NFL offseason thread

If you don’t at least ask yourself how much that apology cost Donald, you aren’t doing your job or being rational

 

Is your bar simply winning super bowls?

 

It’s such simplistic thinking. The same things used to be said about Cal, their QB’s were all subsystem QB’s, it’s one of the reasons Rodgers dropped.

Playing QB in the NFL is hard, the hardest thing to do in team sports. What school are people comfortable drafting a QB from? The chances that a QB is going to fail are high, regardless of school.

 

It sounds like the mistake was thinking he could use the incident to cash in only to have his plan ruined by the video.

 

Texas Tech was famously the home of system quarterbacks who weren’t able to compete in the NFL until suddenly they weren’t. And I was one who thought the Chiefs were foolish for giving away the farm to trade up for Mahomes.

 

Quarterback is the most important position in football. It is also the hardest to project from college to the pros. That leaves everybody looking for some magic formula to evaluate pro prospects, but it doesn't exist. Teams just have to do the work and hope they get it right. Rodgers is a great example of people being fooled by generalizations. Sometimes a great quarterback is going to fall in the draft for some stupid reason. Sometimes the guy with all of the tools is going to fail. Sometimes the guy who seems to lack most of the tools is going to win seven Super Bowls.

In other words, I agree. Dismissing Fields because he played at Ohio State makes no sense. Of course, you take into account the talent he had around him and the system he played in. Just get sure to do the same with Mac Jones, who was propped up by a ridiculously talented Alabama offense. Jones is a smart guy. Great, but I do think teams are trying really hard to convince themselves that he's the next Tom Brady.

 

Anybody else watching this Herbstreit special on Trevor Lawrence? (Have it on mute waiting for the A-Day broadcast).

“Yes I just happen to be standing alone on the field of an 80k stadium with my quarterback boyfriend who will be the top pick in the NFL draft and we are both dressed for prom season while a camera crew is filming so here is my TOTALLY SURPRISED face when he proposes to me.”

 

I'd argue that sometimes it isn't the quarterback that "fails" but the team around them, the coaches etc. Lot of young QBs got buried by horrendous O lines before they even had a chance. Some teams picked a QB and expected him to "fit their system" rather than fit the system around their abilities.

 

Archie Manning and David Carr come to mind.

 

That is part of it, too. Is Darnold a bust due to his own shortcomings or is it because he was drafted by the Jets and got stuck with disastrous coaching and little talent around him? (I think it is a little bit of both.)

It works the other way, too. I think Mahomes would have been great anywhere, but he has certainly benefitted from having great weapons around him and Andy Reid as his coach.

 

I wish we'd see more of this type of draft analysis. The mock drafts seem to end up making you think some players are really better than they are due to team needs and quarterback scarcity. Fans need to realize that just drafting a quarterback in the top 5 picks doesn't make them any better, yet expectations are raised. I'm thinking a couple veteran QBs will have resurgent years with some of the receivers in this draft.