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.
A lot of injured starters. BUT, I think the quality of play has been going down generally the past few years. I think the major reasons are the shortened camps, fewer vets attending camp, shortened preseason with fewer starters playing in preseason, and the trend toward young head coaches.
This is such an overblown topic. There are only a handful of Qb’s playing “great” any given season. I’ve been watching the NFL since 2005 and there was a time where you had like two guys playing at a high level then everybody else.
If anything I’d say Qb play is generally higher than it was 15 years ago.
The post cherry picks a bunch of journeymen to make their point in the photo…
I’ve been saying this since last year. The middle of the pack guys only look good, because the bottom tier is that bad.
Says you! My QB is having a career year. Guess who!?!?
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.
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.
- 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
WR screen on 3rd and 12?
Ah so you’ve been watching the Eagles
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.
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.
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!”
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.