Moon, Kelly, Warner, even Flutie...and franchise qbs

[TC in St. Louis]

There have been dozens of high draft picks wasted on quarterbacks....too numerous to mention, really. We take a lot of heat for EJ Manuel being a high pick. Some guys are ready to go. Some are not.

 

Jim Kelly....would he have been an instant star in the NFL? Or did he benefit from a couple years throwing for the Houston Gamblers? What about Warren Moon? Years in the CFL. Kurt Warner? Journeyman, but a pro football player getting experience in another league. Doug Flutie was a CFL hero before he came to the NFL.

 

Most highly rated QB's end up holding a clipboard for a couple years before they are deemed ready for action. How can they get game action while holding a clipboard? They cannot.

 

Players gotta play. High picks in baseball spend a couple years in the minors getting ready to play. Yet we expect quarterbacks to develop by standing on the sidelines holding a clipboard. Maybe a lot of these wasted draft picks never develop because they never get to play.

 

Maybe the NFL needs a developmental league so they can stop misfiring on young quarterbacks, and get them NFL ready by playing in actual games against tough competition. There's something here.

Edited December 24, 2016 by TC in St. Louis

[SF Bills Fan]

Kelly definitely benefited from going to the USFL for a few years. Troy Aikman is a good example- he had miserable stats the first few years. If he came along now, he might not make it because there is less patience to let a guy develop. Of course, I'm sure the powers that be saw the potential in a guy like Troy and it is just not there with a guy like EJ.

[yungmack]

Talk about impatience, I saw an item in the LA Times today where it was asked if Goff was this generation's Ryan Leaf. Wow.