In 2026, 12 of the NFL’s 32 teams have either a new head coach, quarterback, or both. To determine those in the best positions, the same criteria were used from completing this exercise last year:
- A team needs just one new starting 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 atop the staff).
- What constitutes a “new starting quarterback”? Any projected starter who didn’t start Week 1 or multiple games for his current team the year prior.
- Just to be clear, we ranked the duos, not their respective teams. That said, coach-quarterback duos can be a good indicator of a team’s standing. Chances are, if your favorite team’s pairing is high on the list, they’re better positioned to overcome other weaknesses on the roster.
Now let’s get to the 2026 ranking:
Note: Asterisks (*) denote the new member(s) of the duo.
12. Browns | 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 the 38 quarterbacks with 250-plus dropbacks, per Tru Media.) He has since torn his Achilles not once, but twice. And yet, he is reportedly the favorite to start under center for the Browns. Not even hiring Monken, who is an excellent pass-game architect, can save this from being a disaster. (You could easily make a case for the Browns being last in this ranking if they start Shedeur Sanders, as well, given that he also ranked dead last in EPA per dropback — by a mile — last year.)
11. Jets | QB: Geno Smith* | Coach: Aaron Glenn
Smith is coming off the worst season of his career since his first stint with the Jets over a decade ago. He led the NFL in interceptions and looked inept for most of the season. He’ll be 36 this season, an age at which most quarterbacks prior to this recent era have been pretty washed. (And it’s only been the best of the best that have been able to avoid that fate.) Smith should have a better offensive environment, but even showing moderate improvement wouldn’t justify a much higher ranking than this. And Glenn, for his part, looked overwhelmed and overmatched in the head-coaching role in Year 1, to the point that he had to overhaul his entire staff after just one season.
10. Cardinals | QB: Jacoby Brissett | Coach: Mike LaFleur*
Brissett put up some explosive numbers, mostly because he was allowed to drop back 39.2 times per game. But he’s still a career backup who seemingly played well above his head during that span. And the last time we saw LaFleur truly at the controls of an offense during his time as the Jets’ offensive coordinator, things did not go well. He had Zach Wilson under center then; Brissett is better, but he also might not be under center for that long if the Cards want to see what they have in Carson Beck before deciding on what to do in the draft next year.
9. Dolphins | QB: Malik Willis* | Coach: Jeff Hafley*
Willis also posted some eye-popping numbers, but in an incredibly small sample. He’s only thrown 155 passes in his four-year career, with 89 of them coming over the last two years with the Packers. He will not be in nearly as friendly an ecosystem in Miami as the one he had in Green Bay. And he won’t have Matt LaFleur scheming him into position to succeed, but instead will be coached by Hafley’s offensive coordinator, Bobby Slowik. We don’t yet know what Hafley will be like as a coach, nor what kind of impact he’ll 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.
8. Falcons | QB: Tua Tagovailoa* | Coach: Kevin Stefanski*
Given Michael Penix Jr.’s injury issues, assume Tagovailoa gets the first shot under center. That does not necessarily spark optimism for the Falcons. When Tagovailoa was at his best, he succeeded in a very specific set of circumstances created by Mike McDaniel’s offense. Things are going to be quite different under Stefanski, who is an excellent offensive coach in his own right but perhaps not the best fit for Tagovailoa’s skill set.
7. Steelers | QB: Aaron Rodgers | Coach: Mike McCarthy*
Rodgers has been underwhelming for several seasons now, and McCarthy was an underwhelming hire. Getting the band back together with a duo that grew stale almost a decade ago is not inspiring — especially heading into the quarterback’s age-43 season. Rodgers threw for 3,322 yards last season and 24 touchdowns with just seven interceptions, completing 65.7% of his passes.
6. Giants | QB: Jaxson Dart | Coach: John Harbaugh*
Dart showed during his rookie season that he has an explosive skill set. He can really run — though he needs to protect himself when he does so, because the amount of hits he took as a rookie is not sustainable — and he showed that he can make plays outside the structure of the offense in the passing game. He wasn’t quite as electric when working inside the structure, but that’s the type of thing that can improve over time. Harbaugh is a good coach. He manages the game well, but because he was a former special-teams coach, he relies on his coordinators on both sides of the ball. Matt Nagy is… not an encouraging hire to run the offense. That’s why we couldn’t justify putting the Giants higher than this.
5. Titans | QB: Cam Ward | Coach: Robert Saleh*
Ward showcased an extremely up-and-down rookie season. His overall numbers don’t look great. The tape looks considerably better than the numbers, but there’s only so much you can paper over the production with “yeah but he looked better than that.” Still, the ceiling for him is sky high given his arm talent, and he’ll be put in better positions to succeed this year given that the Titans added some actual receiving talent in Wan’Dale Robinson and Carnell Tate, and also hired an offensive coordinator under Saleh (Brian Daboll) who has shown a decent ability to maximize the talent of his quarterbacks in the past (or at least more of one than last year’s Tennessee coaching staff). The offenses in New York under Saleh were underwhelming but his defenses were consistently excellent, and that should help Ward, as well.
4. Raiders | QB: Fernando Mendoza* | Coach: Klint Kubiak*
Kirk Cousins is the favorite to begin the season under center, but given his performance over the last couple of years, it is a comfortable assumption that Mendoza will be in the lineup before too long. He’s basically a quarterbacking robot, if you believe what you saw on film at Indiana, and he’s an excellent fit for Kubiak’s offense, which is heavy on asking quarterbacks to do the exact things at which Mendoza was best during his time in college.
3. Vikings | QB: Kyler Murray* | Coach: Kevin O’Connell
Murray is a massive upgrade over what the Vikings had with J.J. McCarthy. O’Connell had previously shown that, regardless of who the Vikings had under center, he got quality quarterback play out of them. Murray has the skill set to do everything the Vikings want, while also bringing to the table qualities that haven’t been there with the previous options Minnesota used, thanks to his ability as a scrambler and occasional designed runner.
2. Ravens | QB: Lamar Jackson | Coach: Jesse Minter*
Jackson should be fully healthy after having plenty of time to heal from the injuries 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 widely-respected defensive minds in the NFL. The only reason these guys aren’t at No. 1 is because we also have another top-tier pairing to consider.
These two were initially flipped, but the continuity that Allen has with Brady combined with his durability compared to Jackson forced a change. A bit more confidence exists in what Minter brings to the table on his side of the ball than in what Brady does on his. Still, you can’t really go wrong by putting either of these two at the top of the list, and they are pretty clearly the two top new duos. It just depends on what you value.
