Leigh Steinberg Blog: Keeping Only 2 QBs Very Risky
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Packers 2013 record with Aaron Rodgers: 6-2
Packers 2013 without Aaron Rodgers: 2-5-1
After Rodgers went down in a Week 9 Monday night game in Green Bay, it became clear Green Bay had no backup plan. Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien, and ultimately Matt Flynn took over in Rodgers’s absence. The Green Bay Packers snuck into the playoffs at 8-7-1, but teams will not be holding their breath this year. Teams do not want to be caught in that predicament this season.
The Packers had started just three quarterbacks in the past 21 years prior to last season. They have learned their lesson. In 2014, they are going with Rodgers, Flynn, and Tolzien on their 53-man roster. The Packers are one of 17 teams in the NFL that will keep three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster. Others include: St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Houston, Tennessee, Kansas City, Oakland, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Atlanta, Carolina, Arizona, and San Francisco.
In today’s pass happy NFL, it is imperative that a team with playoff aspirations has a franchise quarterback as its field general. This is a player that a team can build around for 10-12 years and win because of. This type of quarterback has unique knowledge of his teammates’ abilities and instinctive awareness of how to interact with his line and wide receivers. This player is a master of every aspect of the playbook and can execute it by superior knowledge of how to read defenses. The franchise quarterback can elevate his level of play in critical and adverse situations and carry a team through to victory.
This position is extremely difficult to develop. Quarterbacks like Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Rogers have taken years to hone their skills. Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson, and Colin Kaepernick arrived much more quickly. Many first-round quarterbacks have never lived up to their potential whether the cause is adverse circumstances or lack of developmental coaching.
All offense flows through the quarterback. It is difficult enough to develop a premier starter, but injury lurks on every play. That is why it is extremely risky for a team to head into a season with a starter and only one backup on the roster.
Fifteen teams head into this first weekend with only two quarterbacks. If the starter gets hurt, the backup becomes the starter. Who backs him up? Has that player been present for training camp? Does he know the playbook? The whole season is put at risk in this scenario.
Last year Green Bay was thought to be a Super Bowl contender. They went 6-2 with Rogers as the starter and one backup. He went down in Game 9. Wallace, the backup, performed inadequately. The team had to go with Tolzien and ultimately, Flynn. They went 2-5-1 without Rogers and snuck into the playoffs. The Buffalo Bills went with rookies EJ Manuel and Jeff Tuel as their only quarterbacks. Manuel injured his knee, Tuel wasn’t prepared, and the team had to move Thad Lewis from the practice squad and bring in Flynn to learn the playbook. Flynn was released three weeks later. Teams are one hit away from losing whoever is starting, on every single play.
There needs to be more emphasis on developing quality backups so that the quality of quarterbacking does not drop so dramatically because of injury. Obviously football is a team game and defenses and supporting offense can pick up some of the slack, but the impact on an offense can be huge. The restrictions of the salary cap hurt the process. No longer can a highly-paid rookie sit behind a wily, highly-paid veteran and learn – there is not enough cap room. The Washington Redskins once had Jay Schroeder and Doug Williams, the Vikings had Tommy Kramer and Wade Wilson, and amazingly the 49ers had Joe Montana backed up by Steve Young.
Defensive linemen are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever before and they will eventually get to the quarterback. The new mode of quarterbacking is to have a more-mobile scrambler risking his body in the open field. Whatever marginal benefit is picked up by using what would be the third quarterback position for depth at another position cannot be worth the risk. Keep your eye on two-quarterback teams and see how they fare this season.
