Considering what CJ Stroud has been doing, I’m interested in seeing how teams handle drafting a QB high from here on out. Over the last 20 years or so, I think we’ve seen less and less patience when it comes to rookie QBs. There used to be a time where a guy could get drafted and would essentially be a clipboard holder his first 2-3 years if the guy ahead of him was producing at at least a Cincy Andy Dalton level. We’ve seen a lot more get thrown out to the fire early and they get a lot less leeway now than they did when I first started watching football 20 something years ago.
Still tho, a lot of fans still like to justify why their teams young QB is underperforming and usually point to factors that are out of their control (roster, coaching staff, front office, lack of experience)
And this guy CJ Stroud comes into the league with a franchise in perhaps its darkest days with a rookie head coach to boot, no notable weapons at the start of the season and he’s got them in the playoff hunt and hasn’t only been playing well for a rookie but he has been one of the best performing QBs in the league this season.
I’m already seeing a lot of rumblings on social media in regards to other young QBs that have yet to play like CJ has and some guys that had supporters before this season have lost a lot of them. It’s just hard to keep justifying poor play with external excuses when this guy isn’t in an ideal situation at all and making it happen.
NO, you know why? Because the league will not go back in time to ground and pound and defensive slopfests currently featuring in the AFCN, for example. The ratings are as good as they've ever been, but they're not going to take this lying down.
This is like the neutral zone trap in hockey or the bully ball in basketball both about 2 decades ago, and both those leagues came to their senses slowly without a lot of analytics and internet comments.
This time, the NFL will not wait around. Not only because high scoring games are more fun for casual fans, not only because they're more fun to bet on, but because they can't market defensive players the way they can market Mahomes, Wilson, Rogers, Brady, Allen, Manningses, Tua, etc.
The only counter argument I can see is that they really hate guaranteed contracts, and they want QBs to flail around until that goes away. But there's no math in that imo.
They'll wait to see if it's a statistical fluke, and I'm sure they're happy to return some physical play back, but no way there isn't a course correction.