QBs are the Commodity that Never Go Bad

There’s no arguing that quarterback is the most important position in the NFL. If you don’t have it right then it doesn’t matter, just look at the Bears and their extremely talented roster. That being said, a lot of teams acknowledge that with the money and draft capital they spend but don’t put that action in place. How many teams keep only two on the active roster?

With the hard salary cap teams have to be very diligent with how they spend their money. Top end signal callers will take up the biggest chunk so for the longest time teams went with cheap backups. It didn’t make sense at the most important position because teams were conceding that an injury under center and their season went in the tanks. Teams have wised up and spent money on backups but that’s it. Almost no NFL team has a third quarterback on the depth chart, instead going with a possible special teams player at best. Why would you not carry that commodity over someone who likely won’t see the field?

If you draft a player and he doesn’t play his value likely goes down. Even if they do play if it’s not top of the position their value goes down. Gareon Conley was a 1st round CB for the Raiders and went to Houston for mid round picks, but that’s not the case for the QB. Because it’s a position everyone is always searching for there will always be a market for them. Years ago the Patriots had Ryan Mallet as their third string that never played. Turned out he wasn’t a pro but he was still a commodity when it was his time to move on from New England.

There’s also a lot of loyalty shown to the position for even the middle of the round guys. I don’t think the mindset because just good enough is apparently good enough, see money being thrown around to the guys that can’t even get playoff wins, but if you built up depth you can actually do what’s best for the franchise. Right now the game plan is get a cheap guy, build a team around him and hope you win, then you have to pay him and hope he’s special enough carry the team on his shoulders. However, there are very few special guys out there that can do that.

There are bad teams very likely to take a QB this upcoming draft; Bengals, Dolphins, but with such a loaded class which teams will have the foresight to take advantage? With Tua Tagovailioa, Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, Jacob Eason, Jake Fromm, Jordan Love, and Steven Montez there are eight quarterbacks with day two grades or better. There’s another six with grades that could go before day three. There’s a lot of signal callers and not everyone is going to be taken by a bad team that needs a QB but the smart teams will add to their depth chart.

You don’t see a lot of teams trade from their QB depth, in fact the last to do it is New England and they really bailed on their two. Bill Belichick gave up Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett for Phillip Dorsett and a 2nd round pick. Brissett wasn’t at peak value but that was easily a 1st and 2nd round pick they could have gotten. Look what they’ve done away from New England.

Windows are small in the NFL, unless you’re New England, but the NFL doesn’t have it right when it comes to the QB depth chart. You can put the young quarterbacks in favorable positions in the preseason and show them off for the commodity they are while protecting yourself. Every other position on the gridiron teams try to build depth to create competition but most only wait until they need a QB to target one. If I was a general manager I’d select a QB every two years or so. Protect yourself, find good players and put yourself in a position to improve your team with QB play or a trade to get draft capital.