Two Years That Have Changed The QB Position In The NFL

Quarterbacks are usually the most valued asset in every NFL draft season after season. If you go into any of the top sportsbook platforms online you will see that when draft season comes around the best odds for players to be drafted are usually pinned on quarterbacks. With the struggle that finding a franchise QB can be for teams around the league, the prospect of landing a true gem is always the most desired prize around.

There have been some amazing QB draft classes like 1983’s with John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly and Ken O’brien all flying of the board into hall of fame careers and 2004’s with Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Phillip Rivers, all players who are well under way to become hall of famers. There should also be a case for how the 2017 and 2018 classes are slowly gaining its place up there with the best draft classes ever and here’s why.

2017, Patrick Mahomes II, The Rest is History

If you don’t know who Patrick Mahomes II is by now, you are living under a football less rock in the middle of nowhere. The Kansas City Chiefs quarterback has taken the league by storm ever since playing his first professional snap in the NFL. Mahomes has brought a combination of video game style maneuvers, with a cannon for an arm and a vision for the game that hasn’t been seen in years in the league. Mahomes’ career at his alma mater Texas was not shabby at all to say the least, just look up the highlight videos of his showdown against Baker Mayfield’s Oklahoma team to witness what can easily be considered two of the best qb performances in NCAA football history.

The effect that the young QB had in Kansas City was almost instant with show stopping performances week in and week out. Mahomes almost single handedly has made the Kansas City Chiefs the best team in professional football. With Andy Reid’s football mastermind coaching him, offensive coordinator extraordinaire Eric Bieniemy giving him the blueprints to run an almost perfect offense and a stacker core of weapons like Travis Kelce, Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins he has taken the Chiefs to three straight AFC Championship games and two Super Bowls, including one win as well. Maybe it might be too soon to consider Mahomes one of the best to ever do it, but he is making sure he gives enough reasons to consider him down the line.

2018, Five QB’s drafted in the first round, Three Finding Immediate Success

A total of five quarterbacks were drafted in the first round of the 2018 draft. There’s the case of former UCLA standout Josh Rosen, who was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals only to lose his job in 2019 to Kyler Murray and being traded to the Miami Dolphins, who would go on in 2020 to draft Tua Tagovailoa and cut him to finally send him to the 49ers. Also Sam Darnold, the number 3 draft pick by the New York Jets who saw in him their new franchise QB only to have his first seasons in the pros tarnished by injuries, bad coaching and just plain bad luck. While Rosen seems destined to play the role of perennial backup QB, Darnold can still bounce back and have a much needed resurgence, be it in NY or somewhere else.

On an absolutely better note we have three of the absolute best QB’s in the league right now, Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield, Buffalo’s Josh Allen and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson. The three of them have managed to bring their teams back from basically oblivion and turn them into some of the best squads in the league with all three teams now becoming top contenders for Super Bowl glory in the years to come. Mayfield on the one hand took it upon himself to show Browns fans that there is no life in losing if you could be winning. Allen and his Bills have officially taken over as the top team in the AFC East, especially after the departure of Tom Brady from the Patriots to Tampa Bay. 

Finally Lamar Jackson, what hasn’t been said of him? He is the epitome of impossible being possible in the QB position. With running skills that resemble a young Michael Vick, an almost surgically precise throwing arm and leadership qualities that exude from him instantly he has become the staple of the Ravens uprising again in the league and there’s no hesitation in saying that just like the Browns and Bills are well underway to vast postseason success, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens are surely going to be Super Bowl Champions in the near future.