The 2026 rookie quarterback class isn’t going to win any awards for being the best quarterback class ever or anything. It probably isn’t the worst class ever — the 2022 class would look so bad if Brock Purdy hadn’t been the final pick of the draft — but it’s definitely down toward the bottom. That could change, but I wouldn’t be too optimistic about it.

With that said, these young players still have chances to take the jobs of veterans. That could mean starting jobs. It could mean backup jobs that lead to guys being released before the season. Here’s the guys whose jobs are most in danger if the rookie quarterbacks hit their potential early.

Kirk Cousins, Las Vegas Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders appear intent on starting Kirk Cousins and letting No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza serve as his backup. This is bad news for Aidan O’Connell, but writing about that would be boring. I’m much more interested in the possibility of Mendoza outplaying Cousins between now and the start of the season, potentially forcing the Raiders’ hand early.

This brings up the question of what the best approach is for a young quarterback. Every quarterback taken No. 1 overall since Baker Mayfield has been the Week 1 starter, and the results of that have been hit or miss. Would it have been better if Cam Ward sat for a bit last year? Probably. Was starting Caleb Williams from the jump a move that prepared him for his 2025 breakout? Also probably.

If Mendoza is as good as the Raiders think he is — and why would they take him No. 1 overall if they didn’t think he was a potential franchise quarterback — then he’s going to push Cousins for the starting role at some point in 2026. The only question is when it will happen.

Stetson Bennett, Los Angeles Rams

The Stetson Bennett thing was never going to happen, but now it’s, like, really not going to happen after the Los Angeles Rams used a first-round pick on Ty Simpson. While I’m fairly sure I remember a comment from Sean McVay after the draft that Simpson would battle Bennett for the backup job, let’s be for real here. It would take a miracle for Bennett to enter 2026 as the QB2 in Los Angeles.

Honestly, it’s a miracle that Bennett is even still on the Rams roster at all. Drafted in the fourth round in 2023, Bennett has appeared in a grand total of zero NFL games. Here are his yearly stats:

If Bennett is ever going to appear in an NFL game, it won’t be in Los Angeles. Drafting Simpson makes that even more clear. If Matthew Stafford went down at some point this year, who would you trust to start in his place — a rookie first-round pick who was playing in the college football playoffs last fall, or a fourth-year player who has literally never set foot on an NFL field and thus hasn’t playd meaningful football games since the 2022 college season?

Will Howard. Pittsburgh Steelers

Howard’s chances of making the final Pittsburgh Steelers roster have hit a couple of major snags. The first was the drafting of Drew Allar in the third round, giving Howard direct competition for his role. Considering Allar arrived in Pittsburgh with at a higher draft pick AND under the current coaching regime, Allar already had a leg up in the competition.

Now, his shot at making the roster is even slimmer after the Steelers signed Aaron Rodgers to a one-year deal. With the veteran quarterback now set to be the starting quarterback again, the Steelers have three guys competing for two spots. Mason Rudolph is the veteran backup you can turn to if needed, so unless a team comes in with a trade offer for him, he’ll probably be the No. 2, leaving Howard to battle for the No. 3 role with Allar.

The winner of that battle will be decided by Allar, not by Howard. If the rookie shows he has even a chance to be part of Pittsburgh’s future, he’ll pass Howard on the depth chart and the 2025 pick will be looking for a new home.

Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew, Arizona Cardinals

We’ve got a two-for-one special here, as both Jacoby Brissett and Gardner Minshew could feasibly lose their starting jobs to Carson Beck.

This is one of those situations where the Arizona Cardinals really have nothing to lose. Brissett was fun to watch last season, but he was also 1-11 as the Cardinals’ starter. Minshew was fun to watch in 2019 and okay to watch in 2023, but since leaving the Colts, he’s 2-8 as a starter. He was 2-10 in the three seasons before joining the Colts. Maybe, uhh, he’s just a bad quarterback now who had the benefit of briefly playing for an Indianapolis team that always punches above its weight?

If neither guy is the long-term answer and you don’t trust either to win you games in the short term either, it really shouldn’t take much for Beck to beat those guys out. I mean…you have to trust that he won’t be a complete disaster out there, but if the Cardinals even think he’d only be a half-disaster, they might as well do it.

Brady Cook, New York Jets

The New York Jets traded for Geno Smith this offseason, and he’ll more than likely have the first shot at starting for the team. It’s the backup role that’s the big mystery right now, as you have three potential options: Brady Cook, Bailey Zappe and rookie fourth-round pick Cade Klubnik.

Go ahead and scratch Zappe off that list. I just can’t see the reasoning for a team as bad as the Jets keeping Zappe around. Zappe has shown some decent things during his NFL career, but he’s also played just one game over the past two seasons, and he wasn’t particularly good in that one game. In reality, the QB2 and QB3 roles will be filled by Cook and Klubnik. The question is just in what order.

Cook had a chance to play as a rookie, and the results were not good. He completed 57.5 percent of his passes with two touchdowns and seven interceptions, going 0-4 as the Jets starter. All that’s to say that it won’t be hard for Klubnik to displace him as the primary backup.

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