Several Teams Keep 4 Quarterbacks: Strategy Shift?
NFL ponders strategic shift as five teams will enter the 2026 season carrying 4 quarterbacks each, prompting analysis of their motives and team dynamics.
Video Transcript
There are five teams in the NFL that are currently going to carry four quarterbacks.
Four active, one with Dylan Gabriel with Cleveland that won't be active.
But this is kind of crazy.
When you stop to take a look at quarterbacks, what is this?
Four teams in the NFL are keeping four quarterbacks for their initial 53-man roster.
The Steelers, you get it, right?
Aaron Rodgers, last year, getting up there in age.
Mike McCarthy needs quarterbacks.
Will Howard and Drew Aller played pretty well in the preseason, so they're keeping four quarterbacks.
But the Eagles?
The Eagles are keeping four quarterbacks?
The Vikings?
The Vik- why is Max Brosmer on the team if you're the Vikings?
Why are you occupying a roster spot in the final 53-man roster?
What is that?
The Falcons, you understand why the Falcons are doing what they're doing.
And Cleveland, well, look, Dylan Gabriel is hurt, so he's not counting for the 53-man roster, but you get what Cleveland's doing.
They're a mess.
I mean, Cleveland, Cleveland's trying to figure out what to do.
Who can give us the best chance to lose all 17 games?
That's what Cleveland's doing.
So whether it be Jadore Sanders or Deshaun Watson, Dylan Gabriel, doesn't really matter who's gonna play quarterback for Cleveland, they're gonna be bad.
But could this be the future of NFL roster-building?
If we have four different teams saying, "Hey, the most important position on the football field is quarterback.
We don't feel great about our number one.
We might like our number one, but we don't love our number one, so let's go and try to find options.
Let's see if we can create a competition at some point, and let's keep all four quarterbacks."
You know, all 53 guys don't travel.
All 53 guys don't dress on game day.
That's 45, right?
45 players dress on game day.
So you aren't dressing all of these quarterbacks.
However, you are going to say that these guys belong on your roster, so nobody else can take them, and you're gonna pay them.
You're paying these players.
When they make the roster, their contract kicks on, and they're part of your team.
So there is a You know, if you cut these guys, there's a cost to it.
Roster-building normally was three quarterbacks.
You carried two active and one inactive.
Now there's four.
And there's four teams doing it.
Really, there's five teams doing it that are saying, "Lookit, the quarterback spot is too important.
Forget a backup tight end.
Forget a backup running back."
I mean, there was once a day where you carried four running backs.
That doesn't happen anymore.
So I get the idea if somebody goes down, if a team has an injury in week one, week two, whatever it might be, that, hey, you have a potential starting quarterback for a team sitting there that you could go and trade, right?
So do I think Max Brosmer is gonna be a starting quarterback in the NFL?
I don't.
But you could trade Carson Wentz if you're the Vikings, right?
So if somebody gets a massive injury, it's like, okay, we gotta trade for somebody.
We'll trade Carson Wentz.
If you're Andy Dalton, and you're looking at your potential, and someone has a big injury, maybe you go to the Eagles and say, "Hey, we want Andy Dalton."
Those are two proven veterans who can step in.
Cooper Rush being another guy who's potentially out there that teams might go and try to trade for.
So is this just we're gonna build the quarterback room, we're gonna stockpile talent, so when an injury happens, we have the ability to trade one of our quarterbacks and get something for him?
Okay, that might be the strategic move, and that might be the future for You know, it's the old Bear Bryant way of recruiting.
Bear Bryant used to go and recruit the top three, four, and five quarterbacks and stick them on his roster, so they couldn't go anywhere, to keep the players away from his rivals, from everybody else.
So if he had the two best quarterbacks in the South on his own roster, he knew he wouldn't be facing those quarterbacks.
So maybe the teams feel like, don't give the option.
Don't cut these guys and put them on the street, because they're pretty good quarterbacks, and they're gonna wind up popping in pretty quickly.
You know, they're gonna get picked up pretty fast.
So I don't know.
Only 53 guys can be kept.
Four of the 53 going two quarterbacks is definitely a change.
Maybe a sign of the times.
Maybe it's just logic.
The most important position in all of sports is the quarterback, so why not have as many options as possible, so if you do have injuries throughout the year And frankly, again, look at the teams we're talking about in terms of their age of their quarterbacks, right?
Tua and Penix are already hurt.
I mean, the, both those guys are dealing with pretty big injuries.
Penix coming back off, off of a knee injury.
Kyler Murray gets hurt every year.
We know this.
Jalen Hurts, okay, he doesn't get hurt all that often, but there's a lot of questions about Jalen Hurts even with the success he has had.
And Aaron Rodgers is on his last contract.
He's retiring at the end of the year.
Mason Rudolph's been a backup forever.
Will Howard and Drew Aller both played well enough in the preseason to be kept by Mike McCarthy, who is a first-year head coach, who has to be looking at his career after Aaron Rodgers and developing guys.
And Cleveland, I don't Again, I don't know what the hell Cleveland's doing.
Cleveland is I mean, they had to start, they ha-have to start Deshaun Watson, but I, I don't think they really have any clue what they want to do with the quarterback position at the moment, besides just keep everybody.
