On August 4, 2016, the Kansas
City Chiefs signed free agent Nick Foles, a player who has proved that his
incredible, Pro Bowl worthy 2013 season was a fluke more than talent. Foles
signing came in an off season where the New York Jets tried to play chicken
(and lost) with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and saw the much maligned Cleveland Browns
sign first-round flame out Robert Griffin the Third to be their starter. In an
era where it’s easier than ever to complete a pass in the NFL, we seemingly
cannot find 32 competent men who are up to the task.
While there has always been bad
quarterback play in the NFL, now more than ever seems to highlight the notion
that if you don’t like the quarterback you have now, you’re screwed. We used to
live in a time where if you didn’t like your quarterback, then you could trade
for a team’s back up. The Seattle Seahawks had great success with Matt
Hasselbeck who was the back up for the legendary Brett Farve- a man who himself
was traded from the Atlanta Falcons. Speaking of the ATL, they not too long ago
traded away their back up Matt Schaub to the Houston Texans. Growing up in
Chicago, myself and fellow Bears fans used to hold the back-up quarterback in
high regard- sometimes higher than the starter. Bears fans used to be so devoid
of QB hope that we loved it when 31-year-old Brian Griese came to play in 2006
to be our back-up.
However, these problems are 1%
problems. At least those teams HAVE a competent starting quarterback who can,
at the bare minimum, get their team to the playoffs. But what to do you if you
don’t have one of those? Then you’re stuck with RG3 and signing the definition
of replacement level QB: Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The Chicago Bears recently had
this dilemma. Even though I’ll ride hard for Jay Cutler, I’ll concede that he
isn’t the greatest QB there is. However, both being a rational human being and
again, remembering a time not too long ago thinking that Brian Griese was our
Great White Hope, I know that Cutler is a fine, above-average quarterback- and
a legitimate starter in this league. So when his contract ran up a few years
ago, former Bears GM Phil Emory had three options. He could have let Cutler go
and re-signed the carcass of the other McCown brother (who was coming off of a
career season). However, seeing McCown revert from Cinderella to the poor chambermaid
that he is after Chicago let him go, re-signing him to be the starter surely
would have seen the GM get canned. Phil Emory could have let both Cutler and
McCown walk thinking they were both too expensive, and played a quarterback off
of the scrap heap for cheap until a better solution presented itself. However, as
we have just determined, the free agency quarterback pool is barren, and that
would have gotten Phil Emory fired. The option Emory did chose to do, realizing
that a fine, good-but-obviously-not-great QB was better than nothing at all,
was to re-sign Jay Cutler. The huge downside is that the market value for a good-but-obviously-not-great
QB is ridiculously high. So Phil Emory signing Cutler to seemingly bloated deal
got himself fired anyways.
As recent history has now shown
us, the correct answer was probably #2- let both quarterbacks walk as both are
too expensive. You suck it up in the interim until a more favorable solution
falls into your lap. Be Bill Belichick, ruthless and know every player has a
cap on his price tag. It’s like football’s equivalent of the Houston Rockets.
They collected assets and lied in wait- until James Harden presented himself. That’s
what the Houston Texans did.
After Matt Schaub fell apart, the
Texans picked up aforementioned Replacement Level Guy Ryan Fitzpatrick. They
also attempted to trade for a back-up; they acquired Ryan Mallet from the New
England Patriots. Even though Fitzpatrick was competent, the Texans realized
what his value was (to them at least) and traded him to the New York Jets. This
was their cheap and conditional starter and the Texans traded him away. After
trotting out Brian Hoyer and Brandon Weedon after seeing how Mallet was a bust,
the Texans eventually landed their White Whale- signing the rare proven, yet young
quarterback in free agency: Brock Osweiler. Now Osweiler might by Matt Flynn or
he might be Matt Hasselbeck, but it’s worth the gamble, and now the Texans can
say they have their starting QB. Haters knock Osweiler because they say he was
only good for just a few games that’s it, but remember when people for some
reason thought James Harden wasn’t good because he only played in limited
minutes?
Like the Texans prior to this
offseason, if you’re in need of a quarterback, you either better draft one, or
have a great defense and running game. After losing Peyton Manning to
retirement (and shittiness) and Brock Osweiler to free agency, the Denver
Broncos are doing just that. They still have a strong defense despite losing
key players, are hoping that their running tandem will be just enough. However,
their quarterback situation is a black hole. They picked up Mark Sanchez in
free agency (literally the bottom of the barrel) to compete with 2015th
7th round draft pick Trevor Siemian, and the Broncos 1st
round pick in 2016 Paxton Lynch- a player commonly criticized for not being
good enough to play right away. It’s hard out there for a pimp.
The New York Jets were even worse
off than the Broncos (although that’s debatable). Although not as good on paper
as Denver, the Jets are still a team built to win now. So while Ryan
Fitzpatrick may not be great, he’s necessary and worth it if you want to make a
playoff run.
What surprises me even more is
how much NFL teams are blind to the lack of quality in their league. While
Fitzpatrick was in negotiations with the Jets all summer, he still was a free
agent and could have signed anywhere else. Sure his price tag may be a bit
steep (compared with other positions), but he’s still only the 23rd
highest paid quarterback behind the likes of Sam Bradford, Ryan Tannehill, and
the aforementioned Jay Cutler. If you’re Denver and you’re looking to repeat,
Fitzpatrick certainly seems like a much better alternative than Mark freaking
Sanchez. All Fitzpatrick was doing was asking for starter money- like he
deserves. If he’s going to start for your team, which he will in New York and
would have for Denver, then pay him like one. Don’t be a cheap asshole about
it.
There was one quarterback this
offseason that is a legitimate back up and was signed to be a legitimate back
up. That was former Texans and Browns starter QB Brian Hoyer. We have enough of
a sample size to see that Brian Hoyer is not a starter, but he’s certainly a
back-up. A successful back-up needs to competently start 2-4 games in a given
season- similar to what was asked of A.J. McCarron and Luke McCown last year.
But as we also saw from McCarron and McCown, being asked to even start one game
from your back up can lead to disastrous results. The Chicago Bears picked up
Hoyer decently late in the NFL offseason and only paid him two million dollars.
It baffles me why any legitimate contender, like the Bengals or Cardinals-
especially considering how both teams watched their Super Bowl hopes vanish
when their starting quarterback went down- didn’t go after Hoyer. Brian Hoyer
is the only back-up quarterback in the league that can be trusted to start 2-4
if and/or when the starter goes down. Yes, I’d even trust Hoyer over Patriots
back up Jimmy Garoppolo- a man who at minimum will have to start four games
this season.
The position of back-up
quarterback is not a sexy one. It’s nothing compared to being a starter, and
the vast majority of the time the back-up will sit on the bench and look and
pictures. Yet the position is so important. The quarterback position itself is
so important and necessary to win football games, and more likely than not, the
back-up quarterback will be called upon to play at least one game. Despite it
all, teams don’t give a shit about their back-up quarterbacks. Partially
because that player is bad. If he were any good, he’s be a starter. It’s a
tough Catch-22 to reconcile and one most teams haven’t been able to figure out.
But once teams do, their path to Super Bowl victory will be that much easier.