It’s fall season of longtime QB shows
You would be severely challenged to produce more graphic evidence that the sporting public is obsessed with the NFL than the release Tuesday of this figure: 4.81.
Wanna take one Jeopardy-style whack at what question would require an answer such as that — 4.81?
What is the average number of idiotic statements made per minute by studio panelists on national sports shows, Alex?
Oh sorry. Good try.
No, 4.81 is a posted betting line from BetOnline.ag. It’s the over/under on the 40-yard dash time that will be produced at the NFL Scouting Combine this week by
presumptive No. 1 draft pick Joe Burrow, the LSU quarterback.
That’s where we are, people. This league and most particularly its quarterbacks and quarterbacks-in-waiting are swallowing an outsized portion of the general sports consciousness, probably because we are pointed toward perhaps the most volatile NFL quarterback shuffle in recent NFL memory.
With four or more quarterbacks consistently turning up as first-rounders in the ubiquitous mock drafts, with names such as Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Dak Prescott, Ryan Tannehill, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Teddy Bridgewater and Andy Dalton each with permanent addresses currently unknown, the season that starts in less than seven short months figures to have a very different feel than our familiar arrangement of comfort pillows.
Among the myriad possibilities, the league could start the 2020 season with two entire divisions, eight teams, being directed by quarterbacking dinosaurs. That’s how many of the presumably active quarterbacks could be starting somewhere at 35 years of age or older, including right here in River City.
Ben Roethlisberger’s rehabilitation from elbow surgery is expected to accelerate very soon, and the authorities insist there’s nothing to prevent him from a return to the fully functioning gunslinger presented by his NFL resume. Also, nothing will prevent him from turning 38 a week from Monday.
In the 14 games after Roethlisberger got hurt in September 2019, the Steelers went 8-6. In the 14 games before Roethlisberger got hurt last September, the Steelers went 8-6. So there’s that.
But if you think the Steelers quarterback situation is potentially problematic, just remember that it could be worse. You could be the Patriots.
Tom Brady told a Boston radio show this past week that New Englanders should not read anything into the fact that his house is on the market.
“I think it takes a long time to sell a house,” he said. “My house is a little bit of an expensive one, so it doesn’t fly off the shelf in a couple weeks.”
Well that was useful. And here I thought Brady, supermodel Gisele and the kids were living in a four-room walk-up in Southie. Harumph.
The better question for New England might be, if Brady moves on, is that the good news or the bad news? Have you seen much of old No. 12 lately? I mean really old No. 12. Not only did 2019 bring the first evidence that Brady could not execute every throw anymore, it brought irrefutable video evidence that he didn’t always make easy throws to open receivers. He completed 61% of his passes. Mason Rudolph 62%.
Of course, Brady was 42 last season, one year after becoming the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, even if he wasn’t much help in that one. Brady’s gone 10 postseason quarters now without a touchdown pass, including January’s
one-and-done against Tennessee in which he posted a passer rating of 59.4.
He looks very much like the fast-faded Peyton Manning, the previous oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, even if, at 39, Manning could barely throw at all as the Broncos beat the prat-falling Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50. Manning’s passer rating that day was 56.6.
The great Drew Brees apparently presumes he can supplant Brady as the oldest quarterback to win a Super Bowl, because he’ll be 42 on Feb. 7, 2021, an appointment he thinks the Saints can uphold or he would not be returning for a 20th NFL season.
The Green Bay Packers, behind 36-year-old youngster Aaron Rodgers might raise some objections to that plan, as might whoever lands 38year-old Philip Rivers, as might the dreamers who sign 37-year-old Ryan Fitzpatrick, 35-year-old Joe Flacco, as might the Atlanta Falcons with 35-year-old Matt Ryan.
Free agency begins March 18, and it could also include Tampa Bay’s Winston, perhaps the most confounding quarterback of the species. He threw for more than 5,000 yards last year while simultaneously throwing 30 interceptions.
Thirty!
Let me just check; yeah, still only 16 games.
But that 5,109 yards, wow. I think that’s more than he threw for against Pitt that night at Heinz Field in 2013.
I think.