If your favorite team is looking for a new quarterback this offseason, you already know 2026 is an especially bad year to be in the buyer’s market. It’s a shallow draft class, the big-name trade options are coming off horrible years and are due tens of millions in guarantees, and free agency is the usual uninspiring mix of aging veterans and former backups. 

The pendulum may swing back in 2027 with a class of prospects that looks more robust, but that’s obviously never a guarantee. Plenty of current coaches and front office execs also don’t have the luxury of waiting a year to try and fix the quarterback position. They have to try and do something now. Those teams are going to have to get creative. 

The pieces on the board are still being set as the Cardinals and Dolphins gauge what kind of trade value Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa might have. Falcons QB Kirk Cousins should also be a free agent. The options that seem to be sparking the most intrigue right now, though, are 49ers QB Mac Jones and Packers QB Malik Willis — although this year more than any other, beauty is going to be in the eye of the beholder. Jones and Willis have the advantage of being younger than Cousins, ergo they are more likely to be potential long-term solutions, and both should be far cheaper than Murray and Tagovailoa. 

But there are deeper cuts available, and if there’s a year for a team to cut deep at quarterback, it’s this one. Teams looking for starters won’t be the only ones in the market, either. San Francisco and Green Bay snared Jones and Willis as backups at the nadir of their values as former premium picks and starters. They were rewarded by high-level play when their starters went down, and they’ll be able to turn a profit when they leave either via trade or the compensatory pick formula. 

That sort of long-term asset appreciation is a model other teams will be looking to follow, too. Here are some sleeper quarterback trade candidates who could be available this offseason. 

Colts QB Anthony Richardson

Richardson is the quarterback with the most pedigree on this list. The former No. 4 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the Colts drafted Richardson after the Panthers and Texans took Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud first and second, respectively. Indianapolis gambled on Richardson’s special traits and sky-high potential, as he was still just 20 years old when he walked the stage and put on the blue and white hat. 

But Richardson’s inexperience ended up sabotaging him and the Colts. He had just 13 starts as a prospect at Florida when he declared for the draft. The Colts pushed to make him the Week 1 starter in 2023 to try to remedy that, with the understanding that they would ride the ups and downs of his rookie year and everyone would be better for it. Instead, Richardson played just four games and managed to get injured three separate times, the final one a season-ending injury to his throwing shoulder. Still, the flashes in those four games were tantalizing. 

The Colts went on to finish 9-8 (2-2 in Richardson’s starts) and narrowly missed the playoffs. Expectations were much higher in 2024 as a result even though Richardson was still functionally a rookie in many ways. His play was a rollercoaster. The arm talent and mobility were still there but Richardson struggled to make the easy layups and finished the season with a shocking 47.7 completion percentage in 11 starts. Availability remained a big concern, too. Richardson missed games with oblique and back injuries, as well as an infamous “tap out” to take a breather after a rushing play — a big taboo for quarterbacks and one that finally got him benched for veteran QB Joe Flacco. 

Flacco’s struggles prompted the Colts to turn back to Richardson but the damage was done. Under pressure to win with a veteran team that Richardson had lost, Colts HC Shane Steichen pursued veteran QB Daniel Jones this past offseason. The competition wasn’t officially decided until late in training camp but it was obvious during OTAs that Jones had seized control of the team. He played well enough before a season-ending injury to earn a new deal from the Colts as the franchise starter going forward. 

Unfortunately for Richardson, he couldn’t make his case when Jones went down because he was also hurt in a freak mid-October accident when an elastic band snapped during a workout and sent a bar crashing into his face. He spent the rest of the season on injured reserve with a broken orbital bone. He remains under contract in 2026 but the Colts will almost assuredly decline his fifth-year option, making it a contract year. It’s also quite possible they will decide they want someone more reliable as the backup, someone like 2025 sixth-round QB Riley Leonard, leaving no room for Richardson in Indianapolis. 

There are parallels to make between Richardson and Trey Lance, another top-five draft pick who hasn’t panned out. Like Richardson, Lance’s primary selling point was his athletic ability and potential while the downside was a lack of experience. Lance had just one season as a starter at North Dakota State before the pandemic cancelled his second. He saw some spot action as a backup as a rookie behind Jimmy Garoppolo, and injuries played a role in preventing him from seizing the job from the veteran. The 49ers went into the 2022 season with Lance as the expected starter, but held on to Garoppolo as an insurance policy after failing to find a trade partner. Lance struggled in a handful of starts before tearing his ACL, and that was it for him in San Francisco. Brock Purdy took the job and never gave it back. 

