In an ideal world, NFL teams rarely have to use their backup quarterbacks, if they use them at all. Given that it’s the most important position in football, losing your starter can often derail your team’s momentum and put a damper on whatever expectations you may have for the season ahead.
However, just because your second-string quarterback is taking the reins, that doesn’t mean your year is over. Kurt Warner and Tom Brady each got their starts as backups who led their respective teams to Super Bowl victories. Nick Foles led the Philadelphia Eagles to a Super Bowl victory of their own less than a decade ago.
There are some backup quarterbacks who are more capable than others of keeping their team afloat. Some teams have ongoing QB battles, so these entrants consist of whichever quarterbacks are listed as backups in Ourlads’ depth charts. Let’s take a look at the five best second-stringers across the NFL heading into the 2026-27 regular season.
5) Davis Mills, Houston Texans
Davis Mills was thrust into a starting role early in his career, taking over the Houston Texans’ starting job in 2021 in a post-Deshaun Watson world. He had his ups and downs, as one could come to expect from a third-round rookie, but over the next two seasons, he showed the capability to make big-time throws.
Ultimately, the Texans drafted C.J. Stroud with the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and Mills was demoted to a backup role. That said, he’s fared pretty well when Houston has called his name. Most recently, he had to start in three games, leading the Texans to wins in each of them. Interceptions were an issue for Mills early in his career, but he had an interception percentage of just 0.6% in 2025, throwing five touchdowns in the process.
He’s very much a traditional pocket passer, but Mills has a strong arm with the ability to hit throws into tight windows. In the games he played in 2025, he looked poised in the pocket, comfortable going through his progressions and maintaining his composure under pressure.
4) Marcus Mariota, Washington Commanders
Based on PFN QB Impact Scoring, Marcus Mariota ranked as the No. 17 quarterback in the NFL in 2025. Not only did he rank higher than his teammate, Jayden Daniels, but he also finished with a higher score than notable quarterbacks like Justin Herbert, Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, and Baker Mayfield.
Among other analytics, Mariota finished ninth in the NFL with a 49.6% success rate and sixth with a completion percentage above expected of +4.1%. Hardly anybody’s going to argue that he’s a top-ten quarterback in the league right now, but he proved in Daniels’ absence that he’s still a capable starter, even if the Washington Commanders had a nightmare of a season.
PREDICT THE NFL SEASON: PFN’s FREE NFL Playoff Predictor
Mariota’s experience in his five years starting for the Tennessee Titans, along with everything he’s picked up in stops as a backup along the way, have made him a capable game manager. Even at 32 years old, he’s still an above-average athlete for the quarterback position, showing off the speed to pick up yards with his legs.
3) Fernando Mendoza, Las Vegas Raiders
If the plan truly is for the Las Vegas Raiders to start Kirk Cousins to begin 2026, then Fernando Mendoza enters the NFL as one of the league’s top backup quarterbacks. The No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft is coming off a Heisman-winning, championship-winning, undefeated campaign for the Indiana Hoosiers, and that success translates to NFL-ready tools.
Mendoza ranked No. 2 among 190 qualified FBS quarterbacks in PFN QB Impact Scoring in 2025. He led the nation with 41 passing touchdowns and 10.8 net yards per passing attempt. He’s a big-bodied, accurate passer with tremendous natural timing behind his throws, poise operating within the pocket, and a good arm that generates some nice zip behind his throws.
Throughout the 2026 NFL Draft process, Mendoza was often compared to the likes of Jared Goff and Matt Ryan. If he’s able to reach those heights for the Raiders, whenever it is they give him the starting quarterback job, then Las Vegas will be in good hands for a very long time.
2) Tua Tagovailoa, Atlanta Falcons
2025 was a disastrous year for the Miami Dolphins, and it signaled that a rebuild was overdue. Tua Tagovailoa had a down year for them, though plenty of key contributors ended up hurt over the course of the season. His 72.1 PFN QB Impact Score ranked just No. 28 among NFL quarterbacks, and while that’s great for a backup, it wasn’t enough for him to keep his job as the Dolphins’ starter.
Now entering a battle for the Atlanta Falcons’ starting job, Tagovailoa ranks this high because of how efficient he had been in years past. He ranked as a top-eight quarterback by PFN QB Impact Scoring every year from 2022 to 2024. Say what you want about his arm strength; he’s an accurate passer who has shown he can dominate the quick game and hit precise throws across the middle of the field.
Will Tagovailoa bounce back to that level of play we saw from him earlier in Miami? Only time will tell. But at the very least, he projects as one of the NFL’s best backup quarterbacks going into the 2026-27 season.
1) Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers
It’s surprising how minimal the drop-off from Brock Purdy to Mac Jones was when the former got injured for roughly half of the 2025-26 NFL season. Purdy performed very well when healthy, finishing with the third-best PFN QB Impact Score in the league. Jones wasn’t far behind, as his 78.9 score came in as the No. 12 score in the entire NFL.
MORE:Â 5 Biggest NFL Training Camp Battles of 2026
For reference, Jones outperformed the likes of Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, and Jalen Hurts in terms of efficiency in 2025. His 69.6% completion percentage was the second-best in the NFL, his 51.8% success rate ranked fifth, and his +3.1% completion percentage over expected came in eighth in the league.
Jones was a picture-perfect fit for Kyle Shanahan’s offense, as his combination of timing and placement behind his throws makes him a capable distributor who can dominate the quick game. Given how efficient he was last year, it wouldn’t be surprising if an NFL team talks themselves into giving Jones a shot at a starting job once his current contract expires.
