It's a bizarre time in the NFL, as we are beset by two peaks far outside the standard deviation: Ancient Quarterbacks and the flood of the Young Rushing QBs.
Tom Brady is not the only old man playing QB and playing at a high level. Aaron Rodgers is still playing and with the help of the NFL Referees, putting up MVP numbers. Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger are still effective.
At the same time, the Run-Pass Option QB are taking over the the play calling and dreams of General Managers throughout the league. While it would seem obvious to place your best athlete into the most important position in all of sports; Quarterback. It's also a mistake.
College coaches will only have a QB in there system 4 or 3 or even 1 year. General Managers, Owners, and fan bases hope and expect a Franchise QB to last 10 years (and as we've seen recently with the recently retired Philip Rivers and Drew Brees) even longer. Every RPO QB, except Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, has been injured this year;
- Kyler Murray
- Justin Fields
- Jalen Hurts
- Tua Tagovailoa
- Taysom Hill
- Cam Newton
- And reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson
The RPO is turning QBs into Running Backs and giving them the same shortened careers. QBs even the fastest and the toughest can't take open field hits and continue to be effective. This is in no way to call them soft or pampered, it's just QB can' play the way a defensive lineman can with a club hand or with a stinger or an achy joint. QB's in the pocket have special protections but, even the slide rule adopted a while back doesn't protect them out in the open.
Now, where does NFL quarterbacking go in the future? College has been using the option system for decades. But, a Steve Young or Michael Vick level fast, agile QB making the NFL and running with ball has always been more of an outlier. Players like Donovan McNabb, or Steve McNair or John Elway were mobile and would run but, also moved away from the running style so embraced as of late. Clearly, the current crop of Quarterbacks who can run and run well are going to keep playing even if the occasional ones, like a Mitch Trubisky or Marcus Mariota get relegated to back-up status. But, I think it's going to be a short-lived experiment because NFL franchises can't invest draft picks and big money in players whose pro careers mirror their college ones, in terms of longevity.
Running as a QB, is the fastest way to shorten your career.
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