Charles McDonald is feeling festive, so here is some instant hope to fans of teams who may need it this holiday season.
Happy holidays! This edition of the Four Verts column is feeling the spirit of the season. Do you root for an NFL team that needs a quarterback? You’re in luck. What about a team that’s always injured? We’ve got a present there too! We’ll even give one team a prized asset back. That’s just how good we’re feeling.
QB-Needy Teams: Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore both declare
There are a lot of teams that potentially need a quarterback, and it appears the 2026 draft class, like most seasons, will be thin at the top with quarterback talent. Right now, the only player who appears to have long-term potential that is confirmed to be in the draft is Indiana’s Heisman-winning field general Fernando Mendoza.
Mendoza will be a top-five pick at worst, and Oregon’s Dante Moore could join him if he decides to declare. Moore is a first-year starter who is only 20 years old, but he has all the tools to be a high-upside passer as he develops his game. For Christmas, we are generating a world where both of these guys are in the class for QB-needy teams.
A handful of teams need to make an investment here. The Browns (sorry, Shedeur stans, you have to know this isn’t NFL-caliber play) and Raiders feel destined to at least be rumored to take one of these guys if they both declare, but there are some wild-card teams that could make a move as well. The Giants currently own the first overall pick in the draft and find themselves in a precarious situation coming off of Jaxson Dart’s 13-net-passing-yard performance against the Vikings this weekend. Taking a quarterback makes a whole lot of sense if they want to do that, especially since the rookie contract for a late first-round pick is not really all that taxing.
The Saints, Dolphins, Jets and Rams (using the Falcons’ pick) should be seen as threats to make a play for a quarterback too. That becomes a lot harder if this draft is like last year’s and there’s only one top quarterback. So we will use the magic powers of the North Pole to make Dante Moore enter the draft and provide another option for the host of teams that could be looking at a quarterback.
Chargers-49ers: A Madden-style injuries slider
Coming off of big wins this weekend that clinched playoff berths for both teams, the Chargers and 49ers are set to hit the playoffs in a season where that looked like a dubious proposition at times. For some reason, these two teams have just been plagued by injuries in recent history, and this season was no different.
Since the serious holes exposed by those injuries will probably lead to both the Chargers’ and 49ers’ demise in the playoffs, for this year Santa is bringing both teams an injury slider to get those guys back in for the playoffs. (For those who don’t play Madden, the games let you tweak the default settings to change the likelihood of certain elements — like injuries.)
It’s hard to decide who is in worse shape for this playoffs run, but let’s start with the 49ers who just let a Colts offense led by Old Man Rivers score 27 points with a borderline non-existent pass rush. That game certainly would have gone differently if they had Nick Bosa, Mykel Williams and Fred Warner, all of whom suffered season-ending injuries, and it’s time to see if the 49ers can actually go on another run without their best defenders. Their pass rush just doesn’t give them a great chance to sustain successful defense in the postseason, and they haven’t had a great run on that side of the ball recently outside of a game against the hazardous Cleveland Browns offense. It will be fun to see how that offense plays in the playoffs when they’re pressed for points, because Kyle Shanahan can still call an offense that will dice any defense up.
The Chargers are on here because they have a superhero at quarterback. Justin Herbert has stood tall through an onslaught of offensive line injuries, helping the team clinch a playoff berth with an incredible display of talent and firepower against the Dallas Cowboys this weekend. It’s just tough to see this team being able to go on a run with so many injuries up front, particularly to Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, their proposed elite bookend tackle duo now out for the season. Last year’s wild-card round didn’t go so well when an injured Chargers offensive line ran into the rabid Texans defense, and they face the potential of having the same gruesome fate this postseason.
Check your stockings, 49ers and Chargers, the magic of Christmas has brought something that can change the complexity of the entire world — a groundbreaking, in-real-life, injury setting like in Madden that is only being used on football, and not for any of the other ailments that plague people in society. (Don’t have time for all that.)
Steelers: The desire to make a proper move for a quarterback
Mike Tomlin! You’re still really good at this! Another year, another winning season for the Steelers, and it feels like they might actually have a shot to win a game in the postseason this year coming off an impressive win against the Lions this weekend. The Steelers have figured out how to get past some of their midseason ruts and are rounding into strong form heading into the postseason, but they still need something for the future: another real boy at quarterback. They’ve been cycling through the bottom of the barrel since Ben Roethlisberger retired, finally stumbling on a solid option this season with Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers has actually fared well, but Pittsburgh still needs to find a long-term option for the future. For Christmas, Santa’s elves have created a device that will convince Tomlin and the Steelers it’s time to really reach into that bag of assets to make the move we’ve been waiting on forever. The floor on this team doesn’t seem to be falling out any time soon, and they can blow the roof out with legitimate quarterback talent. Make the move!
Figuring out who that player would be is a tougher question, but it’s clear the Steelers shouldn’t fire Tomlin and they need a reset at the most important position in the game. Life doesn’t have to be this strenuous! Make the move, Mike. You’ve been gifted an opportunity by Big Red to find the next long-term Steelers quarterback.
Being able to compete with the rest of the division is already tough enough, and most years the Steelers are handicapping themselves with poor quarterback play. All of that can change this holiday season.
Falcons: Their first-round pick back
The Falcons walked into this season as their “all in” year. All their cap space and a future first-round pick was tied into this season … where they were eliminated from the playoffs incredibly early in arguably the worst iteration of the NFC South that existed since the division was formed in 2002. That’s a massive failure, and a sign the Falcons greatly overestimated how good this team was. So for Christmas, the Falcons get the mulligan of all mulligans and are gifted back their first-round pick that they traded away for James Pearce Jr. in last April’s NFL Draft.
Pearce has been solid for a rookie. He’s been a productive sub-package player for the Falcons, but ultimately spending two first-round picks on a player who is playing 53% of the snaps is not exactly how you completely fix your defense. Any team who is slated to pick in the top 10 could use that pick back, no matter how promising fans find Pearce’s future. Ultimately, this is a team that’s in store for a brutal 2026 season unless they can find some cheaper ways to add serious talent, because they’re going to be tight on cash again (relative to the talent on this team).
Hubris will come for us all, and no one has displayed that in a more egregious manner than the Falcons. They thought they had a winning team, which is pretty funny looking back. However, in this alternate universe, Santa has come to save the day by bringing their 2026 first-round pick down the chimney.
Category: General Sports
