No quarter gi i
Fate has thrust a number of unheralded quarterbacks squarely in the sp p opening weekend of the NFL playoffs, reports Mark Mas
THE NFL playoffs are all about quarterbacking greatness. This postseason could revolve around Tom Brady’s attempt to secure a fifth career Super Bowl triumph with the New England Patriots. Or perhaps the central storyline will end up being Dak Prescott trying to cap his already remarkable rookie season as a Dallas Cowboy with a confetticovered celebration.
But first, the opening weekend of these playoffs could be the exception that proves the rule. The four first-round post-season games today and tomorrow are littered with quarterbacks better suited to the second half of an August preseason game, with the stands far from filled and the front-line players watching safely from the sideline, as opposed to a highstakes January encounter.
There is Matt Moore, a longtime backup who has become the Miami Dolphins’ starter by necessity. There is Brock Osweiler, the Houston Texans’ failed-so-far US$72 million man whose recent benching has been undone by circumstances. There is Connor Cook, a rookie third stringer who will make his first NFL start because of injuries to not one, but two Oakland Raiders quarterbacks.
‘‘You have guys here that can make a name for themselves,’’ former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann said this week. ‘‘They have a chance to go out and make people look at them in a totally different way.’’ Or not. This weekend’s games will showcase their fair share of prominent quarterbacks with Hall of Fame-worthy careers. Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and the New York Giants’ Eli Manning are former Super Bowl winners. Detroit’s Matthew Stafford has one of the nine 5000-yard passing seasons in NFL history and was a league MVPcandidate this season before an injured middle finger on his throwing hand hindered his recent performance.
But that is how it’s supposed to be. That is the norm. What makes this weekend noteworthy is the pervasiveness of the not-ready-forprime-time quarterbacks who will take the field, not by choice but because of injuries to those slated to play in front of them.
That happens in the NFL, of course. It even happens in the playoffs. The Arizona Cardinals started Ryan Lindley in a playoff game two years ago because of injuries to starter Carson Palmer and backup Drew Stanton along with Coach Bruce Arians’s wariness of going with rookie Logan Thomas. They lost to the Carolina Panthers 27-16, and generated 78 yards total offence, a record low for a post-season game.
But happening to three teams in the same post-season? That’s not a normal occurrence. According to the NFL, Cook will become the first quarterback during the Super Bowl era to make his first career start in a post-season game.
‘‘Sometimes not knowing what you don’t know is the best thing for you,’’ Theismann said. ‘‘He just says, ‘OK, we’re playing the Texans. I’ll study up and get ready and go play’. He doesn’t know regular season speed. So he doesn’t know that playoff speed is faster.’’
Cook’s Raiders and Osweiler’s Texans play one another today in Houston. The Raiders were on their way to a magical season and looked like a formidable threat to the Patriots in the AFC when Derek Carr, their brilliant third-year quarterback who had blossomed into anMVP front-runner, suffered a broken fibula in his right leg during a Christmas Eve game against the Indianapolis Colts.
Enter backup Matt McGloin. But he suffered a shoulder injury during last Monday’s loss at Denver that, combined with the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory, cost the Raiders the AFC West title and dropped them from the second to the fifth playoff seed.
So now things fall to Cook, who was chosen in the fourth round of last year’s NFL draft out of Michigan State. He was the draft’s 100th overall selection, coming off the board 35 spots before Prescott. NFL talent evaluators liked his passing ability but wondered about things like leadership, given that he hadn’t been elected a team captain during his final season at Michigan State.
Cook, for his part, pointed out that he’d been chosen as a captain