QB purgatory: Path for Giants, Browns and five other teams to change their fate at NFL's most crucial position

Nothing is worse than being stuck in the middle at quarterback

Quarterback play falls into three categories for the most part. There are star quarterbacks capable of elevating a team and leading them to a Super Bowl. There are the struggling quarterbacks who make it quite clear it's time to move on. Then there's the middle ground -- QB purgatory: The average-to-above-average starters aren't quite good enough to lead their team to the holy grail, but not quite bad enough to start over from scratch. They can win a playoff game once in a while and maybe even a title if all the stars align, but usually they leave a team muddled in mediocrity. 

QB purgatory is the worst space for a team to be in. Take the Giants for example. It looked like Daniel Jones' days in New York were numbered through three seasons, but then Brian Daboll came along. Jones cut down the turnovers, showed upside with over 700 rushing yards and led New York to a playoff win in his contract season with a bad supporting cast. 

That put the Giants in a tough position. They could have let Jones walk and started over at quarterback. But drafting one is a complete crapshoot. First-round quarterbacks under the new CBA (since 2011) sign a second contract with their debut team less than 40 percent of the time. The success rate isn't even a coin flip.