The NFL has seemingly turned over the keys to the next generation of talent. This is especially true with the recent success of young quarterbacks in the NFL this year.
This generational shift also occurs alongside the year of passing, where several records have been broken with regards to passing yards, points and passing touchdowns through the first quarter of the season.
Deshaun Watson, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, Patrick Mahomes and Mitchell Trubisky have all had success as of late and all of them are at or under the age of 25.
Mahomes currently leads the league in passing touchdowns through the end of week 6 at 18. Trubisky had a six-touchdown performance in week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Goff and Wentz managed to lead their teams to the playoffs in the 2017 season while only in their 2nd year. This was after both had a seemingly slow start in their rookie seasons going 4-12 and 7-9 respectively, although Goff only started in 7 of the 16 games in 2016.
Watson had a breakout 2017 until his stellar season was derailed by an ACL tear which he sustained in practice after a week 8 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks. Watson was on pace for 43 touchdowns and 18 interceptions, which would’ve nearly doubled the record for passing touchdowns in a season by a rookie quarterback at 26 (Russell Wilson and Peyton Manning).
Wentz also suffered an ACL tear in week 14 of the same season, ending his MVP caliber season. Both Wentz and Watson were dominating the league and clear front-runners for the MVP award if not for injuries sidelining them.
Wentz ended the season in high spirits though. His efforts through the first 14 weeks of the season ended up being enough to secure a playoff spot for the Philadelphia Eagles with a record of 13-3. They later ended up winning Super Bowl LII (52).
Through the first six weeks of the season, the quintuplet ranks 1st (Mahomes), T-8th (Goff), T-12th (Trubisky), T-16th (Watson) and T-21st (Wentz) in touchdowns. 4th (Goff), 6th (Mahomes), 7th (Watson), 22th (Trubisky) and 24th (Wentz) in passing yards. And 4th (Trubisky), 6th (Goff), 9th (Wentz), 19th (Watson) and 23rd (Mahomes) in completion percentage.
With all five of these quarterbacks being in the top 10 in at least one of the three main passing stats, it is pretty clear that they are very ahead of where 2nd and 3rd-year quarterbacks usually are.
Of the five quarterbacks, three are leading their divisions (Mahomes, Goff and Trubisky) with records of 5-1, 6-0 and 3-2 respectively. The other two (Wentz and Watson) have both split the season with three wins and three losses each.
Pre-season predictions had the Rams (2nd) and Eagles as top three Super Bowl contenders while the Texans and Chiefs are either favorites to win the division or to secure a wildcard spot.
Only the Bears were considered unlikely to make the playoffs considering their tough division where the Vikings and Packers are favorites to make the playoffs as well competing in a very tough conference in the NFC.
If the season ended today, three of the teams would make the playoffs (Chiefs – Mahomes, Rams – Goff and Bears – Trubisky) while the other two are third and fourth in the hunt for their respective conferences (Texans – Watson [AFC] and Eagles – Wentz [NFC] respectively).
With all this in mind, I haven’t even mentioned the five first-round quarterbacks. The 2018 draft was tied for 2nd in NFL history since 1970 for quarterbacks taken in the first round.
It only trails the 1983 draft which ended up having three Hall of Fame quarterbacks in Dan Marino, John Elway and Jim Kelly.
The quarterbacks were drafted 1st (Baker Mayfield), 3rd (Sam Darnold), 7th (Josh Allen), 10th (Josh Rosen) and 32nd (Lamar Jackson). Marking the most quarterbacks drafted in the top 10 picks of a single draft at four.
The 2018 draft isn’t likely going to generate the talent that the 1983 draft class had, but it is too early to tell.
Between the five quarterbacks, they have combined for 17 starts and 26 games (Mayfield 3 starts; 4 games, Darnold 6 starts; 6 games, Allen 5 starts; 6 games, Rosen 3 starts; 4 games and Jackson 0 starts; 6 games).
Mayfield, Allen and Rosen have had the challenge of a quarterback competition and having to compete with another quarterback throughout the season while Darnold was given the job at the start of the season and Jackson appears to be fixed as the backup.
All five of the teams seem to feel pretty secure with their young quarterbacks as do the aforementioned teams. With this being said, it will be weird heading into the 2019 draft with teams such as the Browns, Texans, Bills, Bears and Jets not looking for a quarterback as they’ve all been quite active in the quarterback department whether it be drafting, starting or trading for quarterbacks seemingly every season.
Now that these 10 aforementioned teams have seemingly found their franchise quarterback, they join the likes of the Raiders, 49ers and Cowboys who also have younger/in their prime quarterbacks while the Patriots, Saints, Chargers, Packers and Steelers all have future Hall of Famers making their offenses.
This is one of the first seasons in a while where almost every team has an at least seemingly clear-cut QB1 in their squad.
It should be interesting to see how the next few years play out as Brady, Roethlisberger, Brees, Rivers and Rodgers get older and closer to retirement. Will these new young guns step up or fizzle out for even younger talent?
Justin Pokorski
Graphic Designer