Lance is still just 25 years old, so his career is far from over. He and Richardson are warning lessons for teams about the pitfalls of taking a developmental quarterback in a league that, as a rule, does not have the time, patience or luxury of developing quarterbacks. But for a team that does have that capacity, Richardson is a potentially fascinating investment. He is somewhere between a slimmed-down Cam Newton and bulked up Justin Fields as a player. Accuracy is an issue but Richardson’s game always had more promise from a mental side than he was given credit for. 

The biggest thing Richardson has to do to get his career back on track, though, is grow up. By all accounts, he’s not a bad kid, just immature. Naive might even be a better descriptor in some facets. He came into the league not knowing what he didn’t know, and he hasn’t caught up in time to avoid being left behind by the Colts. Quarterbacks are held to a different standard when it comes to work ethic, attention to detail, playing through pain and leadership — things Jones has always had a natural grasp of, regardless of his other faults as a quarterback. 

If Richardson can grasp that part, he’s got the tools and ability to be a high-end starter in this league. If it happens, another team besides the Colts will be the one reaping the benefits. 

Saints QB Spencer Rattler

Rattler has only been in the league for two seasons but he’s been on the football radar for much, much longer. He was a top recruit at Oklahoma and looked like the latest in then-HC Lincoln Riley’s pipeline of No. 1 picks, following in the footsteps of Baker Mayfield and Murray. Rattler was a Heisman favorite to start the 2021 season. But by mid-October, he had been benched for Caleb Williams, another future No. 1 pick. Rattler transferred after the season to South Carolina and started two more years there. 

In a class that saw six first-rounders, Rattler was an intriguing sleeper for a lot of teams. Broncos HC Sean Payton was rumored to be a big fan, but he took Bo Nix No. 12 overall. Rattler was the next passer off the board at No. 150 overall in the fifth round to Payton’s former team, the Saints. He started six games as a rookie after an injury to veteran QB Derek Carr, and the results were a little brutal. Rattler completed 57 percent of his passes for less than six yards per attempt, four touchdowns, five interceptions and five fumbles. New Orleans went 0-6 with Rattler under center. 

In Year 2, though, Rattler made material improvements. He started the first half of the season after holding off second-round QB Tyler Shough in a preseason competition and his numbers jumped almost across the board. His completion percentage skyrocketed up to 67.7 percent, his success rate was nearly 10 percentage points better and Rattler was sacked just 18 times on 257 attempts after going down 22 times on 228 as a rookie. He finished with eight passing touchdowns against five interceptions. 

The record didn’t improve, though. Rattler was just 1-7 as the starter and HC Kellen Moore turned to Shough for the back half of the year. With Shough under center, the Saints went on a 5-4 run to finish the year, and Shough finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting even ahead of Giants QB Jaxson Dart. He’s locked in as the starter for at least another year and there’s a lot of optimism that the Saints may have found a long-term starter. 

That leaves Rattler in an interesting situation. The difference in how he’s viewed compared to Shough isn’t necessarily borne out in a statistical comparison, aside from the win/loss record. I think there’s something to a quarterback’s record over a large sample size, but it takes much, much more than half a season for there to be a real signal. Shough outpaced Rattler in touchdowns, especially factoring in his three rushing scores which were huge for the Saints down the stretch. He also averaged a full yard per pass attempt more, largely due to significantly more yards after the catch. It can be debated how much credit Shough deserves for that; the answer is probably not zero. 

But outside of that, the two were remarkably similar in most statistical categories. Rattler and Shough had virtually identical completion percentages and TD/INT rates. Shough had a 44.1 success rate compared to Rattler’s 43.3. He actually finished a little worse than Rattler in QBR, and his sack rate was notably higher. Rattler isn’t a dual-threat rusher but he had more first downs, a better yards per carry and a better success rate than Shough. 

Rattler has two more years remaining on his rookie contract, so nothing is stopping the Saints from keeping him around as a cheap backup and insurance for Shough. However, the Saints might also see a chance to revamp the room with a veteran presence behind Shough to help him develop, even though he’s already 26 years old. Rattler would have value as a piece to flip to other teams who were intrigued by him as a prospect and have seen some proof of concept in his first couple of seasons. A third-round pick would be tough for the Saints to turn down, but even a fourth or fifth would represent a positive return on their investment so far. 

