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Kyler was the top overall pick in 2019<\/a>, and Tua was the fifth pick taken in 2020. Both signed second contracts with the teams that drafted them, and now both are on different teams after their original ones decided to go in a different direction.<\/p>\n But this is less about them and more about the young quarterbacks they are coming in to compete against.<\/p>\n JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix<\/a> Jr. were both selected in the top-10 in the 2024 NFL Draft<\/a> (10th and 8th, respectively), and now both of their jobs are being threatened by veteran QBs who used to be in their shoes.<\/p>\n Well, almost in their shoes, the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> never brought in a young veteran QB to compete with Kyler Murray like the Minnesota Vikings<\/a> are doing with McCarthy.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n While the Dolphins did bring in veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick<\/a> to compete with Tua early in his career, Fitzpatrick has never been any team’s long-term answer at QB, and the expectation was always that Tua would take the starting job eventually, which he did. Now he is being brought in to compete with Penix, despite the third-year NFL players’ limited playing time<\/a>.<\/p>\n QBs Michael Penix Jr. and Tua Tagovailoa are competing for the same starting job. Photo by Todd Kirkland on Getty Images<\/p>\n Young signal callers are entering a New NFL era<\/p>\n The era of patience for your first-round quarterback seems to be dying. Now, it doesn’t matter how high a team drafts their quarterback; if they’re not sold on him, then nothing is off the table.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n In the NFL, getting to your second contract is a huge deal. The overall average NFL career is about 3.3 years<\/a>, and most rookie contracts last for 4 (teams have a fifth-year option on first-round picks), so a significant number of players never get to sign a second contract.<\/p>\n That’s why Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson requested a trade<\/a> this offseason.<\/p>\n Richardson was the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft, and despite questions about him coming out of college, you don’t draft a quarterback that high if you don’t expect him to contribute immediately (unless you are the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>).<\/p>\n But last offseason, after two injury-shortened seasons, the Colts<\/a> brought in young veteran Daniel Jones<\/a> to compete for the starting QB job in camp. Jones, of course, won the job, and the cycle continued: one team’s high draft-pick QB landing on another team and achieving success.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n But Jones grew up in a different era. Like Murray and Tua, Jones signed a lucrative second contract with the New York Giants<\/a> before they finally had enough of him.<\/p>\n Richardson probably won’t get that opportunity, and it remains to be seen whether Penix and McCarthy will either.<\/p>\n In a way, it makes sense. The NFL Draft is like a lottery, and teams want to scratch their tickets to see if they’ve won immediately so they can know whether or not they should gamble on that same position in the next draft.<\/p>\n Pitting your young draft pick against an established veteran is a great way to scratch off and see if you’ve hit the lottery with your pick. But it’s also a quick way to find out whether your organization has the wherewithal to develop young talent.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Anthony Richardson, JJ McCarthy, and Michael Penix Jr. will all probably have other opportunities in the league, no matter how this season turns out for them. They are too talented and have gone through too many layers of pro scrutiny for someone else not to give them a chance.<\/p>\n But with such a small sample size, it’s worth noting that the teams that drafted them didn’t give them much of a chance in the first place, either, despite a heavy incentive to do so.<\/p>\n Related: Commanders OC sends strong message on Terry McLaurin this season<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by Lindys Sports<\/a> on May 28, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add Lindys Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL is constantly changing, and if you’re a young, inexperienced quarterback in the league, it is changing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":700782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[15872,1745,505,49,48,13276,1765,255130,38444,13294,1749,89678,2598,1726,1728,514,146941,82,25121,2220],"class_list":["post-700781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-anthony-richardson","tag-arizona-cardinals","tag-atlanta","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colts","tag-daniel-jones","tag-indianapolis-colts-quarterback","tag-jj-mccarthy","tag-kyler-murray","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-michael-penix","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-new-york-giants","tag-nfl","tag-ryan-fitzpatrick","tag-sports","tag-the-nfl","tag-tua-tagovailoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/700782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"QBs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/85a81922a3a84c305e47ccd4183f6710.jpeg\"\/)
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