How Sam Darnold, Geno Smith, other veteran QBs can impact their new NFL teams in 2025 season

We examine what these four signal-callers can bring to their new squads

While we didn't see a super busy veteran quarterback carousel this offseason, a small collection of reasonably marquee, established names will play in new locales this upcoming season. It felt like most NFL teams had a keen sense of the weaker quarterback class in the draft, which jumpstarted veteran movement at the position during March's free agency period. 

It will take time to get used to Sam Darnold in the Pacific Northwest with the Seahawks, and Geno Smith wearing a Raiders helmet. Meanwhile, Justin Fields is already on his third team in three years after being a multi-year full-time starter in Chicago with the Bears. Oh yeah, we'll also get a Daniel Jones-Anthony Richardson quarterback competition in Indianapolis this summer. 

What will these veteran passers bring to the field for their new teams? Here's a breakdown.

Sam Darnold, Seahawks

What Darnold brings: Keen knowledge of the system, big-time flashes

On paper, by following coaching tree branches, Darnold and Seahawks new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak should be an exquisite fit on paper from a scheme perspective. 

Klint Kubiak is the son of Gary Kubiak, who famously worked under Mike Shanahan in the late 1990s. Gary Kubiak has long ties to Kyle Shanahan -- and even gave Shanahan his first OC job with the Texans in 2008. And who is one of the primary branches off the still young, but exponentially growing Kyle Shanahan coaching tree? Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings head coach, who helped orchestrate Darnold's otherworldly resurgence from the land of draft busts in 2024, when he threw for over 4,300 yards with 35 touchdowns, 12 interceptions and a 102.5 rating, which ranked sixth in the NFL last season. 

As we saw in the extremely costly regular-season finale loss, and the subsequent wild-card defeat against the Rams, Darnold can implode. He also can also produce majestic highs, probably more so than the steadier Smith, whom Darnold has replaced in Seattle. 

In 2024, Darnold completed 36 passes with 20+ air yards, the highest figure among any quarterback in football. He did so with the third-highest adjusted completion rate (50.6%) on those deep passes. 

Geno Smith, Raiders

What Smith brings: High-level accuracy, more of a vertical element to the pass game

Quietly, well into his 30s, Smith established himself as one of the NFL's most consistently accurate quarterbacks. He finished in the top 10 in adjusted completion percentage during his three full seasons as the Seahawks' starter from 2022 to 2024. His average depth of target (aDOT) finishes in those three seasons were 20th, 18th and most recently, 29th, out of around 40 to 45 qualifying passers, so his accuracy numbers weren't anchored by a litany of short, naturally high-percentage attempts. 

While teammate Aidan O'Connell could probably best be billed as a quick-strike, accurate quarterback with severe arm-strength and athleticism hindrances, the former Purdue passer finished 37th out of 44 qualifiers in adjusted completion rate a season ago. Gardner Minshew was 16th with the second-lowest aDOT among qualifiers. 

Smith indisputably raises the floor of Las Vegas' passing offense, from many perspectives. It can be much more of a threatening three-level attack, and his accuracy should equate to much more efficiency moving the football through the air. 

What's also potentially incredibly fun about his pairing with the Raiders and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly -- at West Virginia, Smith excelled in an up-tempo, spread-based Air Raid-style offense, which is comparable to what Kelly utilized at Oregon to rise to football-coaching prominence a few years before Smith entered the NFL. 

Justin Fields, Jets

What Fields brings: Athletic dual-threat upside, new offensive wrinkles

Fields is simultaneously a known commodity and a quarterback who appears to have untapped potential. It's a reputation paradox derived from the former first-round pick entering his fifth NFL season with fewer than 1,200 career passing attempts on his resume. And he only turned 26 years old in March. 

Surely, the Jets believe there's still untapped potential to Fields' game, as he's penciled in as their Week 1 starter right now. Then again, New York only gave Fields a two-year, $40 million deal with $30 million fully guaranteed at signing in an area when high-level starting quarterbacks are receiving more than $50 million in average per year on second and third contracts. 

Here's where I land on Fields entering 2025: We mostly know who he is as an NFL quarterback, and it's a limited but occasionally exciting asset to an offense. While he's only tossed a little more than 200 passes than 2023 No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young, Fields hasn't had long stretches of super-efficient passing productivity, yet his running capabilities have, at times, made him a useful threat with the ball in his hands. 

To date, Fields has one game with a passer rating over 100 in which he threw more than 30 passes. His best three-game stretch came in October and early November 2022, when completed nearly 65% of his throws with seven touchdowns to one pick. It came with a measly 6.2 yards-per-attempt average and he averaged fewer than 24 attempts per game in that span. 

However, as consistently mediocre he's been as a thrower, Fields has been that effective as a runner -- the 1,000-yard rushing season in 2022 is at the top of his NFL resume to date. Even in his short starting audition for the Steelers in 2024, Fields averaged 4.7 yards per rush on more than 10 totes per game with five scores. Fields is a high-caliber athlete at the quarterback position, and it'd behoove the Jets' offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand, a Ben Johnson protege, to get Fields outside the pocket on rollouts and call a variety of read-option plays in which the still relatively youthful quarterback can keep it and run. 

The Zach Wilson and Aaron Rodgers' eras hardly featured scrambling improvisation, and the designed quarterback run game was nonexistent. Those two elements can come to life with Fields in the shotgun. 

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Daniel Jones, Colts

What Jones brings: Somewhat respectable floor, short-area accuracy

I'll go back to the draft with Jones. If he was a second- or third-round pick like he should've been, we'd all view him in a much more positive light. Instead, he gets the first-round bust draft label. With over 2,200 attempts in his career, Jones is what he is at this stage of his career -- a quarterback who can create minor flashes at times, but struggles mightily against pressure and has a propensity to turnover the football. 

Jones' most successful season, in 2022, earned him that sizable multi-year extension from the Giants, which is what I'm guessing the Colts are clinging to as well. He led the NFL with an adjusted completion rate of 80.7%. That came with an aDOT of just 6.5 yards, the lowest in the league. 

Remember how many bubble screens toward an open Josh Downs Anthony Richardson airmailed a season ago? If nothing else, Jones establishes a reasonable floor at the quarterback spot for Indianapolis. He can run an offense. He can get the ball out of his hands quickly -- at times -- and in the quick-strike game, he can be very accurate. Colts head coach Shane Steichen fostered the start of Jalen Hurts' development in an RPO-based, short-passing game in Philadelphia in 2021 and 2022. If Richardson can't beat out Jones in camp, or the Colts have to turn to Jones midseason, the veteran can adequately play a similar style of offense under Steichen.