Dramatic departures, attention grabbing hold outs, and a few smart signings will punctuate the NFL quarterback carousel of 2023. The league and the individual QBs themselves have successfully parlayed this off season’s quarterback shuffle in to a media blitz. This year’s QB shuffle has been more compelling than most, but it has also shined a light on what the NFL (and football in general) doesn’t want to admit. Some of these guys aren’t really even quarterbacks at all.
The New Orleans Saints signing of Derek Carr marks the smartest move by both an individual quarterback and his new team so far this off season. Carr was unceremoniously benched by Las Vegas Coach Josh McDaniels in 2022. McDaniels’ second go around as head coach (after an epic failure with the Broncos) will now be highlighted with another bad move. Giving up on Carr speaks more about McDaniels’ lack of communication skills and myopic view of football than it does about Carr. Derek Carr is not the next coming of Drew Brees for the Saints, but he gets the job done at his position while pouring his heart and soul in to leading his team, and gasp… he is a top 15 quarterback year in and year out. Carr and the Saints are a perfect match, and remember – Saints coach Dennis Allen was the head coach for Derek Carr in Carr’s inaugural 2014 season when the Raiders were in Oakland; Carr’s relationship with Allen already has a foundation for potential success.
Deshaun Watson and Daniel Jones are diametrically opposite signings (though Watson’s signing with Cleveland was in 2022). While I strongly disagree with the massive contract offered to Watson, it is clear that Cleveland was taking a long game splash. Watson is much maligned for his 20+ allegations of sexual assault and otherwise unsavory behaviors with women. He has served his suspension, and now is expected to deliver the Browns several playoff appearances over the course of his immense contract. Watson is a fantastic quarterback who is plenty capable of taking the Browns to the playoffs.
Daniel Jones’ off field resume is squeaky clean, and on the field he has developed in to a reliable quarterback for the New York Giants. Jones just signed a four year contract to stick with the Giants. Jones won’t amaze you with fourth option read throws or evasive on the run tosses, but what he will do for the Giants is continue to manage games to the tune of playoff qualification. As long as NYG maintains some semblance of a running game (Saquon Barkley has been franchise tagged for the season and will likely remain a Giant when the tag is permanent in July), Jones and company should regularly compete in the NFC East for relevance.
On to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’s Violet Beauregarde, errr drama monger Aaron Rodgers. The Green Bay Packers made a massive mistake in March of 2022 signing Rodgers to a three year contract worth upward of 150 million. Rodgers was in his late 30s at the time, but had just come off of an MVP season. Instead of analyzing the normally diminishing skills of an aging quarterback and offering much less (or letting him go), the Packers kowtowed to Rodgers after one of his best seasons and ponied up. The glaring mistake the Packers made in signing this silly agreement with Rodgers is clear: he is an unmotivated, attention craving diva set on luring the media to attend to his antics. Green Bay management has worked with Rodgers his entire career. Did they not observe these behaviors in advance of signing on the dotted line for the silly Rodgers contract? Clearly when Rodgers doesn’t get everything he wants, he pouts like a child with folded arms. Even Wonka’s spoiled brat Violet would be proud of his antics!
Since Rodgers signed that contract with Green Bay, he has complained that the Packers haven’t put proper players around him (duh… they cannot afford to after the Rodgers guarantees) while simultaneously underperforming in a 2022 season that included falling twice to the upstart Detroit Lions. Recently he has gone to a supposed ‘dark room’ to deplete external distractions while pondering what to do with his career in football. In his dark room, I doubt that Aaron Rodgers pondered why he stole millions from Green Bay last season while putting forth subpar effort on the gridiron. If Rodgers retires, the Packers will be relieved of these dramatic woes. If Rodgers moves on (the New York Jets appear to be the popular suitor), good luck to the Jets if Rodgers, err. Violet signs then doesn’t get every piece of bubble gum he begs for.
Lamar Jackson is an actor miscast in the live action play we call the NFL. Contrary to the roster listing, Lamar Jackson is not a quarterback. That’s no hallucination, you read it right, Lamar Jackson is NOT a quarterback. He never has been. He is an exceptional athlete with top of the line running skills and could have made a fantastic running back or wide receiver. Instead, Jackson’s athleticism – which happens to include a physically strong throwing arm – has him cast as a quarterback. The Ravens have admitted to creating a roster and playbook that allows for Lamar to run often, and throw less. It is evident that the Ravens coach and management have assessed that Jackson does not possess the in game smarts to handle a normal team’s offensive playbook otherwise they would have asked him to throw more, and run less. Jackson earned the MVP in 2019 for his running skill combined with a reasonably good season in the air, not the other way around.
Jackson’s miscasting as quarterback has come to a head as he looks for a new contract. His issue is magnified as he has chosen to represent himself in his effort to secure a long term contract. Jackson would be wise to get an agent who understands the lay of the land and has regular dealings with upper management.
Lamar Jackson is confirmed on the 2023 Ravens roster with a 32 million dollar non-exclusive franchise tag agreement. As of the posting of this article, Lamar Jackson has not yet secured a deal beyond 2023; he values himself too high in todays QB market. Run first (or run priority) quarterbacks don’t deserve the money that pure QBs do – one bad hit will sideline Jackson for multiple games or even a career. Robert Griffin III comes to mind here. So the Ravens have gotten this assessment just right, smartly pumping the brakes on long term deal talks with this actor who really should have pursued starring roles as running back or wide receiver all along. I suspect that Chicago’s Justin Fields will suffer the same fate in just a few years.
Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson is in the early stages of Lamar Jackson’s misguided path. Richardson is considered a generational athlete; the media is hyping his draft status as he moves his way up the draft chart for his physical gifts. Richardson has been shoe horned in to the position of quarterback because of his athleticism.
He has not demonstrated an iota of NFL quarterback capability beyond his obvious athletic attributes. His sub 50% completion percentage is not even in the top half of SEC quarterbacks. Scouts will tell you that many things can be coached in a quarterback but accuracy seldom is one of them. And, he has yet to prove he is a winner. (Did you watch University of Florida football this year? Yuck.) Richardson is praised in interviews for being a good guy, but there’s no evidence yet that he is a top of the line leader, or that he can pick up a sophisticated pro playbook and execute when decision making is limited to fractions of seconds.
It is not too late for Anthony Richardson to look at these examples as he attempts to frame his game to pro level caliber. So far, Richardson has steered clear of Aaron Rodgers’ Violet-esque persona. He also must learn from Lamar Jackson’s soon to be career mistake. He should stay in college one or two more years in an attempt to change positions on the field. Otherwise he should work on developing his game in the mold of Mahomes, Carr, Jones, and the game [only] of Watson to sharpen his accuracy and decision making as a pocket passer. Then he can apply his vast running capability more sparingly when dashing away from sack pressure. Otherwise, I’ll have to include Anthony Richardson in my NFL Quarterback Conundrum 2024 essay.
Paul MacDonald - Sports Broadcaster 