NFL teams aren’t patient with quarterbacks anymore
NFL teams expect a quarterback to come in and impress right away, as evidenced by Jared Goff and Carson Wentz. But that didn’t use to be the case.
Once upon a time, NFL teams were patient with their young quarterbacks and hoped they’d see improvement by year three or even year four. That’s not the case anymore, as we’re seeing teams part ways with perfectly good quarterbacks in hopes that the next guy will be the guy.
Instead of teams drafting a quarterback and then taking a few years to build talent around him, now it’s all about how good the quarterback is right off the bat. Part of this is likely because rookies don’t make as much as they once did (Sam Bradford made $76 million on his rookie contract) so they’re not forced to be tied to these guys for as long. That doesn’t stop teams from extending quarterbacks and then moving on not long after.
Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota were the top two picks in the 2015 NFL Draft and neither guy got an extension from the team who drafted them. Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were the top two picks in 2016 with the Rams and Eagles both trading up to draft them and it’s very likely that both are on new teams in 2021 (Goff already is). This is after Goff quarterbacked the Rams in a Super Bowl and Wentz was on pace to win the MVP in 2017.
Instead, the Rams traded for Matthew Stafford (a rare case of a team sticking with their guy for over a decade) and the Eagles are likely going to ship Wentz to the highest bidder. Each team had extended their quarterback and then made the decision to move on, which would not have happened years ago.
NFL teams only give quarterbacks a year or two before moving on to the shiny new toy.
It’s easier for teams to move on from quarterbacks now and it’s become very evident that in order to win a Super Bowl, teams have to have a great quarterback and not just a subpar one. The days of Trent Dilfers and Brad Johnsons winning Super Bowls have passed. Now, if teams don’t have a Patrick Mahomes or big-name player, they aren’t hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
It’s crazy to think about though considering the slow start that so many Hall of Fame quarterbacks got off to. A good example of this is when the Colts took Peyton Manning No. 1 overall in 1998. They knew he was going to be their franchise quarterback, but there weren’t expectations on him to play lights out right away.
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Manning threw 28 interceptions as a rookie, which is still the record to this day. Can you imagine if this were present-day and the Colts moved on from Manning after a year or two? Teams are getting less and less patient when it comes to their quarterbacks and it makes sense, as the stakes have never been higher.