Football is an unforgiving game. It doesn't take much to go from franchise quarterback to backup. There are always superstars who are going to keep their jobs for years regardless of what happens, but think about passers such as Carson Wentz and Matt Schaub, who went from unquestioned starters to pariahs in a matter of months. The time when quarterbacks would get years to prove themselves is long over.
Let's sort through the quarterbacks whose situations are most vulnerable after the first three weeks of the NFL season. I'm not rooting for anyone to get benched, but there are a handful of teams that have to be concerned about what they've seen from their starters. There are others that already were wondering about their options before the season and might be aggressive about making a move, even if their starter is playing reasonably well at the moment.
One quarterback who isn't on the list: Justin Fields. On the merits of the Chicago offense, he could be benched. His 21.0 Total QBR ranks last in the league. The Bears rank 28th in yards per play (4.4), 29th in yards per game (250) and 31st in expected points added on offense (minus-27.8). He has looked lost for long stretches of games and has shown virtually none of the upside Bears fans were so excited to see more often in 2023.
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For a few reasons, I don't think benching Fields makes sense. The Bears' primary backup is Nathan Peterman, so they aren't going to be upgrading to a successful veteran if they make the switch. This is Fields' third season, so they need to evaluate as many of his reps as possible before making a decision about his fifth-year option for next spring. That they seem to have made the wrong choices around him is obvious, but benching him won't solve any of those mistakes.
I'll sort through six passers from most likely to be benched to least likely. The quarterbacks at the end of the list might be candidates for a change sometime in December if their teams are out of the playoff hunt. The one at the top might be about to start his last game with his current team.
Jump to a quarterback:
Sam Howell | Baker Mayfield
Desmond Ridder | Ryan Tannehill
Russell Wilson | Zach Wilson
1. Zach Wilson, New York Jets
Where do we begin? It was unfair to judge Wilson by what we saw against the Bills in Week 1, when he was forced into the lineup because of Aaron Rodgers' torn left Achilles tendon. Facing one of the league's best defenses with no first-team reps on about 30 seconds' notice, he always was going to look bad.
Since then, things haven't gotten much better. Any suggestion that Wilson would have been chastened by his quick fall from grace or picked up much from Rodgers during their summer together in New York hasn't been borne out by what we've seen. Sadly, if anything, he looks worse than he did over the previous two seasons. Wilson's 26.7 Total QBR is comfortably the worst of his career and 10 points below where he eventually landed in 2022. It's actually worse (24.7) if you remove the emergency snaps against Buffalo from the equation. His completion rate (52.4%) and yards per attempt (5.6) are at career lows.
In trying to keep the offense afloat and avoid turnovers with Wilson, it appears offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett's plan has been to keep things simple and try to eliminate anything that might be challenging. Wilson is averaging 6.6 air yards per throw, which is down about 1.5 yards from last season. One-third of his passes are at or behind the line of scrimmage -- the second-highest rate in football -- and 7.1% of his passes are deep (20-plus yards downfield), which ranks 27th.
You can understand the logic, but it's neutering any hope the Jets have of scoring on offense. Wilson needs to piece together a handful of first downs for this team to score, and that's just not realistic. He is still being pressured at the league's second-highest rate despite the short passes, and when there's a man on him, disaster strikes. He is 6-of-30 for 54 yards with eight sacks and an interception when pressured this season; his 3.7 QBR in those situations ranks 31st. Every passer is relatively bad under pressure, but the Jets can't count on landing on a single drive in which he goes unpressured for 10 or 12 plays and it leads to a scoring opportunity.
As it is, the 1-2 Jets have scored three offensive touchdowns in three games. The one against the Bills came on a short field after an interception. The score against the Cowboys came on a 68-yard pass to Garrett Wilson in which the star wide receiver generated 55 yards after catch. The touchdown against the Patriots on Sunday was really the first complete possession the Jets have had all season, a 13-play, 84-yard drive with seven first downs. If the Jets were hoping it was a sign of things to come, the ensuing three drives produced a total of two points ... for New England.
You don't need me to tell you Wilson is not a starting-caliber quarterback. I already wrote earlier this week about how the Jets created a disastrous situation around him in the scenario in which he might need to start by not doing enough to address the offensive line and by putting every one of their offseason eggs into the "Are you friends with Aaron Rodgers?" bucket.
