The NFL has a quarterbacks problem.
No position in sports is more important than quarterback. The QB touches the ball on every play. They call plays at the line, read the defense, audible when necessary. They make every throw, control the snap count, hand the ball off.
The quarterback is the maestro orchestrating everything else.
When it goes well, it's a beautiful symphony with the quarterback at the center of everything. It's why we get all goo-goo-gaga, heart-eyed-emoji when Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen do their thing.
Good QB play makes everything else better. Elite QB play is football at its highest level.
So why does it feel like it's getting harder and harder to find even a competent NFL quarterback?
Tommy DeVito.
Will Levis.
Bryce Rypien.
P.J. Walker.
Jaren Hall.
Riley Howard.
Joshua Dobbs.
Tyson Bagent.
Those are just a few of the QB names we were treated to on a disastrous Sunday that saw Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford, Kenny Pickett, Desmond Ridder and Tyrod Taylor all leave games injured.
These are real quarterbacks playing real NFL snaps, and we're not even halfway through the season yet.
How many times this season has NFL RedZone flipped to a game only for you to see a quarterback you've literally never even heard of before?
Tyson Bagent starred on Sunday Night Football – ever heard of him or Shepherd University before the last few weeks? Had you ever heard the name Jaren Hall or Tommy DeVito in your life before seeing them play NFL football on Sunday? Did you even notice I completely made up the name Riley Howard on the list above? Or did you just assume he was yet another third-string QB you've never heard of?
Eleven backup QBs played significant snaps on Sunday.
We haven't even mentioned Gardner Minshew, Zach Wilson or Taylor Heinicke, nor guys like Malik Willis or Taysom Hill playing occasional snaps. Not a word about guys like Jordan Love, Mac Jones and Sam Howell, who might not be starting a year from now. We got all those guys on Sunday, and we've already seen significant snaps this season from Brian Hoyer, Andy Dalton, Aidan O'Connell, Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Bailey Zappe.
That's an awful lot of mediocrity. How did we get here??
We just finished Week 8 of the NFL season. We've already seen seven rookie QB starters, and that number will likely increase next week.
Jaren Hall could be in line to start for Minnesota, Tommy DeVito is the only healthy option left for the Giants, and Stetson Bennett might start if Stafford can't go for the Rams. We could be at 10 rookie QB starters by the midpoint of the season. Only 14 quarterbacks were even drafted this year.
Check out a few of the potential Week 9 QB matchups on tap:
- Titans at Steelers: Will Levis vs. Mitch Trubisky
- Cardinals at Browns: Joshua Dobbs vs. P.J. Walker
- Vikings at Falcons: Jalen Hall vs. Taylor Heinicke
- Giants at Raiders: Tommy DeVito vs. Aidan O'Connell
Ugly.
Yes, the NFL has a quarterbacks problem, and it's a significant one.
The average starting QB on Opening Day was 27.9 years old, the youngest Opening Day quarterback age in more than two decades. Only a quarter of the league started a QB with at least nine years of NFL experience, and only two with at least 13.
Think about the names that have retired at quarterback in the last few years: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Matt Ryan, Carson Palmer. These names have been in our lives for the better part of two decades, week in, week out. They're all in the retirement home now, and names like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Ryan Tannehill, Stafford and Cousins may not be far behind.
That should be good news. Younger should be better, more fun, more modern and exciting.
But on days like Sunday, it's mostly meant inexperience and bad football.
Next week, 12 of the 32 Opening Day quarterbacks could be on the sidelines – and that's not even mentioning stars like Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence and Jalen Hurts all playing through significant injuries.
Through eight weeks, 19 different quarterbacks who have taken at least 25 snaps have negative EPA on the season. Nineteen! Not great, Bob!!
How about a few highlights from some of the stellar QB play we saw around the league Sunday?
P.J. Walker completed fewer than half of his passes, ate three sacks, and turned it over three times in a four-point loss. Joshua Dobbs had three turnovers in a one-score game. Tyson Bagent turned it over three times – six if you count turnovers on downs. Vikings rookie Jaren Hall was strip-sacked deep in his own territory on his first professional dropback, putting his team's 14-point lead in jeopardy.
Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito combined to complete 6-of-14 passes for the Giants for a whopping SEVEN yards – not a typo. New York was a missed field goal with 28 seconds left away from winning anyway, because that duo somehow outplayed Zach Wilson.
DeVito finished his NFL debut at 2-of-7 for -1 yard. He's now thrown for fewer yards as a professional than you and I.
You might think that's a joke, but you're actually the third-string Giants QB next week. Suit up.
Per our Gilles Gallant, starting QBs were 117-92-1 to the over (55.7%) on interception props entering the weekend, and that went up to 36-20 (64.3%) the last two weeks.
Multiple quarterbacks were so certain to throw a pick this week that their interception line was listed as 1.5 rather than 0.5. P.J. Walker was -240 to throw at least one pick. He threw two, of course, including one that cost his team the win near midfield with under two minutes left.
All these backups and young, unproven quarterbacks have led to some ugly, sloppy football.
For all the talk around the league about how defenses have adjusted and are playing so well, what if the answer is much simpler?
What if the quarterbacks just mostly suck now?
The best QBs are like great maestros on the field, but what happens if there's no conductor leading the orchestra? You know that awful sound the entire band makes five minutes before the concert when they're all tuning their instruments one last time, a veritable cacophony of screeching dissonance?
That's what the NFL looks like when its conductors don't know what they're doing.
The league has built something beautiful, and brilliant offensive coordinators continue to scheme up amazing plays built for precision bullet passes and multiple reads and decisions on every play. But what happens when they just have to pick some lucky winner out of the crowd to run the offense?
Yes, the league has a serious quarterbacks problem.
The old guard has aged out, the new generation hasn't aged in, and an endless barrage of injuries and poor play has left us with terrible QB play around the league.
The position has never been more complex, with more on-field decisions and in-the-moment reads, and there's never been more talent – around the rest of the offense, or on the defense programmed to stop it.
These are 32 of the greatest orchestras the NFL has ever built, fine-tuned instruments at every turn.
Anyone know where we can find some good conductors?
