Most of this article is about how QBs are injured more than they used to be and aren’t as good as they used to be. And that’s funny, because both are wrong.
In 1997, the league passer rating was 77.2. In 2002, it was 80.4. In 2007, it was 82.6. In 2012, it was 85.6. In 2017, it was 86.9. In 2022, it was 89.1.
Objectively, QB play is better than it’s ever been. So why is the perception that QBs are getting worse? I think it’s a few reasons. The biggest is that people outside just don’t remember the shit QBs of yesteryear. Yeah, if you compare Daniel Jones to Eli Manning, maybe he comes off looking bad. But then you go back to 2012 and you see guys like Sam Bradford, Josh Freeman, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Brandon Weeden, and Mark Sanchez all being primary starters and it’s easier to remember there’s always been shit QBs. The other thing is that people tend to remember past QBs at their best, but most of the time, they were not at their best. I could talk about Matt Stafford, Andrew Luck, and Ryan Tannehill playing in 2012, but they all sucked in 2012.
Basically, QBs are objectively better than they used to be. If you think QBs used to be better, your memory is simply playing tricks on you and you need to take off the nostalgia goggles. I know how much people hate when this is brought up, but I also think that for some people, there’s a race component. 8 of the top 15 QBs by passer rating this season right now are black, and while it’s not everybody, there is definitely a subset of people who consciously or unconsciously rate those QBs lower than the white QBs of the past.
In 1997, 16 QBs started 14+ games. In 2002, 18 QBs started 14+ games. In 2007, 15 QBs started 14+ games. In 2012, 25 QBs started 14+ games. In 2017, 23 QBs started 14+ games. In 2022, 15 QBs started 15+ games.
This one’s a little trickier. First of all, I want to point out that this article quotes Trent Dilfer and Rich Gannon, who played during the era when QBs got injured/were benched at the same rate QBs are today. 2022 was also an outlier. 2020 had 21 QBs and 2021 had 19 QBs. 2023 has 23 QBs who have started 10-12 games so far. I don’t have the reasons for every QB missing every game, and I’m sure you could use other metrics, but generally speaking, this again appears to be a case where people simply forget the past. It’s a lot easier to remember the seasons where QBs played. It’s more difficult to remember the seasons they missed. It’s even more difficult to remember the seasons where they missed 4 games or whatever. I’d also point out that citing 8 QBs being out this week is a little weird. Tannehill and Garoppolo are healthy, their teams have just already packed it in for this season and they want to take a long look at their young QBs. 3 of the other 6 (Rodgers, Cousins, Jones) were injured on non-contact injuries. Dilfer saying these QBs are “soft” or “more hurt than ever” just isn’t supported by anything. QBs missing games appears to be directly in line with the past.
The reason it’s trickier is that there clearly was a period from 2008-2017 where there was slightly less QB attrition. 2012, 2016, and 2017 were especially good years for QBs playing a lot, but the average throughout that period was a little higher overall. What’s the reason for that? No idea. Probably a variety of factors.
Anyway, this ended up getting longer than I intended. This is all just a really long way of saying people will always yearn for the better days of the past but the better days of the past were rarely better, and this is no exception.
I am in no way an expert in this, but could that also be because the explosion of skilled WRs? They’re faster than ever, getting a ton of separation. I remember the early 00s patriots with patton (rip) and givens. Those were Super Bowl winning wrs. It seems like now, if you don’t have an ultra skilled WR1, you’re toast. Even Mahomes, who doesn’t NEED one, is having a tougher go at it with a weakened WR group. And Josh Allen didn’t explode until he got his WR1. Game is played further away from the LOS nowadays. And I also think that teams trying to fit the run and gun mold of the new NFL without QBs who have that skill set it showing.
For what it’s worth I think the niners are the only team averaging more run plays than pass this season.
Zach Wilson not being in this photo is the only win I can expect.
DONT YOU TALK ABOUT MINSHEW LIKE THAT
I’ve said this for awhile and people always hate it, but they basically need to make the QB off limits to hit unless they’re running. Like a sack would be you wrap him up and the play is whistled dead. I get that it would be lame, but is it any more lame than watching a shit ton of backups who can’t play?
Seriously, there’s like 20-25 people in the world who can be a competitive NFL QB. That’s it. After those 25 (and that’s being generous), you get absolute trash. They need to be protected more. This is a billion dollar industry, good QBs are the face of the franchises and they’re rare.