Why didn't the Jets add anybody more imposing to back up Rodgers than Tim Boyle? And why is coach Robert Saleh still out here saying things like this?
Saleh claiming Wilson, despite poor performance, is an improved player: "He's our unquestioned quarterback."
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) September 25, 2023
And this: "He's not the reason why we lost yesterday." #Jets
There's an important thing to remember here. Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas were the people who drafted Wilson with the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. They convinced themselves he was a franchise quarterback. The quotes from the organization about Wilson and his strengths from before the draft sound like they were watching an entirely different quarterback. Nobody is more invested in seeing Wilson emerge as a viable quarterback than the people in charge of this organization.
Unfortunately, it's time. When you have Joe Namath describing Wilson's play as "disgusting," it's telling. It isn't as if the Jets have had decades of great quarterback play before now. Namath bit his tongue and endured the likes of Browning Nagle, Ray Lucas, Brooks Bollinger and Sam Darnold. Heck, Namath said Nagle would handle the adversity of playing in New York "just fine." You can only imagine how much worse Wilson must look to the Hall of Famer by comparison.
I wrote about the Jets' options when Rodgers went down injured. The trade candidates around the league aren't particularly realistic, at least right now. There's a chance Kirk Cousins or Ryan Tannehill come available if their teams start 1-6, but the Jets might be right there alongside them. Matt Ryan or Philip Rivers shouldn't be coming out of retirement to get the snot beat out of them behind this offensive line.
Of the free agents who were available, I was surprised to see the Jets pass up Carson Wentz to sign Trevor Siemian to their practice squad this week. Siemian has been a backup-caliber player during his time in the NFL, but he has been better than Wilson. Former Saints coach Sean Payton had Siemian running a low-risk, low-reward offense during his last significant stretch as a starter in 2021. Siemian threw 11 touchdown passes against just three interceptions but averaged 6.1 yards per attempt and completed 57.4% of his passes. If the Jets want to stick with this style of offense and focus on protecting the football, he's a better option than Wilson, but they still have virtually no ceiling on offense.
Siemian will be inactive against the Chiefs this week, but the Jets have to consider pushing him into the starting lineup as early as Week 5 at Denver. The fans are obviously upset with what they're seeing, but reports of player unrest are more significant. Saleh had to bench Wilson last season when it became clear his credibility was being threatened by endorsing Wilson as the best option on the roster. That he was actually the best option through Week 3 is only through cronyism and naivete. This season is lost, but unless Saleh and Douglas follow through with the choices they need to make to show they've moved on from Wilson, it's going to jeopardize the two executives' futures with the organization.
2. Sam Howell, Washington Commanders
We knew virtually nothing about Howell as he entered the season as Washington's starter. He fell to the fifth round in the 2022 draft, sat for the majority of his rookie season and started only in Week 18 after Taylor Heinicke urged the coaching staff to play Howell instead. He looked good in that 26-6 win over the Cowboys, but his 19 pass attempts in the game were his only throws of the season.
Well, we now have 99 more attempts of regular-season Howell action to add to our sample. There are things to like. The raw product he puts out there is compelling and sometimes extremely impressive. In terms of negative plays, though, he looks every bit the quarterback who has made four NFL starts. He won't make it through the season playing this way.
Let's start with the positives. Howell is fun to watch when things are working. Some of the throws he has made have been world-class. This throw to Terry McLaurin is both the right decision (deep post versus quarters coverage) and inch perfect. McLaurin has to make a great catch, but this pass is thrown into a spot where only he can come down with the football.
Terry McLaurin over two guys for the TD 😳 @TheTerry_25
— NFL (@NFL) September 17, 2023
📺: #WASvsDEN on CBS⁰📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/FhXtx7w3wW pic.twitter.com/SU2ZMTFm25
For a 6-foot-1 quarterback, Howell has more zip on his passes than you might think when he gets the time to set his feet and deliver. He's capable of hitting throws to either sideline from the pocket. The 23-year-old also has scrambled for 42 yards and three first downs on five tries, including the game-winning touchdown against the Cardinals. If you catch him on the right snap, he looks like he should have been a top-10 pick.
