Today’s NFL is changing.
Back in the day, teams were filled with players like Barry Sanders, Earl Campbell, Eric Dickerson and Jerome Bettis. The game was geared toward the rushing attack. It ate up clock and it allowed a team to control the tempo of the game. There were few two-back systems or air raid offenses. Ground and pound with one work-horse back was the name of the game.
Now, the NFL has shifted to an aerial assault.
Peyton Manning and Tom Brady highlight the league’s top passers and fill up walls of young kids’ bedrooms all across the country.
With that, the need for teams to find the next top passer has become the topic of just about every NFL team’s war room.
The motive hasn’t changed when it comes to the reason why a team drafts a quarterback. There are two reasons. One, you need some competition to push the current starter. Two, you’re looking for the future.
But the way teams are going about throwing their rookies into the quarterback position isn’t helping anyone – especially the quarterback.
Owning an NFL team is owning a business. Wouldn’t you rather hire someone as an intern and have them learn the craft and perfect it before throwing them to the wolves?
Since the 2004 NFL Draft, only four quarterbacks taken in the first round have Super Bowl wins – Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco.
The most recent, Flacco, took over as the starter in Baltimore by chance when Kyle Boller and Troy Smith were unable to go. It took him until the 2012 season to win a Super Bowl even though he led the Ravens to the playoffs each season.
Manning took over during the 2004 season, albeit not in the first game of the season. But after starting a majority of the games in 2004, Manning inherited the starting job when Kurt Warner retired in 2005.
Roethlisberger had the same fate, starting the season out as the No. 3 QB but soon taking over during the 2004 season.
Rodgers sat behind future Hall of Famer Brett Favre before taking over the Green Bay Packers and eventually winning a Super Bowl.
See a pattern here?
It was never the plan for any of those QBs to be thrown into the starting role Week 1 of their draft year.
Look at the quarterbacks taken after the 2005 season. There are guys like Matt Leinert, Vince Young, Jamarcus Russell, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman, Tim Tebow, Blaine Gabbert and Brandon Weeden.
None of those guys are known for anything successful even though Sanchez led the Jets to the AFC Championship on occasion and Tebow did down the Steelers in the playoffs with a pass that should never go as far as it did.
Rather than success they’re known for failure.
Some of the guys were major reaches in the first round – I’m looking at you Tebow, Leinert and Weeden – but the others may have had a decent shot had they been drafted into a system where a veteran quarterback who had just a few seasons left but was on the way out was present.
Yes, there are guys like Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan and Andrew Luck who have had success on small scales.
One would have thought Luck would’ve been given the chance to learn behind Peyton Manning but Manning was let go to clear space for Luck.
The days of learning the game from a veteran are over. Roles have been reversed. Rather than have a guy like Rodgers learn from a guy like Favre on the bench, you have guys getting drafted in the first round then their teams sign a veteran quarterback who has never started a day in his life to teach him the ropes in training camp.
Even Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who was drafted first overall in 1970 by the Steelers, sat a year before taking over the reins and becoming one of the best field generals of all time. And, even though he started during his second season, he still took a few seasons to get acclimated.
Sure, it’s possible to start from day one and be successful. Look at Peyton Manning. But now, guys like Weeden, Sanchez and Freeman aren’t even with the teams they were drafted by while Tebow and Russell sit at home.
It used to be, I wonder who will be the first round standout this season at quarterback?
But, as the draft approaches NFL GMs who might be looking for their future, you have to ask yourself: Who will be the next round one failure?
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