Written by Dan Graziano at ESPN.com
It’s May, and if you don’t know who your team’s starting quarterback is … well, it could be a while before you do.
With OTAs about to get underway, minicamps still a month away and oodles of time before training camp, NFL teams that have quarterback questions aren’t in a hurry to get them answered. These teams will spend as much time as they can between now and September making sure they get this just right. Because if you get your quarterback wrong, not much else about your season matters.
So let’s take a super early look, in no particular order, at the starting quarterback battles that will occupy our attention throughout the summer:
Houston Texans
Where it stands: Tom Savage started two games last season when Bill O’Brien got sick of Brock Osweiler, then he lost the job when he got hurt, because O’Brien has starting quarterback ADD. The Texans moved up in the first round in the draft, hoping Deshaun Watson would be the cure, and he might well be. The question is when he’ll be ready, and how much O’Brien really means it when he says good things about Savage. Brandon Weeden, one of four quarterbacks to start a game for O’Brien in 2015, is still around to help if things crater.
Most likely to start Week 1: Watson. Why not? “He’ll win over that building in no time,” one person who has worked with Watson said. “The coaching staff is going to look for ways for him to win the job.” The Texans can put a playoff-caliber team around Watson and ease him into NFL life without asking him to carry them. Think Mark Sanchez as a Jets rookie that made it all the way to the AFC Championship Game with a team that led the league in defense and rushing. That’s the dream. Plus two more wins, and then a career.
Most likely to lead team in 2017 starts: Clearly, I’m all in on Watson. But I don’t think the number is 16. Again, quarterback ADD.
Chicago Bears
Where it stands: Mitchell Trubisky is their guy for the long term. So say all those picks they used to move up from No. 3 to No. 2 in the draft to get him. But as is the case with all the quarterbacks in this year’s draft, Trubisky probably isn’t ready to start right now. Fortunately, the Bears spent handsomely in free agency to sign former Bucs backup Mike Glennon, who’s left wondering if he’s the Matt Flynn to Trubisky’s Russell Wilson in this whole equation. With Chicago not quite as “win now” ready as the 2012 Seahawks were, it’s probably not that cut and dried. Mark Sanchez and Connor Shaw are the other two options on the depth chart, and it’s likely one sticks as a backup if Trubisky doesn’t show enough progress this summer to be at least the backup.
Most likely to start Week 1: Glennon. He’s making a guaranteed $16 million this season, and $2.5 million of his 2018 money is fully guaranteed as well, so it’s not as if he’s going anywhere. The writing might be on the wall, but there’s no reason to not to run him out there first if he’s healthy.
Most likely to lead team in 2017 starts: Trubisky. The pressure to play him will be intense, and Glennon doesn’t have enough around him to succeed in enough of a way to hold off the rookie. The Bears’ rebuild will begin earlier than the current coaching staff might like it to, and depending on how this year goes, it might be another coaching staff that has to continue it.
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