BOO THIS MAN
I don’t get this take. We played decades with QBs getting hit and football was still great
You think football is the same now as decades ago? When the DL was a stout 240 lbs and they smoked on the sideline.
I said for decades. Not decades ago. And anywy decades ago could refer to the early 2000s. Getting hit by Ray Lewis then would suck as much as getting hit by anyone now
Part of what makes quarterbacks cool is that they take the hits, they’re under pressure, they still perform. QBs have to know the play, know the coverage, set protections, and get an accurate pass off in 3 seconds or less, otherwise they get pounded by a 300lbs defensive tackle
Yeah, sometimes the backup has to play. Not every NFL game is going to be a shootout, sometimes your backup comes in and helps the team grind out an important 13-10 win, while the defense shuts down the opposing offense when the team needs it the most
Why is the highest QBR of last week shown in this picture? He’s also a 5th round pick who was 3rd string and got zero first or second team snaps until a few weeks ago.
Brady said the same thing:
https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2023/11/27/tom-brady-nfl-mediocrity-comment-quarterbacks-read-defenses-line-of-scrimmage-check/When Tom Brady said that there’s “a lot of mediocrity” in today’s NFL, some were confused and debated his point.
The Patriots icon further explained what he meant in the latest episode of his “Let’s Go!” podcast, focusing more on the inability of quarterbacks to read defenses and check out of plays at the line of scrimmage. As Brady was discussing how well of a game the Eagles’ overtime win over the Bills was, Jim Gray (one of Brady’s co-hosts) asked him why we don’t see as many games as intense or as well-played as that one, calling back to Brady’s “mediocrity” comment.
“I think the point is, you want to see the game continue to grow and evolve,” Brady said. “That means better coaching, better quarterback play, and better defensive playcalling. I think a big difference too is the lack of time that coaches have with players, coaches have together in the building, people don’t understand the full picture a lot of the time.”
As Brady said that players at most positions only need to know how to do a few things well, he explained that quarterbacks “need to know what everyone is doing.” But he doesn’t think quarterbacks in the league now necessarily know as much as they should, placing some of the blame on coaches because they’re trying to “control the game from the sideline.”
“When you try to control the game from the sideline, you don’t have the answer for everything that’s happening on the field,” Brady said. “Ultimately, as a quarterback, I had all the things at my disposal to get us into a good play. … I had the ability to change the play to get us to a play that I thought would be more successful.
“I just don’t see as much of that in the NFL,” Brady added. “There’s a lot less time that people are spending on it. That’s just the reality. When I started, there was a lot more time we spent on it. Over those years, I developed a lot of those tools in my arsenal to get us into the best play.”
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Brady said that his ability to check out of bad plays at the line of scrimmage helped him win Super Bowls and made other quarterbacks, such as Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Philip Rivers, great. Now, he thinks that only Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Matthew Stafford, and maybe a couple of other quarterbacks have the ability to check plays at the line of scrimmage.
Brady laid blame on the constant pressures of getting things right in the league for the lack of quarterbacks in the league today who are able to check out of plays at the line scrimmage, saying “in an effort to get it right, people are actually getting it more wrong.” As he thinks it’s particularly affecting young quarterbacks, he recalled that being able to spend time with the Patriots’ coaching staff during the offseason helped him check out of a play that led to an overtime win over the Chargers in his third career start.
“We were talking about how they were going to max blitz us,” Brady said. “We said, ‘OK, if they max blitz us and they get us in that look, we’ve got to check the protection to a seven-man protection, and let’s get the receiver a shot down the field.’ [They said that] to a second-year quarterback!
“I was in the system my whole first year. I was being taught by Bill Belichick and Charlie Weis. We had quarterbacks school and the offseason program. We get into overtime after going the full 60 minutes and I recognized they called this all-out blitz. I said, ‘[Expletive] this, I’m changing it.’ I changed the protection, I threw a deep ball to David Patten, pass interference and we got a 50-yard gain. We win the game on a field goal in overtime.”
Instead of seeing quarterbacks doing what he did at the line of scrimmage throughout his whole career, Brady believes there are too many quarterbacks and teams being “reactive” and trying to fix problems after the snap.