In whole, though, Howell is too destructive to keep the 2-1 Commanders afloat for long. He admittedly is coming off of a disaster game against a great Bills defense, but no quarterback can survive with this sort of penchant for ending drives. He has a 5.1% interception rate and a 16.1% sack rate through three games. The latter figure is the NFL's worst mark, while the only passer with a more significant interception rate is Jimmy Garoppolo.
Interceptions are more damning than sacks, but I'm more concerned about the sack rate of the two. A 16% sack rate is something out of the 20th century. Howell has been hit on more than 24% of his dropbacks this season; the only quarterback who has been hit more frequently is Russell Wilson.
The propensity to take sacks both runs the risk of injury and makes concepts that would be appealing in the playbook vectors for potential disaster. As an example, Howell's physical ability should make him a candidate to throw on the run. Changing a signal-caller's launch point slows down the pass rush, gets the quarterback outside the pocket, allows him to reduce the progression and creates scramble opportunities. All of that makes his life easier.
NFL Next Gen Stats defines a quarterback on the run as one traveling more than 8 mph. On those plays, Howell ranks last in the NFL in total expected points added (minus-23.0) and EPA per dropback (minus-1.3). The problem? On 18 dropbacks, he is 8-of-13 for 59 yards, but he has thrown an interception and taken five sacks. Some of those are plays in which he is running for his life, but if offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy can't trust him to run a naked bootleg without taking a sack, it's going to cut off what my friend Nate Tice likes to refer to an "easy button" for young quarterbacks.
The interceptions aren't exactly ideal, either. Howell was a little unlucky to have AJ Epenesa snatch a ball out of the air for a pick-six in Week 3, but Howell's four other interceptions on the season have come on off-platform throws in which he wasn't able to drive the ball. Quarterbacks can't get away with those throws in the NFL unless they have Justin Herbert-level arm strength, and Howell is never going to be that guy. Some quarterbacks make a habit of repeating the same mistake, with Zach Wilson's propensity for throwing late on the run to the middle of the field as an example. Howell has to recognize he can't make those throws and adjust accordingly. Ideally, he's going to be able to anticipate those receivers coming open over the middle of the field earlier, which will prevent defenses from laying waste to him in the pocket.
Even leaving aside the Bills game, Howell wasn't quite as impressive over the first two weeks as it might have seemed. His numbers against the Broncos were inflated by 88 yards on screen passes, which is nearly double the production of any other quarterback on screen passes in a single game this season. Only five other quarterbacks have had games with more yardage from screens over the past five years. Howell had three different screens gain at least 20 yards; the last time that happened in a game was when Nick Foles did it for the Eagles in 2013, which was coach Chip Kelly's first season as an NFL coach. Those are great calls from Bieniemy, but his quarterback wasn't exactly shouldering the load on those plays.
Unlike other quarterbacks on this list, the Commanders have an extremely viable backup. Jacoby Brissett started 11 games for the Browns last season and ranked 10th in Total QBR. His career sack rate is higher than the league average, but at 7.6%, that's about half of Howell's through three games. Crucially, Brissett doesn't turn the ball over, as his career interception rate is just 1.5%. The Commanders rank eighth in points per possession allowed since the start of 2022; their best way of winning games might be by playing defense and protecting the ball on offense.
For now, the Commanders are moving forward with Howell as the starter. Hopefully, what we saw against the Bills was one bad start and a lesson for him to learn as he continues on his path toward becoming a franchise quarterback. With the Eagles coming up Sunday, though, his ability to avoid sacks and protect the ball will be tested. If he can't hold onto it, coach Ron Rivera will have no choice but to give Brissett a try.
3. Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
These rankings are about who is most likely to be benched as opposed to which quarterback is playing the worst. Mayfield's play through three games, frankly, has been a pleasant surprise. The guy who ranked last in Total QBR with the Panthers and Rams last season is 17th so far. He has turned the ball over just once in three games, with an interception coming when he was late to recognize an open Chris Godwin against the Eagles on Monday night.
If anything, Mayfield has been let down by disappointing drops for the 2-1 Bucs. The normally sure-handed Mike Evans has three drops in three games, including a pass that likely would have produced a touchdown against the Vikings in Week 1. Other quarterbacks have it worse -- Matthew Stafford has had seven of his passes dropped -- but Mayfield's numbers could be even better.
