Generation Next of QB wannabes invades NFL
Drew Brees now does TV commercials for a home improvement store.
Philip Rivers preceded Brees in retirement, leaving the NFL after throwing for more than 4,100 yards in 2020.
Andrew Luck hasn’t played in a real professional football game since the 2018 season.
Peyton Manning’s legacy is cemented in the Hall of Fame.
And the NFL still keeps rolling and rolling and rolling.
Trevor Lawrence. Zach Wilson. Trey Lance. Justin Fields. Mac Jones.
Kyle Trask, Kellen Mond and new Texan Davis Mills.
Eight quarterbacks selected in the initial 67 picks of the threeday 2021 NFL draft.
Eight new names that will dominate daily news cycles — during the regular season and throughout a longer offseason — in Jacksonville, Fla., New York, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, suburbs and small towns across America.
Some will make it. Some will become total busts. A couple might truly change their franchises for the better. But all eight are immediate conversation starters for a sports league that increasingly excels at turning a 17-game season into an intense 12-month dialogue.
I remember a time not that long ago when the NFL and the media storm that constantly surrounds the biggest sport in America kept discussing a collective worry.
Where were the new quarter
backs going to come from?
What would happen when Brett Favre and Manning (and Tom Brady) retired?
Would the pocket-based pro game ever adapt to the college game’s spread offenses and dual-threat QBs?
We have bigger things to worry about in 2021. The NFL?
It’s great to be king and the new line of franchise QB wannabes just keeps adding young, interesting, unproven names to the waiting list for the next big thing.
Will Lawrence turn the Jaguars into the kings of the AFC South and eventually become an annual rival for Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert?
It will take a few years to get a serious feel for what Lawrence can actually accomplish in Jacksonville. But he’s already a national television and Twitter magnet, and will be mustsee TV every time he steps between the professional lines.
Major League Baseball struggles to promote its own product (see: Mike Trout) and connect with the next generation.
The NBA is a conflicted mess — I’ll get into that more later this week — and resorting to comic book superheroes in an odd attempt to grab international eyeballs.
We can debate whether the NFL overprotects its QBs. Whether offense has been overemphasized. How much in common the contemporary version of pro football has with the old game.
What can’t be debated: QBs have never been this elevated and important, and the NFL was ahead of the curve in recognizing the precious value in its prime on-field product.
Running backs have become replaceable and are viewed through the modern lens of analytics. Najee Harris and Travis Etienne being drafted in the late first round created news.
Defense kicks in during the playoffs. Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers primarily ruined Kansas City’s dream of back-to-back Super Bowl trophies by winning with relentless D.
But the trend that began in the first decade of this new millennium — seven of the 10 No. 1 overall draft picks from 2000 to 2009 were QBs — has only been maximized in an era defined by either possessing a franchise QB or desperately searching for one.
The Texans are seeking one again, which is partly why Mills was taken at No. 67 overall with Deshaun Watson still on the roster.
Quarterbacks have gone No. 1 overall in the last four drafts (Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Joe Burrow, Lawrence). QBs have been the top pick in 16 drafts since 2000, which is one of the craziest and most fascinating stats I have seen.
David Carr, JaMarcus Russell, Sam Bradford and Jameis Winston tell us that betting so much, so early on a young QB is overrated. Teams, systems, coaching staffs and consistency can be just as important as downfield accuracy and locker-room leadership.
Sam Darnold, Mitch Trubisky and Josh Rosen are recent reminders that lofty first-round status guarantees nothing for NFL QBs.
But Cam Newton and Jared Goff reached the NFL’s biggest stage, Eli Manning won a couple silver trophies, Michael Vick’s talent was at least a decade ahead of its time, and Luck was a four-time Pro Bowler before deciding his final pro win would be a 21-7 wild-card victory inside NRG Stadium.
Three running backs (Ronnie Brown, Cedric Benson, Cadillac Williams) were taken in the initial five picks in 2005, so trends waver and things can obviously change.
Offense isn’t going anywhere, though, and the pro game is mirroring the college game by opening up the field and finding new ways to turn speed and space into touchdowns.
Favre is gone, Manning is gone, Brees is gone, Rivers is gone, and Brady one day will realize that he’ll enjoy life more as a retired NFL QB.
Lawrence, Wilson, Lance, Fields, Jones, Trask, Mond and Mills are waiting for their first pro games.
If just a couple become real franchise QBs, the future of the NFL will be just fine.