NFL Coach Quarterback Rankings 2026: All 12 New Duos Ranked

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NFL Coach Quarterback Rankings 2026: All 12 New Duos Ranked

By 2026, 12 of the 32 NFL teams have a new coach, quarterback, or both. In order to find those in the best positions, the same criteria were used from the completion of this project last year:

The team needs only one new quarterback or coach to qualify (for example, Cam Ward is entering Year 2 with the Tennessee Titans, but this is his first season with Robert Saleh at the top of the staff).
What constitutes a “new starting quarterback”? Any projected starter who did not start Week 1 or more games for his current team last year.
Just to be clear, we’ve listed the duos, not their teams. That said, coach-quarterback duos can be a good indicator of a team’s position. Chances are, if your favorite team’s pairing is at the top of the list, they are better positioned to overcome other weaknesses in the list.

Now let’s get to the level of 2026:

Note: Stars

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12. Black | QB: Deshaun Watson* | Coach: Todd Monken*

The last time Watson took the field, he was the worst quarterback in the NFL. (He finished dead last in expected points added per dropback among 38 quarterbacks with 250-plus dropbacks, per Tru Media.) Since then he's torn his Achilles not once, but twice. However, he is reportedly the favorite to start under the Browns. Even hiring Monken, who is a master builder of the passing game, could save this from being a disaster. (You could easily make a case for the Browns to be last in this situation if they start Shedeur Sanders, too, since he also ranked dead in the EPA per running back -- by a mile -- last year.)

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11. Jets | QB: Geno Smith* | Coach: Aaron Glenn

Smith is coming off the worst season of his career since his debut with the Jets a decade ago. He led the NFL in interceptions and looked out of sorts for much of the season. He'll be 36 this season, an age when most quarterbacks before this recent season have been pretty washed out. (And only the best of the best managed to avoid that fate.) Smith should have a better offensive position, but even showing modest improvement won't justify a much higher grade than this. Glenn, on the other hand, looked frustrated and moved to the head coaching role in Year 1, and had to restructure his entire team after one season.

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10. Cardinals | QB: Jacoby Brissett | Coach: Mike LaFleur*

Brissett put up explosive numbers, especially because he was allowed 39.2 touchdowns per game. But he is still a career player who seems to be playing well over his head at the time. And the last time we saw LaFleur in charge of the offense during his tenure as the Jets coordinator, things went awry. He had Zach Wilson under center at the time; Brissett is better, but he also might not be under center for long if the Cards want to see what they have in Carson Beck before deciding what to do in the draft next year.

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9. Dolphins | QB: Malik Willis* | Coach: Jeff Hafley*

Willis also posted impressive numbers, but with an incredibly small sample size. He has only caught 155 passes in his four-year career, with 89 of those coming over the past two years with the Packers. He won't be in nearly as friendly a facility in Miami as he had in Green Bay. And he won't have Matt LaFleur strategizing for him, but will instead be coached by Hafley's coordinator, Bobby Slowik. We still don't know what Hafley will be like as a coach, and what kind of impact he will have on the other side of the ball. With the lack of talent on both sides of the ball, it's hard to see the Dolphins finding much success in 2026.

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8. Bows | QB: Tua Tagovailoa* | Coach: Kevin Stefanski*

Given Michael Penix Jr.'s injury issues, think Tagovailoa gets the first shot under center. That doesn't necessarily inspire hope for the Falcons. When Tagovailoa was at his best, he thrived in a certain set of situations created by Mike McDaniel's offense. Things will be very different under Stefanski, who is a great offensive line coach but perhaps not a good fit for Tagovailoa's skill set.

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7. Instruments | QB: Aaron Rodgers | Coach: Mike McCarthy*

Rodgers has been working hard for a few seasons now, while McCarthy has been heavily recruited. Getting the band back together with the duo that rose to fame almost a decade ago is not encouraging -- especially as we enter the quarterback's 43-year-old season. Rodgers threw for 3,322 yards last season and 24 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, completing 65.7% of his passes.

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6. Giants | QB: Jaxson Dart | Coach: John Harbaugh*

Dart showed in his rookie season that he has explosive ability. He can really run -- though he needs to play defensively when he does, because the bulk of the hits he took as a rookie are unsustainable -- and he's shown he can make plays out of the offense's structure in the passing game. He wasn't exactly electric when he worked inside the building, but that's the kind of thing that can improve over time. Harbaugh is a good coach. He runs the game well, but because he was a special teams coach, he relies on his coordinators on both sides of the ball. Matt Nagy is not... not an inspiring hire to run the offense. That's why we can't justify ranking the Giants any higher than this.

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5. Titans | QB: Cam Ward | Coach: Robert Saleh* Ward has had an up-and-down rookie season. His overall numbers don’t look good. The tape looks much better than the numbers, but there is too much to write about the production with “yeah but he he looked

better than that.” Still, his ceiling is very high given his arm talent, and he'll be better positioned to succeed this year as the Titans have added real receiving talent in Wan'Dale Robinson and Carnell Tate, and hired an offensive coordinator under Saleh (Brian Daboll) who has shown a decent ability to maximize his talent for at least the past year. Tennessee coaching staff). New York's offense under Saleh was weak but its defense was very good, and that should help Ward as well.

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4. Attackers | QB: Fernando Mendoza* | Coach: Klint Kubiak* Kirk Cousins is the favorite to start the season under center, but given his performance over the past few years, it is thought that Mendoza will be on the roster before too long. He’s a quarterback robot, if you believe what you saw in the movie Indiana, and he’san excellent fit for Kubiak’s offense

It's hard to ask quarterbacks to do the exact things Mendoza excelled at during his time in college.

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3. Vikings | QB: Kyler Murray* | Coach: Kevin O’Connell

Murray is a huge improvement over what the Vikings had with JJ McCarthy. O'Connell had shown that, no matter who the Vikings had under center, he got a quality quarterback game out of them. Murray has the ability to do everything the Vikings want, while bringing qualities to the table that haven't been there with the previous picks Minnesota has used, thanks to his ability as a pass rusher and occasionally drafted runner.

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2. Crows | QB: Lamar Jackson | Coach: Jesse Minter*

Jackson should be fully healthy after having plenty of time to recover from the injury that plagued him last season. As a two-time MVP, we know what he's capable of when he's at the top of his game. Minter is one of the most respected defensive minds in the NFL. The only reason these guys aren't number 1 is because we have another top tier pairing to consider.

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The two were flipped at first, but Allen’s progress with Brady combined with his durability compared to Jackson forced a change. There’s more confidence in what Minter brings to the table on his side of the ball than Brady does on his. Still, you can’t go wrong putting either of these two at the top of the list, and they’re clearly two top duos. It depends on what you value.