AN INABILITY TO FIND STABILITY
Change and uncertainty at quarterback are the new normal in the NFL. Nine teams could start a different QB in Week 1 than they did last year.
After the “Monday Night Football” theme music stops on Sept. 12, the NFL’s latest game of quarterback musical chairs will be complete.
The Rams will trot out Case Keenum, who backed up Nick Foles at the start of last season and is now a placeholder for No. 1 overall draft pick Jared Goff. The 49ers will go with Blaine Gabbert over Colin Kaepernick, though either option could provide more headaches than upside.
The game will be a microcosm of today’s NFL, where quarterback stability is badly needed but seldom found. Nine teams could start a different quarterback in Week 1 than they did in the 2015 opener. Twelve teams did so at the start of last season.
Just 12 of the league’s 32 franchises — including six of the last nine Super Bowl winners — have started the same quarterback in the last five openers.
When the Browns roll out Robert Griffin III against the Eagles in Week 1, they’ll have had five different quarterbacks start the last six seasons. The Browns hope Griffin breathes life into an offense that ranked 30th in yards per game last year, and hasn’t had a steady quarterback situation since Bill Clinton took office.
“What’s always the answer to everything when somebody’s not happy with their football team?” said Phil Simms, a Super Bowlwinning quarterback with the Giants and now a CBS commentator. “You either change the coach or you change the quarterback. That’s what you’re going to do to change the culture.”
The reasons for this season’s quarterback turnover are wideranging: injuries, not-quite-ready rookies and something called Deflategate.
In New England, Tom Brady will begin serving his four-game suspension for deflating footballs, which puts Jimmy Garoppolo in a shaky spotlight.
Longtime Dallas Cowboys signal caller Tony Romo has a broken bone in his back, lining up fourthround pick Dak Prescott for a Week 1 start.
Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater suffered a dislocated knee and torn ACL on Tuesday, which led the Vikings to trade for Philadelphia’s Sam Bradford. That also means the Eagles will trot out a new starter, either Chase Daniel or Carson Wentz, the second pick of the draft. Wentz played in only the first preseason game and suffered a fractured rib.
If Wentz does not start, all three quarterbacks drafted in the first round — Goff, Wentz and the Denver Broncos’ Paxton Lynch — will begin their careers as backups.
By sitting Goff, the Rams will snap a trend of No. 1 picks starting right away. The last five quarterbacks selected first overall — Matthew Stafford, Bradford, Cam Newton, Andrew Luck and Jameis Winston — all played in Week 1. But their teams were coming off seasons of two wins or worse, while the Rams went 7-9 in 2015 and are not hitting the restart button.
After the Rams fell to the Vikings in their preseason finale Thursday, Coach Jeff Fisher didn’t just solidify Keenum as his starter but also said Sean Mannion, a second-year quarterback from Oregon State, would back up Keenum.
“We saw last year the two coaches that started rookie quarterbacks; you think there are growing pains with that, but those coaches got fired,” said Bill Cowher, the former Steelers coach and now a CBS commentator, referring to Tampa Bay’s Lovie Smith starting Winston and Tennessee’s Ken Whisenhunt starting Marcus Mariota. “I think when you look at it right now there’s a lot of pressure to win.”
After starting seven games for the Super Bowl champion Broncos last season, Brock Osweiler will experience the pressure of being “the man” with the Houston Texans.
“Look, there are so many different head coaches every year and different coordinators, you might as well have new quarterbacks,” said Jon Gruden, who will be in the “Monday Night Football” booth when the 49ers and Rams square off. “It’s an incredible league right now the way that it churns out new talent at quarterback, offensive coordinator and head coach. You don’t get very long to establish yourself.”