“The more you can be decisive as a quarterback, the better outcomes you’re going to have, the better your process is going to be,” Brady said. “You want to be really decisive as a quarterback. You want to be really sure of what you’re doing. But you need to be sure of the gameplan, the protections, who’s responsible for who if they blitz, and where all of the receivers are going. All of that takes time. We’ve got to allow these guys time to develop.
“The pro game is reflecting what the college game is as opposed to the college game reflecting what the pro game is,” Brady added. “We’re asking pro players to play college football. That’s the biggest difference I see. It’s way more checkers than it is chess. I tried to play chess. I wanted to have three moves ahead of you at all times.”
Brady just retired.
He immediately turned into an old man.
Those problems have been present for the last decade.
Ngl, Brady’s giving off real “ok grandpa” vibes here. “Back in my day we checked plays at the line of scrimmage, both ways, uphill, in the snow, barefoot!”
And idiots on cfb think it’s turning into the NFL. From everything I can see over the last 15 years, it’s the opposite.
Crap OL and ridiculous DL = rushed QBs with no time to scan the field. It’s why we see so many screens and quick dump offs. Defenses have adjusted to this for the most part, so you get a ton of 1-2 yard completions this year it seems.
This is an oline problem, again, still always. Two ways. Teams with bad o lines give QBs less time, requiring QBs to process faster, duh. Teams with bad olines increase the importance of a top QB by weakening the running game.
Why has this happened? Because the guys that should be top tier o linemen all play dline. Dline men get sexy stats, recognition, and giant contracts; most o linemen hope their name isnt called by the announcer on Sunday.
Additionally, olinemen probably suffer the most from the reduction in padded practices in the last couple of CBAs.
Of the 8 backups currently starting that article focuses on, only 2 of them have won the job from a former starter that is now healthy: Levis and O’Connell.
Interesting to read Gannon’s comments on those two, especially in the context about his non-player-specific comments that the article featured, which are mostly about the importance of understanding protections:
Levis: “He’s one of these guys that when you’re the youngest kid in the neighborhood he wants to challenge all the kids to see how far he can throw it, he’s that guy. The accuracy and the decision-making and the lack of experience is a problem.”
O’Connell: “He’s got a lot of the intangibles you like — he’s poised, he’s comfortable in the pocket, he’s got good feet, good mechanics, he makes all the throws, he doesn’t get rattled, when he makes a mistake he’s able to quickly turn the page and come back. I think that kid’s got a chance.”
The running game hid a lot of average to bad QB play. Now that “all fans want” is deep passes and shit we are seeing how hard it is and why old dudes used to say shit like “2 out of the 3 things that can happen when you forward pass are bad!”. I still think that survey pushing the pass happy rules onto us was made up or something.
Is QB play across the league bad, or are we, as a wise man once said, just regressing to the mean? I say that seriously.
When Brady, Brees, Manning, and Rodgers were all playing their best football at the same time, I remember fans and commentators alike saying we were seeing a once in a generation (or more) amount of incredible talent at QB. Have we forgotten those comments, or did we all begin to expect for someone at the level of some of the greatest QBs ever, including the indisputable GOAT, to just magically appear and take their place?
I’ve been an NFL fan since the mid 90s and done my fair share of looking back on historic seasons from across the NFL’s history, and generally speaking, there being just one or two elite, guaranteed first ballot Hall of Fame QBs at a time and then a few very good, but not historically elite QBs below them is the norm. If you made a list of the 10 best QBs in history, 4 of them played within the last 15 years, while being at their peaks at the same time. Brady, Manning, Rodgers, and Brees. On top of those 4, you had other QBs playing their peak football at the same time that would make a lot of top-20 lists like Roethlisberger, Warner, Eli Manning, and Rivers. So arguably half of the greatest QBs in the 60 year history of the league, played their best football in the same 10-15 year period as one another. It may seem normal to a lot of us because it was the norm for almost 2 decades, but statistically speaking it’s very unlikely to happen again, and I don’t think it’s because the league has gone soft. I just think we had a lot of generational talent in the league at the same time.
The early 2000s to the mid/late 2010s was and will likely remain an unprecedented period for QB talent. It may happen again, but I could also see it never happening again, at least not for a very, very long time.
i was so excited for this season but it’s been so boring that i don’t care when it ends
Defenses are way more complicated than they used to be. Everyone is running hybrid and trap coverages that adapt to what the offense is running. A lot of mid to lower tier QB’s used to rely on the presnap read to give them their first and second look, and that just doesn’t work the same way anymore
Brock Purdy.