Titans QB Will Levis

The way the Titans have mismanaged the team over the past few years, shaking up their leadership structure annually at the whims of owner Amy Adams Strunk, has left plenty of collateral damage. Count Levis among the victims. Drafted at the top of the second round in 2023 after a surprise fall out of the first 32 picks, Levis got nine starts as a rookie, coming in after starter Ryan Tannehill was injured and not relinquishing the job until Levis was hurt near the end of the season. 

Levis was the Week 1 starter for new HC Brian Callahan in 2024 after Mike Vrabel was fired and it was a disaster. Turnovers doomed Levis and the Titans. He threw 12 picks in 12 starts and fumbled 10 times. His sack rate actually increased from a poor 9.9 percent as a rookie to just shy of 12 percent in Year 2. Levis’ decision-making was a big issue, and the mistakes plus the mounting frustrations from Callahan turned Levis into a meme before the first month of the season was over. Injuries and poor performance eventually cost him his starting job. 

The Titans finished with the No. 1 pick to use on a replacement, Cam Ward. Levis was expected to back up Ward before somewhat surprisingly electing to have surgery on his throwing shoulder in late July, right before camp. He spent the whole season on injured reserve. He’s still under contract with the Titans for another season, and Tennessee probably wants to try to maintain some vestige of trade value. It’s hard to see the two sides continuing together, though. 

That makes Levis a fresh start candidate for another team, similar to Willis, his former teammate. The selling points for interested teams will be Levis’ significant physical gifts. He probably has one of the strongest arms in football (though whether that’s still true after shoulder surgery remains to be seen) and he has prototypical size. He’s generally accurate, especially in rhythm, and has functional size and mobility to escape sacks in the pocket. 

If Levis can become a wiser game manager, he could absolutely have starting or high-end backup potential. His best year of football was in his second-to-last season at Kentucky with future Jaguars HC Liam Coen, and a return to a similar system with rigid guardrails in place for the quarterback would be a big benefit for Levis. Fortunately, that’s the most popular offensive scheme in football right now that every team wants a piece of. 

Texans QB Davis Mills

Mills has been in the league a while, arriving as a third-round pick of the Texans in 2021. He started 26 games in his first two seasons as the Texans negotiated the dissolution of the Deshaun Watson era, winning just five games. Houston ended up with Stroud and Mills has been the backup since. The Texans signed him to a two-year, $8 million extension in the final year of his rookie contract in 2024, then added another one-year, $7 million extension last offseason because they valued him so much. 

Their confidence proved to be well-placed this past season. Mills started three games while Stroud was in the concussion protocol last year, and all three were wins. Houston was 3-5 and down 29-10 going into the fourth quarter of Mills’ first start against the Jaguars. The Texans stormed back with a 26-point fourth quarter, sparked by Mills, and won a Thursday night matchup against the Bills with Mills under center as well. 

That kicked off a winning streak that lasted ten games — through the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs before the Patriots ended the run in the divisional round. Mills completed just 57.2 percent of his passes, but had 915 yards, five touchdowns, one interception and the game-winning 14-yard rushing touchdown against Jacksonville. 

Mills remains under contract with the Texans on a $6 million guaranteed salary for the 2026 season. It wouldn’t necessarily be easy to pry him away from the Texans after he proved his value as a backup but his performance this past year has caused a few teams to at least perk up and put him on their radar. 

Eagles QB Tanner McKee

This will be McKee’s fourth year in the NFL and he has just two starts to his name, both mop-up duty Week 18 assignments with Philadelphia clinched in the postseason. In those two games, McKee is 1-1 and has completed 48 of 81 pass attempts (59.2 percent) for 510 yards, three touchdowns and an interception. The 2023 sixth-rounder has had more robust action in the preseason, including a three-touchdown game against the Bengals in 2025. Still, his catalog of meaningful football is not large. 

McKee has wowed the Eagles behind the scenes, though, and the team has turned down some trade interest in recent years to focus on developing him more as the primary backup. He’s a classic pocket passer at 6-6 and 231 pounds with solid arm strength and touch. Like Mills, he’s a Stanford graduate, and like Mills, he’s also a little more mobile than he looks, though more in the “stay alive in the pocket” way than the “legit read option threat.” 

As he enters the final year of his rookie contract, the Eagles could explore their options to cash out some value. They won’t leave themselves exposed at backup quarterback but that’s a position that can be figured out a lot easier than others if necessary. A fourth or fifth-round pick would be a great return on investment for the Eagles and lock in more of a return than a potential comp pick next year.