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ferragamo79
Keep in mind many of those QBs you list may not be available. Their contracts are simply up. There is a good chance Brees, Brady and Winston resign with their original teams.

Some of those guys are only going to play for 1 or 2 years so not long term solution due to being late 30s and for Brees and Brady 40s.

Smith is coming of a significant injury and may not be able to play again. Nobody is going to build their team around him.

Dalton has been a middle of the road QB.

It is not like these guys are not being resigned and they are in their prime. I see Prescott being eventually signed by Dallas.

I agree that not all of them are "available" in a realistic sense but that they are potentially available is still unusual and possibly a sign of a shift in NFL teams being forced to overspend on the QB position.

I'm not saying that QB isn't still the most important position in professional sports but I think with the way the rules are now setup and how guys are being groomed has diminished the rarity of starting caliber options. It used to be that there weren't that many quality starters that you could win with at the NFL level. I don't think that's the case anymore and in a significant way. The days of spending a large portion of your salary cap to secure and anchor your QB position are fading IMO.

The "need" to pay Prescott $35M - $40M because it's his turn and out of fear that he can't be replaced seems unwarranted. I think he's starting caliber but certainly not irreplaceable. If i was a GM, I would be in 6 year cycles with QB's out of college. 5 year rookie deal, 1 year of franchise and then a reasonable contract or sayonara.