It’s been a crazy offseason, particularly at the quarterback position. Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson are at new addresses, and there are some decent undercard items as well, with Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz in line to start for playoff-caliber teams.

The Falcons (Marcus Mariota), Seahawks (Drew Lock) and Steelers (Mitchell Trubisky) might also have new veteran starters, and Baker Mayfield is still in play (he won’t be staying with the Browns for long).

With Watson, it’s not surprising that he was traded, but the contract was a shocker. The Browns not only gave up three first-round picks (reasonable for a 26-year-old franchise quarterback) but gave him a fully guaranteed contract worth $230 million over the next five years. Watson has 22 civil cases pending against him with various sexual misconduct charges, making it look likely he’ll miss about half of the upcoming season (and I’m not saying he’ll play at all in 2022). That looks like a wildly reckless move by the Browns.

Movement wise, this might be the busiest quarterback offseason ever.

In each of the last two seasons, a transplant quarterback has put up top-10 numbers and taken his team to the Super Bowl – Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford. But only two other transplant quarterbacks in the previous 10 seasons finished with top-10 numbers.

If Watson somehow avoids a suspension (which isn’t going to happen), it will seem pretty certain that a couple of these re-located quarterbacks will finish with top-10 numbers. Maybe even three. And there will be a good chance that four will finish with top-20 numbers, which is the most we’ve seen. That happened two years ago, but three of those guys were pretty modest, barely making the top 20 (Cam Newton, Teddy Bridgewater and Philip Rivers).

Since the move to eight divisions in 2002, 32 quarterbacks have finished with top-20 numbers in their first season with a new team. They’re listed below. For the guys making the top 10, they’re tagged with black dots. Twice (in 2006 and 2009) there have been two in the top 10 in the same season.

Of these quarterbacks, four started in conference championship games (Brady and Stafford, of course, and Drew Brees and Brett Favre in the 2006 and 2009 seasons).

TRANSPLANTED QUARTERBACKS WITH TOP-20 NUMBERS
YearPlayerGSPassTDIntRunTDPtsRk
2002• Drew Bledsoe, Buff.164,3592415672332.75
2003Jake Delhomme, Car.153,2191916391246.915
2003Jake Plummer, Den.112,1821572053207.620
2004Kerry Collins, Oak.133,4952120360262.415
2004Vinny Testaverde, Dall.153,5321720381256.416
2005• Drew Bledsoe, Dall.163,6392317502293.05
2005Gus Frerotte, Mia.152,9961813610227.917
2006• Drew Brees, N.O.164,4182611320332.12
2006• Jon Kitna, Det.164,20821221562322.03
2006Steve McNair, Balt.163,05016121191234.419
2007Jeff Garcia, T.B.132,4401341161191.619
2008Brett Favre, NYJ163,4722222431274.111
2008Chad Pennington, Mia.163,653197621270.913
2009• Brett Favre, Min.164,20233770343.67
2009• Jay Cutler, Chi.163,66627261731318.610
2009Kyle Orton, Den.153,8022112710281.216
2011Matt Hasselbeck, Ten.163,5711814520255.818
2012• Peyton Manning, Den.164,659371160383.66
2013Carson Palmer, Ariz.164,274242230310.015
2013Alex Smith, K.C.153,3132374311307.416
2015Ryan Fitzpatrick, NYJ163,90531152702358.312
2015Tyrod Taylor, Buff.143,0352065684316.018
2017Case Keenum, Min.143,5472271601289.415
2018• Kirk Cousins, Min.164,29830101231360.18
2018Case Keenum, Den.163,8901815932287.819
2019Ryan Fitzpatrick, Mia.133,52920132434306.818
2020• Tom Brady, T.B.164,633401263410.37
2020Cam Newton, N.E.152,65781059213309.617
2020Teddy Bridgewater, Car.153,73315112795306.619
2020Philip Rivers, Ind.164,1692411-80305.720
2021• Matthew Stafford, LAR174,8864117430416.65
2021Carson Wentz, Ind.173,5632772151317.714
2022Russell Wilson, Den.????????
2022Deshaun Watson, Cle.????????
2022Matt Ryan, Ind.????????
2022Baker Mayfield, TBD????????
2022Carson Wentz, Was.????????
2022Drew Lock, Sea.????????
2022Mitchell Trubisky, Pitt.????????
2022Marcus Mariota, Atl.????????

—Ian Allan