In some ways, Mayfield has produced differently than the quarterback we've seen in the past. In Cleveland, he was at his best when he worked off play-action and had time to throw. Stick him in the pocket in an obvious passing situation and the results were usually frustrating.
So far this season, he has defied that scouting report. He has been much better on third down by QBR (seventh in the league) than he has been on first and second down (24th). His 78.1% completion rate is the league's best on third down, while his 14.9 completion percentage over expectation (CPOE) on those throws ranks second behind Joshua Dobbs. In all, 40% of his third-down dropbacks have produced third downs, well ahead of the league average of 29.6%.
Mayfield also has been brave in the pocket dealing with pressure. Consistent pressure has sometime led to bad habits for the 2018 No. 1 overall pick, who developed a propensity for escaping the pocket at the first hint of danger. He has taken on pass-rushers in the pocket and lived to tell the tale, ducking a couple of free runners to continue on and make plays. A quarterback would obviously rather the ball be out before those rushers get home, but he has been stronger in the pocket so far. He has posted a 96.2 QBR against the blitz this season, the third-best mark in football.
Has Mayfield benefited from his schedule? A little. I'm not sure there's a more dramatic bounce than going from the Vikings and Bears to the Eagles, and unsurprisingly, he ranked 11th in QBR over the first two games and 25th afterward. (Opponent adjustments will become more significant as the season goes along.) He definitely has played different sorts of defenses so far: Mayfield and the Bucs had to prepare for a blitz- and man-heavy Vikings team in Week 1 before moving on to the Bears and Eagles, who play zone at a much higher rate than Minnesota. Playing solid football behind an iffy offensive line for this three-week span is a positive.
So, why isn't Mayfield lower on this list? He was in a closer battle before the season than any of the other quarterbacks we're discussing today. Kyle Trask, a second-round pick in 2021, hasn't proved anything as an NFL quarterback, but the Buccaneers waited until Aug. 22 before naming Mayfield as their Week 1 starter, suggesting that Mayfield entered the season on a shorter leash than any other passer in the league. The front office that drafted Trask at the end of Round 2 would probably like to see whether it has anything in him before the end of his third campaign in the league, but Mayfield has grown the gap between the two with his play.
4. Desmond Ridder, Atlanta Falcons
When Atlanta coach Arthur Smith was approached after the Week 1 victory over the Panthers and asked why wideout Drake London had been targeted only once, he was more than happy to poke the proverbial bear. "Let the fantasy guys worry about that," Smith told reporters. "We've got to clean some things up. ... We don't care. Drake London doesn't care. All we care about is 1-0."
Well, the Falcons are 2-1, which is a good start for a team hoping to contend for a playoff berth. Unlike last season, though, they aren't being carried by their offense. Marcus Mariota & Co. ranked 12th in offensive DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) last season. This season, with Ridder taking over as the full-time starter and first-round running back Bijan Robinson added to the fold, they rank 24th. Without a player-of-the-week performance from new safety Jessie Bates as part of a three-takeaway game in Week 1, they would likely be 1-2.
Robinson has been as advertised, as he ranks third in the NFL in rush yards over expectation (RYOE). The passing game? Not as much. Ridder is averaging 4.6 yards per dropback, which ranks 31st, behind Zach Wilson and Justin Fields. Nobody expected the Falcons to morph into the Chiefs, but the hopes that Smith and Ridder would be able to marry the rushing attack with a more expansive passing game haven't come through.
We've already seen how this could work in Tennessee, where Smith served as the team's offensive coordinator for two seasons before taking the Falcons job in 2021. The Titans threw less often than any other team. When they did throw, it was usually Ryan Tannehill hitting chunk plays off of play-action. With London and tight end Kyle Pitts -- two recent top-10 picks -- on the roster, Smith has super-talented pass-catchers capable of running away from defenders with the ball in their hands. Mariota wasn't a great fit for that offense, but maybe Ridder would be with a full offseason of preparation.
So far? Not so much. Ridder's 36.1 QBR on play-action ranks 26th in the league. Watching his 28 pass attempts there, I see more screens and throws into the flat than I do shots downfield. His average pass there is traveling about 8.0 yards in the air. When it comes to the sort of seven-step drop hard play-action Smith thrived with in Tennessee, there's really about four plays in three games. Two were completed, one with a spectacular leaping catch from Pitts in coverage. Ridder missed Pitts on what could have been a long completion against the Lions on Sunday on one of those two incompletions.
