Trubisky handled that extremely well, as good as anybody could have handled it. And then when given the opportunity to play, whether it was in preseason or the regular season, he did a phenomenal job. Command of the playbook. I think it's unrealistic to think that we're going to be able to have him back, but I want him to go on and do great things for him and his family which I know he's going to do.

“He's a consummate professional in the way that he approaches his day-to-day regimen, his habits. I can't say enough positive things about Mitch Trubisky.”

Awkward in Arizona

What’s going on with the Arizona Cardinals and Kyler Murray?

It appears two late-season collapses and a desire of Murray for a long-term contract has frayed relations after only three years together.

Erik Burkhardt, the quarterback’s agent, released a lengthy statement this week essentially calling out the Cardinals for not signing Murray to a long-term mega-deal. Murray, a year behind Baker Mayfield, is eligible for a new deal but probably is going to have to settle for the team only committing to his guaranteed fifth-year option in 2023.

Burkhardt is also the agent for coach Kliff Kingsbury. But Kingsbury said he was unaware the statement was coming. Burkhardt and Kingsbury never talked about it.

“No, we keep those things separate,” Kingsbury said. “It’s part of the business. [Burkhardt] has a job to do and that’s what he was doing. I love Kyler. I love Erik, and that’s not going to change.”

Cardinals GM Steve Keim said of the statement, “I thought it was an agent doing his job.”

During Super Bowl week, Murray was dinged by a report by ESPN Insider Chris Mortensen that quoted sources saying Murray was immature, self-centered, and a finger-pointer.

“Yeah, I mean a lot of those are unnamed sources and I don’t put a lot of stock in those things,” Kingsbury said. “But our deal, we came in together, I was a college coach, he was a rookie quarterback starter from Day 1, so we’ve both tried to get better in a lot of areas over the last three years and I feel like we have. There’s a lot of room to go, but if you look at every area, whether it’s leadership, preparation, statistics, wins, I mean he’s improved dramatically and that’s all I see and that’s all I can really comment on.”

Overtime change is 50-50

The Chiefs have long advocated changing the overtime rules in postseason to guarantee each team one possession even if the coin-toss winner scores a touchdown.

This year, the Chiefs’ playoff win over the Bills on a first-possession touchdown re-ignited a debate that will now rage for the next month.

But then the Chiefs lost in the AFC Championship despite winning the coin toss when the Cincinnati Bengals defended the kickoff and then intercepted Patrick Mahomes on his first possession.

I asked Chiefs coach Andy Reid which one of his team’s games will have a bigger impact on the imminent overtime debate -- the overtime win over Buffalo or the overtime loss to Cincinnati?

“I’m a 50/50 shooter,” he said with a laugh. “Listen, that’s about what it is in the league right now. I’ve gone the opposite way when we played the Patriots and lost in overtime [in the 2018 season AFC Championship]. You feel like you need a shot at it, but the defensive guys say we should stop them so that’s the part of it. When you look at it, it’s 50/50 across the board really whether you win or lose.

“I’m for whatever the league decides to do. I kind of left it open this year again, because of where we sat. We had an opportunity and didn’t take advantage of it. Another, we did take advantage of. I think it’s not going to be perfect no matter what.

"There’s just no perfect remedy to this thing.

The league competition committee is meeting here this week to prepare a recommendation for owners to ponder at league meetings at the end of March.

I’m hearing that the Bengals’ victory over the Chiefs reinforced the old-guard mantra that teams can win in overtime despite losing the coin toss if they play coverage and defense. In other words, the pendulum is swinging back to keeping the OT rules as is.

Phil the coach

After reading Phil Dawson’s analysis of why kickers need better coaching on TheLandOnDemand.com, a reader asked why Dawson doesn’t work as a kicking consultant.

“I turned down a couple [NFL] jobs this year, to be honest,” Dawson told me.
But Dawson loves coaching, however, and will embark in the fall on his first season as a high school head football coach at Hyde Park School in Austin, TX.

“I’ve taken the plunge,” Dawson said. “I’m at a private school, a complete rebuild, and I love it. I love high school football.”

One thing’s for sure. Hyde Park will have a good kicker and good special teams.

At The Combine: Veteran Qb Market Is All Talk, No Action

At the Combine: Veteran QB market is all talk, no action

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