Uncertainty Abounds For Three Veteran Quarterbacks
As free agency approaches there is a lot of speculation about which veterans will be traded. Or which ones will get to stay with their current teams. Right now uncertainty abounds for three veteran quarterbacks – Geno Smith, Russell Wilson, and Justin Fields. Geno Smith was the 2022 Comeback Player of the year and played well in 2023. Russell Wilson is a Super Bowl winning quarterback and willed the Broncos to victory on many occasions in 2023. Justin Fields is a former first round draft pick and his 2023 season stats were on par with MVP Lamar Jackson.
And yet the future is uncertain right now for all these quarterbacks. I’ll start with Geno Smith. By being on the team roster in February this allowed his base salary of $12.7 to became fully guaranteed. And the team restructured his contract by turning his roster bonus into a signing bonus freeing up salary cap space. Also, they still have backup quarterback Drew Lock on the team. However, the restructured contract doesn’t mean they are committed to Smith. Head coach Mike Macdonald had this to say to Aaron Levine of KCPQ:
“That’s a tough question, and it’s one that I probably can’t answer right now. But we’re doing a lot of work on those guys. And I’ve had conversations just to get to know them, understand who they are as people and their background, goals and what their family’s like and where they’re from. I didn’t know anything about them coming into this whole thing. So, right now we’re in the phase of figuring out who they are. Obviously, one or two, or both, would fit into our plans moving forward. But right now, probably don’t have that answer for you.”
And then there are questions swirling around Russell Wilson and his status with the Broncos. Wilson has said, “he loves the city and everything else but also you wanna be at a place that wants you too.” He also said he wants to win 2 more Super Bowls in the next 5 years. But based on how the 2023 season ended with him being benched by head coach Sean Payton that doesn’t seem likely. When reporters questioned Payton today at the NFL Scouting Combine, he said this:
“Next week, we’ll be in meetings with ownership,” Payton said on Tuesday. “So I expect that we’re going to know fairly quickly. … Somewhere in the neighborhood next week. There’s a couple of factors here, obviously the cap projections came out, we’re further down the road with the draft class, so I would anticipate it being within the next two weeks.”
So Wilson and the rest of us will learn of his fate sooner rather than later.
Uncertainty Abounds For Three Veteran Quarterbacks
According to cbssports.com, Bears GM Ryan Poles commented on the rumors:
“It just depends on what opportunities pop up,” Poles said when asked if he’d prefer to trade Fields early in free agency, presuming the Bears are planning to reset at quarterback atop the 2024 NFL Draft. “I will say this: If we go down that road, I wanna do right by Justin as well. No one wants to live in gray. I know that’s uncomfortable. I wouldn’t wanna be in that situation either. So we’ll gather the information. We’ll move as quickly as possible. We’re not gonna be in a rush. And (we’ll) see what presents itself and what’s best for the organization.”
And so we’ll have to see how things shake out with these veteran quarterbacks.
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