Potential Releases and Trade Targets
Following the draft, where as many as four QBs are projected to be selected in the first round and up to seven in the first two rounds, there will some be veterans released from their contracts.
Dallas may want to wait for these moves to transpire, and the longer the league goes without offseason workouts the more level playing field these guys will have if the team waits until closer to the start of the season.
The Bengals, Dolphins, Colts, Chargers and Patriots are the teams most likely to look for a high-value player in the early rounds of the draft.
The Bengals selecting Joe Burrow will likely shake Andy Dalton free if he’s not traded to another team for the final $17 million year of his current deal. Regardless, he’ll go to a club that needs a starting-level stop gap, at the very least.
If Miami selects a guy to play behind Ryan Fitzpatrick, then Josh Rosen becomes an interesting release candidate as a young guy who teams may not have closed the book after two years of unimpressive play.
The Chargers have Easton Stick backing up Tyrod Taylor for now, but he’d be in the same category as the Cowboys’ Thorson; a 2019 fifth-round project.
The Patriots once again signed Brian Hoyer, which led to Kessler’s release. If they draft a guy, they might keep three quarterbacks until camp to give Jared Stidham, a 2019 fourth rounder they appear to like an opportunity to be the long-term backup. That might activate Hoyer’s release and making him a viable candidate.
The most interesting situation resides in Indianapolis.
The Colts signed Philip Rivers to a one-year deal this offseason. If they draft their quarterback of the future, that likely means the end of Jacoby Brissett‘s time in Indiana.
Brissett is on the Colts’ books for over $21 million this season, however $7 million of that has already been paid in the form of a roster bonus last month. He has just a $6 million base salary and $2 million in game-day roster bonuses as $5.5 million is on the books from his already paid signing bonus from 2019.
Even with Prescott’s tag number, the possibility of adding the 27-year old as a backup works at multiple levels, even for that price.
Say the Cowboys cannot work out a long-term deal with Prescott after all. Having Brissett in house could lead him into a similar situation like he experienced with Andrew Luck’s retirement. He also, if he plays, could earn the eye of another team and earn Dallas a third-round compensatory pick in the 2022 draft.
That means it would make sense to offer Indianapolis as much as a fourth-round pick to secure his services as the backup for one season, and possibly more.
[vertical-gallery id=642923][lawrence-newsletter]