There’s no
arguing that quarterback is the most important position in the NFL. If
you don’t have it right then it doesn’t matter, just look at the
Bears and their extremely talented roster. That being said, a lot of
teams acknowledge that with the money and draft capital they spend
but don’t put that action in place. How many teams keep only two on
the active roster?
With the hard
salary cap teams have to be very diligent with how they spend their
money. Top end signal callers will take up the biggest chunk so for
the longest time teams went with cheap backups. It didn’t make sense
at the most important position because teams were conceding that an
injury under center and their season went in the tanks. Teams have
wised up and spent money on backups but that’s it. Almost no NFL team
has a third quarterback on the depth chart, instead going with a
possible special teams player at best. Why would you not carry that
commodity over someone who likely won’t see the field?
If you draft a
player and he doesn’t play his value likely goes down. Even if they
do play if it’s not top of the position their value goes down. Gareon
Conley was a 1st round CB for the Raiders and went to
Houston for mid round picks, but that’s not the case for the QB.
Because it’s a position everyone is always searching for there will
always be a market for them. Years ago the Patriots had Ryan Mallet
as their third string that never played. Turned out he wasn’t a pro
but he was still a commodity when it was his time to move on from New
England.
There’s also a
lot of loyalty shown to the position for even the middle of the round
guys. I don’t think the mindset because just good enough is
apparently good enough, see money being thrown around to the guys
that can’t even get playoff wins, but if you built up depth you can
actually do what’s best for the franchise. Right now the game plan is
get a cheap guy, build a team around him and hope you win, then you
have to pay him and hope he’s special enough carry the team on his
shoulders. However, there are very few special guys out there that
can do that.
There are bad
teams very likely to take a QB this upcoming draft; Bengals,
Dolphins, but with such a loaded class which teams will have the
foresight to take advantage? With Tua Tagovailioa, Justin Herbert,
Joe Burrow, Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm, Jordan Love, Kellen Mond, and
Steven Montez there are eight quarterbacks with day two grades or
better. There’s another six with grades that could go before day
three. There’s a lot of signal callers and not everyone is going to
be taken by a bad team that needs a QB but the smart teams will add
to their depth chart.
You don’t see
a lot of teams trade from their QB depth, in fact the last to do it
is New England and they really bailed on their two. Bill Belicheck
gave up Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett for Phillip Dorsett and a
2nd round pick. Brissett wasn’t at peak value but that was
easily a 1st and 2nd round pick they could have
gotten. Look what they’ve done away from New England.
Windows are
small in the NFL, unless you’re New England, but the NFL doesn’t have
it right when it comes to the QB depth chart. You can put the young
quarterbacks in favorable positions in the preseason and show them off
for the commodity they are while protecting yourself. Every onther
position on the gridiron teams try to build depth to create
competition but most only wait until they need a QB to target one. If
I was a general manager I’d select a QB every two years or so.
Protect yourself, find good players and put yourself in a position to
improve your team with QB play or a trade to get draft capital.