NFL

They all can't be Brock Purdy 🤷🏿‍♂️

Lol

Front offices and coaching staff grabbing the guys they like as opposed to the guys they should get. Will never change.

Want more TDs? Cut salaries across the board for defenses. There, solved your problem NFL.

There is a giant emphasis on having a big athletic quarterback, even though if you go back and look at Super Bowl winning QBs, almost none of them are like that. The QBs that win are more often than not pocket passers who make good decisions and can throw the ball downfield. Makes no sense why teams don’t build around QBs like that anymore. Daniel Jones for example is a terrible QB. Has been given 5 years to prove himself and hasn’t really improved at all since his rookie year. But he is athletic and can run, so he gets a chance.. again, makes absolutely no sense

Right now there's only two real elite guy (a first ballout HOF), Rodgers and Mahomes, and Rodgers is probably at end of his career. If you look at past decade or two, there was probably 4 or 5 at least.

There's a bunch of players with a lot of potential but that don't consistent perform at regular season, much less at playoffs. Right now there isn't a manning/brady in sight. Maybe burrow was supposed to be that guy, but it's the second time with a major injury in 4 years.

All because Allen and Mahomes are interception machines this year. Boo hoo.

How Kenny Pickett avoided being in that photo is beyond me.

1. QBs athleticism and arm strength is more valued than their decision making skills and ability to read the defense. So when defenses force the QB to stay in the pocket, they miss all their reads and settle for a screen. 2) The run game isn’t used as much as it used to be. So instead of 2nd and 7, it’s 2nd and 10 a lot more which is a passing down and defenses are better prepared

it’s not the qbs it’s the sorry state of play calling most cases. Wr screen on 3rd and 12? Inside zone on 2nd and 17? that’s the real epidemic here

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.”

O-line's hung out to dry by pass happy OC's.

Owners not understanding that you need a line before a QB.

O-line play in the trash can.

RB's devalued.

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.

What we’re really talking about are the elite QBs of the league. Coming into the season, people would’ve said that’s Mahomes, Allen, Herbert and Burrow. Mahomes and Allen are having down years, Herbert is good but his team doesn’t win much, and Burrow is out.

Next year, all these guys could have stellar seasons, and then you have guys like Hurts, Lamar, Purdy and Stroud as well. It’s not as bad as it seems right now.

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.

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.”

i was so excited for this season but it’s been so boring that i don’t care when it ends

Brock Purdy.

I don't feel like QBs have been that this season.

It's just that the guys who get hyped ( Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Lawrence..basically the AFC QBs) have not been good and it's actually clouding the excellent play of NFC guys who perennially never get ANY credit.

Purdy, Dak, Cousins, Stroud ( I know he's in AFC but he's a an OSU rookie people said would bee a bust) and Hurts have generally been good-great this year.

QB play is not as baad as people think..it's jusst that the guys media generally push down our throats have not played up to the standard people expected...and so the general consensus has become "QBs are bad this year" when it's not true

As a titans fan I can’t let this detail slide—Someone should tell the writer that Will Levis isn’t a backup…he won the starting job

Where's Carr in that pic?

I wonder if having three preseason games rather than four plays a part. In week one offenses just seem less prepared than defenses. It takes playing together to smooth out issues and to build cohesiveness.

I still think most of the issue is on scheme and coaching. I’ve watched too many games this year where an experienced backup gets blown up in the backfield by a free rusher. OC’s need to be more cognizant to either call the right protections or make sure their quarterbacks understand what to do when there is a free rusher.

And if you’re not able to do either then run heavier personal and run the ball. If you can’t either of those then you probably don’t have a roster capable of winning.

This is the popularity and politics catching up. The best guy doesn't always get the job. It's the guy who is a "name" or who has an agent who can work a room.

"The NFL is a lesser place without the likes of an Aaron Rodgers and a Joe Burrow."

Yeah, injuries suck. But that doesn't mean the game is worse off when teams lose first string players.

I've been loving this season. It's shown what teams have taken the effort to have a strong roster, and not just rely on one or two all-star players to succeed.

As poor of a game as the Vikings had on Monday, it has been AWESOME seeing the team rally together, having been plagued with absolutely devastating injuries.

As much as I dislike the saying, I can't help think about it: "If you don't like this, you don't like football."

Have the other teams tried having their QB belt out "Here we goooooooo" before every snap?

It really is fucking unwatchable this year. My God 75% on the league just sucks.

To be honest... like half the league is either back ups or rookies. A few exceptions out of teams like the JETS and Pats. But I don't think it's fair to say the NFL QB is in a sorry state when half of them are backups and rookies who haven't had the chance to learn.

Quarterback talent down a smidge-feel like in the last decade we've lost some guys to injury that were supposed to be some teams cornerstone guy

Quarterbacks are getting way overpaid so the teams being built around them are suffering a lot, and I think there are a bunch of teams that this problem is about to hit

Offensive lines have been bad this year, looking at the standings is like looking at offensive line rankings

But what I think is the biggest talent disparity in the league imo- Coaching. Less than half the league has a good head coach. About a third of the league has coaches that I think no way in hell they survive whatever contact they're on. And so many absolute shit offensive coaches out there (see Monday night football this past week)

Wow Trent Dilfer and Rich Gannon are average Reddit commenters

Thats what happens when there is suddenly no Tom or Aaron.

I blame the softening of training camp and also eliminating a preseason game. Teams are less prepared on the offense which helps defenses. Also we were spoiled from the QBs of the past 20 years. I doubt we will see a league with multiple elite QBs are playing at once. Besides Mahomes (and even he hasn’t been great) we have a lot of mediocre to crap QBs.

Let's get Maholmes a stud receiver.. it's what we all want

For what it’s worth I think the niners are the only team averaging more run plays than pass this season.

Colts, Bengals, Vikings and Browns are only on this list because of injuries.

AR15, Burrow and Cousins would've had each in playoff contention and 2/3 are set next year. Kirk might not be back, but the Vikes went out and got the best backup on the market at the time.

Watson is honestly kind of trash in every way imaginable, but the Browns are still in playoff contention. They really need to replace him this Spring and get a QB worthy of their defense.

Raiders, Titans and Giants need to draft QB in the top 10.

In how many cases is this just nepotism or cronyism in action like with Zack Wilson? Or is it the first signs of a much smaller pool of talent with parents not signing their kids up due to the risks?

I feel for all the teams on there. We obviously are ok on QB but every team deserves a good one