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The overall lack of QB talent is killing the NFL


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Arguably, Andrew Luck was the last QB to come out of college as a consensus "NFL ready" QB. This overall dearth of talent is hurting the league. Should the NFL do anything different to try to address this situation?

 

I think the answer is yes. I have two ideas to do so. The first one is insane and not likely to be considered. The second is realistic.

 

Option one - have a special draft that I'd for QB's only. Every team has to select one. this action is then combined with the second option.

 

Option two - Every team should be required to carry a developmental QB in a designated additional roster spot that is paid at a fixed salary. Teams would be free in the offseason to treat all of these individuals as eligible Free Agents unless they are moved to the active roster by the team that has their rights and they are signed to a contract beyond the minimum.

 

The above would give more players at the position time to develop. Colleges are not preparing players at this position for the NFL.

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It's not the lack of talent that is killing the league, it's the rule changes that emphasize the passing game. Having an elite QB is far and away the most important thing to success these days. Having a great defense, rb, and special teams have far less importance than they used to. So of course this has led to a greater discrepancy between the haves and have nots

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I agree there is a shortage, roughly only half the teams have legit QB's. Makes me laugh when posters here say TT will never be a franchise QB and the Bill's need to replace him. Yeah great idea, there's a good chance they are correct, but with who? If it were that easy all the teams would have good QB's.

 

As to your solutions, wouldn't say no, but maybe there are better alternatives.

 

For years I've been stating the best option are Stepford QB's

 

 

 

 

I don't think it's the rules as much as it is defensive players are getting too big, too fast, and too god for the QB to be able to mentally and physically compete with them. Couple that with coaching and schemes getting even more complicated as teams coaching staffs now spend 12 months coming up with new concepts to further confuse the QB

 

 

It's not the lack of talent that is killing the league, it's the rule changes that emphasize the passing game. Having an elite QB is far and away the most important thing to success these days. Having a great defense, rb, and special teams have far less importance than they used to. So of course this has led to a greater discrepancy between the haves and have nots

Edited by Ed_Formerly_of_Roch
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I don't think there are fewer talented players at the QB position, it is more likely, they lack of QB talent is the result of the way QB's are developed in the modern era of football...there was a time, up through the mid-80's, where it was not uncommon for a first round draft pick QB to sit for 2 or 3 years before ever being given a shot at the starting job. Now, they just have to play... some are ready, most are not. Who knows how many talented QB's the NFL has missed out on, because of this. The relative decency of Tyrod Taylor only goes to show that time studying can pay off...

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Killing the game in what way? The NFL is more popular than ever.

Killing it because teams are perpetually cycling in mediocrity because of the lack of talent at the most critical position.

I don't think there are fewer talented players at the QB position, it is more likely, they lack of QB talent is the result of the way QB's are developed in the modern era of football...there was a time, up through the mid-80's, where it was not uncommon for a first round draft pick QB to sit for 2 or 3 years before ever being given a shot at the starting job. Now, they just have to play... some are ready, most are not. Who knows how many talented QB's the NFL has missed out on, because of this. The relative decency of Tyrod Taylor only goes to show that time studying can pay off...

This is the problem though - what QB's have the time to sit as an understudy?

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Killing it because teams are perpetually cycling in mediocrity because of the lack of talent at the most critical position.

 

This is the problem though - what QB's have the time to sit as an understudy?

You make time. Manziel was not ready to play and shouldn't have.

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Here is one obvious change. Exclude Quarterbacks from the CBA rules on off-season training. Mike McCarthy basically rebuilt Aaron Rodgers before putting him on the field.

 

That time to work with and develop NFL fundamentals is vastly reduced now. Allow QBs additional off-season practice time.

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League is definitely QB deficient, and those with slightly above average QBs pretty much lay all their eggs in the same basket when it comes time to pay that QB.

 

its a recipe for continued and future pains for the league IMO.

 

 

25 years ago medicore QB's were very functional with a solid D strong OL/ running game, but these days just fining a solid above average QB is tough, and even then it more times then not.. not enough to put a team over the top

 

 

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I am not sure the amount of talent today is any different than it was 30 or 40 years ago. As Bills fans we were (eventually) lucky to get to participate in the QB class of '83. But a look around the league at that time and there were a lot of teams suffering with pretty poor QB play.

 

Time and distance has resulted in a romanticizing of the quality of some of those average-at-best QBs. We are talking about guys like Chris Chandler, Toy Eason, Wade Wilson, Chris Miller, Bubby Brister........ Even Joe Montana was average at that point (32 yo) with 18 TDs and 10 Ints compared with maybe Dan Marino who had 28 TDs and 20 ints (Kelly had 15 TDs and 17ints and went 12-4!!!).

 

Today, so many factors are impacting QB transition from college to pro. There are a lot of very creative offensive minds and schemes being run in college that either won't work in the NFL or aren't being embraced by the 40-50 coaching retreads we see float around the league every year. Notably, Alabama, Stanford, Notre Dame and FSU all run pro-style offenses and are all powerhouse programs and they haven't turned out pro QBs at any noticeably better rate than anywhere else.

 

The Chip Kelly circus aside, there just hasn't been enough crossover of college systems into the NFL to really make a determination as to whether they will ultimately gain a foothold. Meanwhile, those dirty no-good cheatin' Patriots* have incorporated a hybrid college spread and are making it work with seemingly underwhelming talent. I mean, Teddy Marchibroda should be considered the father of all college schemes.....hell of modern football offense in general. The run and shoot (Mouse Davis) in houston lead to the K-gun in Buffalo which directly lead to Peyton Manning.

 

The abject failure of guys like Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban and Chip Kelly (maybe) seem to indicate that there is no translation of those offenses to the NFL but i would also point out that neither Spurrier or Saban had any real talent and certainly didn't hang around long enough to really impose any changes. Chip Kelly is an outlier right now and if he succeeds it may trigger guys like Urban Meyer and Jimbo Fisher to shop their wares in the NFL.

 

Ultimately, i think the major gap between college offenses and the NFL coupled with the reduced window for acceptable success has the appearance that the Pro game is churning through QBs, but I'd bet if you did the math, the numbers are relatively stagnant.

Edited by Garranimal
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I don't know about 'killing' the NFL... There have always been 'haves' and 'have nots'. Patriots were in QB purgatory forever until Bledsoe and then Brady. Steelers before pig Ben. Bills since Kelly. Bengals after boomer, until dalton. Dolphins since Marino. Tampa... franchise history. Minnesota. In Cleveland Bernie Kosar is seriously a franchise bright spot. How sad is that??

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It's not the lack of talent that is killing the league, it's the rule changes that emphasize the passing game. Having an elite QB is far and away the most important thing to success these days. Having a great defense, rb, and special teams have far less importance than they used to. So of course this has led to a greater discrepancy between the haves and have nots

That's it for my money.

 

When tugging a jersey on 3rd and 30 gives you an instant first down, it rewards you to throw, even if you couldn't have made the pass anyway.

 

Why not throw that jump ball? Odds are disproportionate that the defense will get called for PI if both players fight for it. We saw the Phantom PI calls constantly last year.

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Nothing is killing the game. It's been a passing game for years. P Manning proved the rare instance where crappy QB play doesn't prevent a SB winning season.

 

First round QBs are drafted to start as rookies--this has been true for decades--why pretend otherwise? Some have done well, some have busted out--this has always been the way.

 

Newton, Wilson came right out of college ready to go. MAriota looked pretty good on an awful team. Even Wisnton looked OK by season's end.

 

The game is fine..

Edited by Mr. WEO
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