USA TODAY International Edition
Mayfield, Rosen bring fresh hope
Latest generation of star QBs arrives
The anxiety-riddled question looms, even with future Hall of Famers still casting long shadows over the NFL and its premier position.
It’s not enough to enjoy the present greatness of living legends: Brady, Brees, Roethlisberger, Rodgers, or other elite quarterbacks including Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan.
Football fans aren’t wired that way. They always have to ask, “Who’s got next?”
The thirst for the next crop of elite quarterback talent never wanes. That’s because the last decade of drafts has produced meager yields. Cam Newtons and Russell Wilsons are scarce. Disappointments thanks to faulty evaluations, ill fits and career-altering/threatening injuries abound.
As the 2018 season opens Thursday with Atlanta at defending Super Bowl champ Philadelphia, a ripple of optimism has surfaced. It started last season as 2016 draft headliners Carson Wentz and Jared Goff posted banner falls and as 2017 rookie Deshaun Watson shined during an injury-shortened campaign. Contributing to the swell is the potential boasted by 2017 firstrounders Mitchell Trubisky and Patrick Mahomes and that of rookies Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen and Lamar Jackson.
It’s plausible the NFL has finally received the long-sought-after next wave of generational quarterbacks.
“I think the NFL is in good shape as far as quarterback play,” the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers told USA TODAY a week after he signed a deal that extends his contract another six seasons while giving him a record $98.7 million guaranteed. “You’ve obviously got some older guys still playing at a high level. … But you’ve got a nice group of talented guys coming up, guys that are going to start right away like Sam Darnold, or Carson Wentz — a young guy coming off injury but a phenomenal talent, and the rookies that will get an opportunity as well, the Josh Rosens, the Baker Mayfields. It’s in good shape . ... You need those guys to be the next ones to step up.”
Don’t take that Rodgers comment as a concession. He confidently stressed, “I still feel like I’m at the top of my game and have a number of years left playing at a high level.”
And don’t take this piece as a prediction of enshrinement. No. Their bodies of work remain far too limited.
But the combination of their physical and mental traits and the approaches taken by their coaching staffs give people such as Rodgers and others close to the game enough to believe in the next generation of quarterbacks. And 2018 could serve as a defining year for many of them.
“The quarterback of today is more ready,” Rodgers believes.
Philosophies and approaches have changed since he and his fellow greats began receiving their passing game foundations in high school. Most ran conservative, run-oriented offenses. They didn’t direct spread offenses or have offseason 7-on-7 passing camps to enhance their tutelage. Now, however, quarterbacks enter college better prepared, and that leads to a better transition to the NFL, Rodgers believes.
“Football as a whole is better,” Rodgers explains. “The coaching and the schemes are better from the lower levels on up. When I was playing in high school 18 years ago … there wasn’t a lot of spread stuff. The spread stuff came along a little after that and allowed offenses to have the upper hand and allowed them to be able to do the (runpass option), and all of these moves the last 5-10 years have changed the way things are done and have allowed quarterback play to improve. You’re seeing guys more ready to play even in the NFL, and it’s typical that it includes more of the RPO and spread stuff that you’re seeing at the lower levels.”
The creativity of the high school and college game also has reached the pro game. As quarterbacks have evolved, so too have coaches’ mind-sets.
“More NFL coaches, more NFL offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches, coordinators are more open to making the quarterback more comfortable with what he does best, which is pretty much opposed to the old school, which was, ‘Hey, rookie, here’s our playbook. Go learn it. We’ll get back to you,’ ” NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock told USA TODAY in a recent phone interview. “Now you’re seeing Bill O’Brien going out of his way to make Deshaun Watson comfortable day one so he could play fast without having to think too much and buy him time to learn more and more of an NFL offense while still being able to play fast and effective.”
Watson certainly wasn’t the first to receive this treatment. The Panthers did it to a degree with Cam Newton, who in 2011 had one of the most successful rookie seasons ever. The Broncos did so for second-year pro Tim Tebow the same season, and in 2012 Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan went to even greater lengths to suit Griffin by running a dose of option plays, which put pressure on and caused hesitation in the defense, and let Griffin play fast and free. San Francisco and Seattle followed suit with Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson the same year.
While Mayock believes, “Deshaun Watson is the poster boy for what the NFL is getting,” (and sees Lamar Jackson as a similar prospect), the quarterback guru also observes the college game producing more “combo guys.”
“Those are Carson Wentz, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen — these are big, athletic guys that are traditional NFLstyle quarterbacks that can still extend plays in some cases like an Aaron Rodgers or in some cases like a Ben Roethlisberger — size and athletic ability,” Mayock explained.
But there’s a place for the more traditional style quarterbacks such as Darnold, Rosen, Trubisky and Goff.
It all goes back to fit and vision. Coaches and organizations must have the ability to equip their young passer with both a scheme and talented roster that provides the support necessary for him to thrive. Goff is the perfect example. He looked like a bust as part of a carousel under Jeff Fisher and in an outdated offense but shined upon offensive wiz Sean McVay’s arrival last season.
Meanwhile, Wentz started from day one with Doug Pederson, took his lumps as a rookie and then played like an MVP before blowing out his knee in Week 14.
The Jets plan to start Darnold right away, while Mayfield, Rosen and Jackson will watch and wait.
“Situations are different,” noted Rodgers, who admits although he felt NFL-ready, he benefited from learning behind Brett Favre, while Roethlisberger thrived from day one thanks to a strong team around him.
Every one of these young quarterbacks will face adversity of some kind. Some already have.
The questions rarely cease. Newton and Wilson established themselves early as franchise quarterbacks but face questions about whether they are elite, and this despite Newton having won league MVP honors in 2015 and Wilson having won the Super Bowl as a secondyear pro. As of late, both have had to prove they can do more with less as their second contracts have made it more challenging for their teams to afford to build championship-caliber rosters.
So the questions and defining answers will surely come.
Can a player such as Goff, who seems to have shed the bust label from his rookie year, duplicate last year’s success? Can Wentz and Watson recapture their pre-injury forms of young greatness?
Can Darnold and any other rookie who finds his way onto the field this year take their lumps and steadily build on the foundations with which they appear to have entered the league?
Their play this season will go a long way to determining whether each is as special as they seemed last season or if their success is merely a flash in the pan like so many before.