Saturday 16 September 2017 12:40, UK
Where are the game's future quarterbacks?
One of the major talking points from Week One in the NFL was the (poor) play of a 40-year-old quarterback but, if anything, it's a testament to just how good Tom Brady is, that the mere achievement of playing football at 40 was overlooked. We expect him to excel.
Brady will be fine. Need we be reminded that he won his record fifth Super Bowl ring with the New England Patriots only seven months ago - his long-sustained dominance at the position a hint to the dearth of young talent coming through at the quarterback position.
Rookies are too often thrown in at the deep end, picked up in the draft by struggling franchises and expected to perform straight away - DeShone Kizer and Deshaun Watson appear to be of 2017's vintage, left to almost single-handedly turn round the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans' fortunes, respectively.
That approach can work. Some swim; examples from 2016 being Dak Prescott, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff - we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, after a strong Week One showing, shall we? - but the majority sink. Too many to mention.
Lessons once again could be learned from the league's best, Brady. The sixth-round draft pick sat his rookie year behind Drew Bledsoe, learning about the league, the team and the system he was expected to play. By the time he was required in year two, he was ready.
Arguably Brady's biggest competition as the league's premium passer is Aaron Rodgers, who also had to bide his time, sitting behind hall-of-famer Brett Favre for his first three years in Green Bay - something, though he might not have appreciated it at the time, Sky Sports' Neil Reynolds believes benefited him greatly.
"We had to wait to see Rodgers crowned as an NFL great," said Reynolds. "He joins some really famous names who had to play the waiting game.
"He waited behind Favre, Brady behind Bledsoe, Philip Rivers behind Drew Brees at San Diego. Even the great Joe Montana had to wait a year in San Francisco!"
With that in mind, why aren't more teams investing time, as well as the money, in young QBs?
The NFL currently has seven starting quarterbacks over the age of 35 - Brady (40), Brees (38), Josh McCown (37), Carson Palmer (37), Eli Manning (36), Ben Roethlisberger (35) and Philip Rivers (35).
Only McCown could count himself out of the league's elite bracket, and while the production of the other six isn't yet in question, there seems to be no obvious succession plan in place at the position.
Once again the Patriots set the standard: back-up Jimmy Garoppolo, obtained with a second-round pick in the 2014 draft, is a much sought-after commodity by quarterback-needy teams in the NFL following a couple of impressive starts in relief of the suspended Brady last year. The Patriots even got collateral for recently trading their third-string QB Jacoby Brissett to the Indianapolis Colts.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft, however, in a recent exclusive interview with Sky Sports News, made it clear the team weren't looking to move Garoppolo on too.
"People wanted to trade for Jimmy, but we wouldn't," said Kraft. "We don't reveal our hand to the competition on how we plan to handle it. But we like having good quality depth management."
As for the plan for the future for the other teams clinging on to veteran QBs, beyond the odd serviceable back-up, there isn't much of one.
Surely it makes sense to bring in a young talented arm out of the draft, sit him behind greats of the game like Brees or 'Big Ben' Roethlisberger, for the benefit both of him and his future in the league, as well as that of the franchise?
Kansas City Chiefs did just that this year, investing their first-round draft pick (10th overall) on Texas Tech QB Patrick Mahomes II. Many, in fact, saw him possibly edging out 'game-manager' Alex Smith for the starting role as early as this year.
But, as the 33-year-old Smith showed in his Week One, 368-yard and four-touchdown destruction of the Patriots, he has plenty left in the tank yet and plenty of wisdom to be passed on to his young protégée.
"Maybe it's the threat of Mahomes," added Reynolds, reflecting on the Smith's performance. "The Chiefs moved up in the first round of the draft and gave up next year's first round pick to get him.
"Smith would have been looking over his shoulder and he has maybe been scared into being more adventurous. And, having now put in one of the best performances of his career, Mahomes is going to have to be patient."
Mahomes may indeed have to be patient. But, as Brady and Rodgers have proven before him, that may not be a bad thing.
