NFL Week 15 thread

@ESPNNFL 1m
Lowest Total QBR by starting QB - single game in 2014:

Week 8 Geno Smith 0.04
Week 15 Johnny Manziel 1.0
Week 3 Josh McCown 1.9

 

The league has already said the wrong call was made in the Seahawks game.

 

Good. At least they admit the mistake in one of them. Much easier to just let the other one go because the Steelers won anyway and they apparently did not push the issue with the league office.

 

Yeah, like that Favre guy. Whatever happened to him, anyway?




I know, he was the first player taken in the second round. Close enough.

 

The game is far different now than it was then when first round QB's apprenticed. If they aren't playing right away alarm bells go off.

 

One of the things that's unfair -- by unfair I mean stupid -- is that we expect rookie QBs to be superstars. They're kids in a demanding profession. We never used to expect rookie QBs to be great. Awesome if it happens but our sporting nation has become so damn overzealous. Slow down, folks, and let them mature.

 

When was that golden era again?

 

The era when Sports Illustrated's cover price was 35 cents.

 

They also never use to get the coaching they get now from middle school on up. They are in spread offenses in high school. They are miles ahead of the QB's of the past.

 

And it's still a gigantic leap from the college game to the pros.

 

Yet somehow more QB's than ever start right away.

 

One of the things that ruined it for future generations of quarterbacks was the success a handful of guys had upon entering the league beginning in about 2008.
Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman, Sam Bradford, Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Colin Kaepernick, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III were all drafted in the first or second round between 2008 and 2012, and all of them started early and had some degree of success early. That's almost half of the starting quarterbacks in the league during that stretch, and doesn't even include third-rounder Russell Wilson. In a copycat league, teams figure any first-rounder can do it if all of these other guys are coming in game-ready.
Well, obviously, not everyone can.
The 2013 class is already looking like a bunch of empty suits. The 2014 class might be better (Carr and Bridgewater look competent, Bortles might end up being OK, and it's too early to tell with Manziel), but they're clearly not on the same level as that 2008-12 group.
Looking at it, it's entirely possible it was just a really good five-year run of quarterback classes. With the way these last two draft classes are panning out, we might see a shift in the thinking back to the "apprentice" idea before too long -- if not out of a developmental philosophy, then out of necessity as these guys get thrown into the fire and either stink it up or get hurt behind leaky offensive lines.