Quote:
Originally Posted by flere-imsaho
To echo some of the stuff that QS wrote, the fact of the matter is that, as we have discussed upthread and in previous threads, it is a) very difficult to obtain a good-to-elite QB and b) having a good-to-elite QB has become pretty much a requirement to getting to the postseason and potentially doing well in the postseason.
The number of QBs who can lift an average team or below-average offensive unit (with a competent defensive unit) into the playoffs is probably in the single digits. The number of QBs who can do the same when paired with a stellar OC or HC operating as an OC (e.g. McVay or McDaniel) is also in the single digits.
When I did my tiering exercise, you basically get through, generously, 16 QBs before you get to the "fuck it, start tanking" tier.
So I think that if you're a team that's drafting and has a need for a QB either now or potentially in the next few years (see the Favre & Rodgers situations), and you come across a candidate that you think has the chance to be competent-to-good (with caveats of course around teams' ability to judge talent) you should just take him, regardless of draft position. The position is simply that important.
Anyway, I'm probably super wrong, but I've spent far too much time thinking about this on my commute and so you all get to be the beneficiaries of that lol.  |
This was basically my point. I just think quarterback is so important in today's NFL that if your staff - between scouts and coaches - comes to the consensus that a player could be in that Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Lamar tier (or even Herbert, Dak territory) and you don't have an otherwise long-term solution at quarterback, then you take that player.
Now, will Atlanta be correct in their assessment about Penix? Probably not, but they have to trust their own evaluation process.
In an ideal world, they wouldn't have signed Cousins. As much as I like Cousins, he's never been named to the All-Pro team nor has he ever garnered any MVP or OPOY votes. So giving a soon to be 36-year-old quarterback coming off Achilles surgery that contract was debatable given the track record of quarterbacks at that age.
If their plan was always to sign Cousins and draft who they felt was the best quarterback available, then they're idiots. I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt though that it was a situation where they never initially intended to draft a QB and simply fell in love with a player as they continued to get closer to the draft. And again, I think they have to trust their own evaluation. So assuming they have Penix scouted as a top-tier quarterback - and not just the best QB available - then I don't have a problem with the process of spending the pick on your potential long-term franchise QB.
In the same vein, and I know this seems somewhat contradictory, but I have no problem with the fact that the Giants didn't take a quarterback, despite them not having a long term answer at the position. If their assessment is that McCarthy/Penix/Nix don't have that elite tier potential, then they shouldn't be reaching there. At the end of the day, teams have to trust their own evaluations.