USA TODAY International Edition
LEAGUE OF YOUNG GUNS
Youth is served at quarterback in the NFL
OWINGS MILLS, Md. – Sometime early Sunday afternoon, 22- year- old Lamar Jackson will jog onto the field at M& T Bank Stadium while 24year- old Deshaun Watson stands on the sideline, waiting for his turn.
At the same time, roughly 35 miles south in a suburb of Washington, Dwayne Haskins and the Redskins will host Sam Darnold and the Jets. Both of those quarterbacks were born in 1997.
Together, the games serve as a snapshot of a broader quarterback youth movement that is sweeping through the NFL – a group of sometimes brash, generally mobile and overwhelmingly electric QBs who are taking over the league.
Entering Week 11, nearly half of the league’s starting quarterbacks – 15 out of 32 – are 25 or younger. And we’re not talking the occasional fill- in or spot start; there’s a chance that 16 of these young quarterbacks could wind up starting at least half of their teams’ games this year, which would be the most in any NFL season since the merger.
“We’re just doing our thing,” Jackson said Wednesday, when asked about his prominent role amid the “next wave” of NFL quarterbacks. “We’re just playing ball, having fun, doing what all of us have done since we were kids, doing something we love. That’s all.”
The 25- and- under quarterback group features one recent MVP, 24- year- old Patrick Mahomes, and a pair of MVP hopefuls in Jackson and Watson. There are entrenched starters like Jared Goff, 25. Highly drafted rookies like Daniel Jones and Kyler Murray, both 22. But also backups who have taken over due to injuries – see Mason Rudolph in Pittsburgh and Kyle Allen in Carolina – as well as “let’s just see what they have” starters like Cincinnati’s Ryan Finley.
Despite their different paths to starting gigs, however, they have all benefited from the same
shifting dynamics in the sport. NFL offenses are becoming increasingly similar to college offenses. Quarterbackspecific training is becoming more prevalent at earlier ages. The learning curve is, in many ways, starting to shorten.
“What we’re seeing now is these quarterbacks are much more gameready ( when they get to the NFL),” said ESPN commentator Mike Tannenbaum, who most recently worked as the executive vice president of football operations for the Dolphins. “I think we’re going to see more of that. I think the days of new quarterbacks sitting for a number of years, that’s going to be the exception not the rule.”
The growing influence of college and high school schemes at the NFL level has been well- documented – and clearly on display in places like Baltimore, where offensive coordinator Greg Roman and his staff have embraced designed runs and option concepts that maximize Jackson’s strengths.
But David Morris, founder of quarterback training and development company QB Country, believes other trends have started to trickle up as well. Look at the number of redshirt freshman quarterbacks starting in college, he said. And even the number of high school freshmen starting on varsity teams.
“I think coaches are willing to take that risk now, at every level of football,” said Morris, who played at Mississippi. “In the past, it’s always been a law: ‘ You never play a guy that young. I don’t care how good he is, he’s not ready.’ Though he may be.”
QB Country, which has trained Jones and Gardner Minshew since they were in high school, is part of a wave of quarterback- specific training providers that are now accessible for NFL hopefuls long before college – and, in some cases, even before high school. These programs teach fundamentals and technique, but they also expose quarterbacks to coverages, protection schemes and verbiage – some of which carries over from one level to the next.
“I think quarterbacks are ready earlier, now more than ever, because of the training atmosphere as well as the passing offense,” Morris said.
Tannenbaum, meanwhile, pointed out the financial incentive that NFL teams have to start young quarterbacks, who carry cheap, controllable contracts and can free up space elsewhere.
That’s why guys like Mahomes and Jackson are so valuable, he said, and why other teams are eschewing proven, veteran backups in favor of cheap, young ones – the Eagles passing on Nick Foles, for example, and entering training camp with 26- year- old Nate Sudfeld.
“From a team- building standpoint, it creates a tremendous opportunity, when you have a quarterback that you can win with and he’s on his rookie deal,” Tannenbaum said. “When you’re getting Pro Bowl- level play and they’re on rookie deals, those are transformational opportunities in terms of ways to improve your team.”
It’s really all of those factors that, when taken together, have led to the 103 combined starts by quarterbacks under 25 this year – the second most at this point in a season since 1970. It’s why there are now as many 22- year- old starters ( five) as starters who are over 35 – bringing a sense of freshness and excitement to the NFL’s most important position.
“These quarterbacks coming in now, they’re able to run, they’re able to throw it deep. They have the schemes, all the misdirection stuff,” Ravens safety Earl Thomas said.
“I’m not enjoying these young quarterbacks that are coming into the league and doing all the type of stuff they’re doing. But it’s just the way the league is going now.”