NFL 2020: Week 16

[Hamlet]

Continuing this from the Week 15 thread:

@FlikTheBlue

@Hamlet

Or QB’s are just getting older and teams want shiny new toys. I’ve heard it both ways.

As a casual fan, it does seem that there is a lack of good QBs in the “prime” age range. There’s the old veterans in their late 30s to 40s like Brees, Brady, Rodgers, Rivers, and Roethlisberger. There’s a bunch of young guys like in their early to mid 20s like Mahomes, Jackson, Watson, Mayfield, Jones, Murray, Burrow, Lock, and so on. But there seems to be a lack of quality QBs in their late 20s to mid 30s. Russell Wilson is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. That probably explains what’s going on with QB contracts.

So much of this perception, I think, is strictly recency bias and NFL starts. Or course there are more “good” young QBs because there are more young QBs. Guys you listed are first round picks who, generally, get at least 3 or 4 years of slack (barring complete Akili Smith level meltdowns) before they get judged. As long as they show “flashes” (whatever that means), they’ll be starting NFL QB’s. “Not sucking” is pretty much the only standard they have to meet.

Sure Mahomes, likely Watson, are elite NFL QB’s. But Jackson, Mayfield, Murray, and Burrow all have their ups and downs as the game adjusts to them and, while , they’re capable of greatness at times, it’s still too early to judge them. Look at Carson Wentz, who has gone from the next great elite QB to dumpster fire in a couple years. And, as an aside, Jones and Lock belong nowhere on a list of better than average NFL QB’s.