NFL insider notes: Ranking 13 teams most desperate for a franchise QB, with Steelers, Buccaneers at the top

Behind the scenes, the scrambling has already begun.

In war rooms and meeting rooms, on yachts and within palatial estates — anywhere billionaire NFL owners meet with their coaches and management teams — the plotting and planning and pleading and praying has long been underway. For the legion of teams that are unsettled at the quarterback position, the desperation is already palpable in some corridors of the league. Hope is in short supply.

Hands are wringing. Jaws are clenched.

Probing questions are being asked of those in charge of NFL teams that are at times impossible to answer. Supply and demand in The Great QB Chase of 2022, alas, are not aligned, and many a general manager or offensive coordinator or head coach is already losing sleep wondering how this riddle will be solved. How can we get a franchise quarterback? And at what cost?

The draft offers few solutions. No sure things. More questions than answers there as well. Sure, two to four of them will likely get snatched up in the first round, but expecting immediate dividends is folly. Many a gaze is already being cast at the 2023 quarterback crop, which looks to be more robust. GMs are scurrying for any morsel of information about what legal consequences Deshaun Watson might face, knowing full well that clarity about any criminal charges he might face, let alone a suspension, is highly unlikely before the draft. Skepticism is growing about Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers truly becoming available, although actual details are in short supply. And regardless, those two will be able to steer where they land, and many of the teams most in need of their services aren’t close enough to winning to attract their attention.

Interest in guys like Jimmy Garoppolo and Carson Wentz is lukewarm as best I can tell, while some rumblings about Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan have picked up. But, again, how much can they elevate a franchise at this point?…