Throwing screens is great, especially when a team has Robinson and an effective offensive line, but this offense is missing a regular vertical component. Ridder's four plays of more than 25 yards in the passing game have come on that Pitts catch on a 50-50 ball, a fade to London, a flea-flicker to Mack Hollins and a swing pass to Robinson against a broken coverage. Those plays where Tannehill was able to hit A.J. Brown on digs with space to roam after the catch aren't present in this offense, and it's something it needs.
The other big concern for Ridder is the same issue that impacted Mariota a year ago: sacks. Mariota had a lengthy track record of taking sacks at astronomical rates and continued to do so in Atlanta, as he went down on 8.5% of his dropbacks. Ridder was sacked on 7.3% of his dropbacks as a rookie, so the hope was that he would be able to avoid those frustrating plays as he grew into his starting role.
So far this season, Ridder has been sacked on 12% of his dropbacks. It's extremely difficult to get sacked that often and sustain a great offense; Russell Wilson has been able to pull it off at times by being a terrific downfield passer, but Ridder hasn't shown that ability yet. Mobile quarterbacks can occasionally take more sacks as they scramble to extend plays, but most of Ridder's sacks have taken place in the pocket. Left guard Matthew Bergeron has given up a handful of pressures, but Ridder is still feeling out when to stick in the pocket and when to bail.
The sacks have to go away. The Falcons are averaging 2.2 points per drive on the possessions in which Ridder doesn't take a sack and 0.5 points per drive on the ones in which he does. Backup Taylor Heinicke has generally posted a better sack rate as a pro, taking sacks on just under 7% of his dropbacks as part of a middling Washington offense over the past couple of seasons.
Given how little the Falcons are asking of their quarterback right now, benching Ridder for Heinicke doesn't seem to have much of a point. They're running at the third-highest rate in football in neutral game scripts and throwing the seventh-shortest passes when the play doesn't call for a screen. As long as Ridder gets the ball out more often than he did against the Lions, I would be surprised if Smith made a move to Heinicke. Unlike last season, though, make no mistake: The offense is struggling through three games.
5. Russell Wilson, Denver Broncos
If you were making a list of everything wrong with the 0-3 Broncos right now, Wilson shouldn't be anywhere near the top. The defense blew leads in Weeks 1 and 2 and might as well have not bothered showing up for the Week 3 Dolphins game. Injuries have hindered the Broncos on both sides of the ball, as key players such as safety Justin Simmons and wideout Jerry Jeudy have missed games. Denver's rushing attack is generating the most expected yards per carry (4.9), but its backs have actually averaged 4.4 yards per attempt; the ensuing gap ranks 28th.
Wilson has been inconsistent. He still has a dramatic first-half/second-half split, as his league-best 93.0 QBR before the break drops to 17.1 afterward, which ranks 30th. He hasn't taken well to coach Sean Payton's quick game, as Wilson's 48.1 QBR when holding the ball for 2.5 seconds or less ranks 30th too. Wilson ranks sixth, however, when he holds the ball for longer than that 2.5-second clip.
There are positives to hold onto. Some of the elements in which Wilson excelled before his disastrous 2022 campaign are beginning to show signs of life. He ranks third in QBR on play-action, up from 24th a year ago. He is eighth in QBR against split-safety coverages -- an issue that gave "Mr. Unlimited" trouble during the second half of 2021 and into 2022 -- and third against disguised coverages. He has a league-high five completions on throws traveling 30 or more yards in the air; he had only 10 all of last season.
Does that all add up to a great passing attack? Not yet. Wilson is getting pressured at the second-highest rate in the NFL, and that isn't always because of offensive line breakdowns. There are too many moments during games in which he seems to get to the end of his drop and freezes because nobody's open and/or he doesn't know where to go with the ball. Whether that's due to the growing pains of getting used to a new offense, poor receiver play or Wilson not seeing what he expects and not having answers is something only he and Payton can know.
On the merits of his play alone, Wilson shouldn't be benched. He ranks 13th in Total QBR, and the Broncos are 13th in expected points added (EPA) per dropback. While they didn't trade all those first-round picks in the hopes of landing a just-above-average quarterback to lead a just-above-average offense, anyone who can remember what this offense looked like in 2022 should be happy with what he has done so far. Denver also will get the Bears and Jets over the next two weeks, games it would expect to win.
Then again, the Broncos should have beaten the Commanders and Raiders at home and instead lost to both. They just lost by 50 points to Miami, which could unravel their season altogether. Their four games after the Jets matchup in Week 5 include a home-and-home with the Chiefs, the Packers and the Bills. There's a chance they are 1-8 heading into the second half of the campaign.
If that happens, Payton will be left with a difficult choice. The Broncos can get out of Wilson's deal after 2023 by designating him as a post-June 1 release, but they would be forced to eat $85 million in dead money in the process. That's more than double the NFL record for any one individual player (Matt Ryan). Would they install backup Jarrett Stidham for the season's second half, sit Wilson to avoid a major injury and tank in the hopes of landing one of the top two picks in next year's draft? Probably not, but I'm not sure we can be confident about how anybody reacts to getting blown out by 50 points.
6. Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee Titans
The 1-2 Titans don't have much happening on offense. They rank 30th in the league by DVOA, ahead of only the Bears and Jets. Star running back Derrick Henry is averaging 3.2 yards per carry. He actually has generated two rush yards over expectation on his 51 attempts, but only two backs with at least 30 carries have a worse expected RYOE figure this season. In other words, the holes simply aren't there for Henry to break through.
The passing attack isn't faring much better. Tannehill is on pace to set a career low in yards per attempt (6.6) and career highs for sack rate (13.5%) and interception rate (3.6%). Some of those numbers should regress to the mean as the season continues, but you get the idea: He isn't producing much at the moment.
The vaunted play-action attack that reignited Tannehill's career after he joined the Titans in 2019 still has some meat on the bone. He is averaging 9.9 yards per attempt when he uses play fakes, which is the fifth-best mark in the league. The problem is what happens when offensive coordinator Tim Kelly asks him to simply drop back and throw in passing situations. Tannehill is averaging 2.8 yards per dropback in those situations, which is the worst mark in the NFL. The best versions of the Tennessee offense used to dominate in play-action and hold its own in the dropback game. Now, it's solid in play-action and hopeless without it.
It's unfair to pin all of this on Tannehill. An offensive line that looked like trouble heading into the season has been disastrous. Right tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere has been suspended six games for violating the league's gambling policy, while rookie first-round pick Peter Skoronski has been sidelined for the past two games after undergoing an appendectomy.
Left tackle Andre Dillard, who received $10 million guaranteed in free agency in March, has looked no better in Tennessee than he did in Philadelphia. Left one-on-one against Myles Garrett in Week 3, Dillard allowed three sacks and two knockdowns of Tannehill. He already has allowed five sacks, per Stats LLC, and he hasn't shown the functional strength left tackles need to hold up against pass-rushers.
I would never rule out coach Mike Vrabel doing something drastic if he thinks it'll help. Remember, when he initially benched Marcus Mariota for Tannehill in 2019, Vrabel was transparent about his decision in saying that he wanted to "spark" the offense. Vrabel hinted that Mariota could return as the starter later in the season, but Tannehill excelled and kept the job.
In 2023, though, the Titans don't have a veteran on their roster ready to take over. Malik Willis threw 61 passes as a rookie last season and struggled mightily, leading them to promote Joshua Dobbs into the starting role ahead of their third-round pick when Tannehill was out with a right high ankle sprain. Rookie second-rounder Will Levis missed time in training camp and didn't project to be an immediate starter. Tennessee also guaranteed Tannehill's $27 million base salary for the year by keeping him on the roster for Week 1; if one of those guys were really ready to play, it likely would have cut him or asked him to take a pay cut.
Could we see Levis or Willis in December if this continues and the Titans fall out of the playoff hunt? Of course, given that Tannehill is in the final year of his deal and hasn't signed an extension. With Tennessee just one game back of the Colts in the AFC South after three games, Vrabel isn't about to torpedo his team's season by going to a developmental option under center. While I wouldn't be surprised if the team made a change at left tackle, Tannehill should feel comfortably ensconced at QB for a couple of more months.