We Had To Wait Forever For Our Franchise QB

[flippy]

Seems like the gap between Bradshaw and Ben lasted forever. Now that we finally have a franchise QB again, it seems like every team has one.

Are Franchise QBs becoming a dime a dozen?

[RuthlessBurgher]

Ben, Brady, Brees, Rodgers, and the Mannings are the only ones in the elite category. It's now 2012, and the guys on this list have won every Super Bowl since the 2003 season.

Guys like Rivers, Romo, Ryan, Stafford, Flacco, Schaub, Luck, Griffin, etc. are franchise QB's to their teams, but they are all second tier to the above until they can prove that they can win when it counts.

[flippy]

Ben, Brady, Brees, Rodgers, and the Mannings are the only ones in the elite category. It's now 2012, and the guys on this list have won every Super Bowl since the 2003 season.

Guys like Rivers, Romo, Ryan, Stafford, Flacco, Schaub, Luck, Griffin, etc. are franchise QB's to their teams, but they are all second tier to the above until they can prove that they can win when it counts.

I bet if Bill Cowher had some of those 2nd tier guys, he'd have won a couple more SuperBowls.

or he'd have messed up their psyches...

[aggiebones]

Was Archie Manning an elite QB when he played?
What about Dan Marino, Jim Kelly or Fran Tarkington?

Was Dilfer elite?

Super Bowls are important, but not the only factor.

That said Romo, Rivers and Flacco are obviously not elite.

But Ryan, Stafford, Shaub and Luck may well be elite QBs.
Not sure about RG3. He may peak very early, then settle in the upper middle for 10 years.

[rockonsteel]

That was their own damn fault. They are the ones who passed on Dan Marino when he was right in their front yard the whole time, and fell right into their damn laps. They let him get away and the rest is history until we finally got Ben and then history was re-written again. Probably the dumbest decision the Steelers front office ever made, rivaled only by the fact that they actually cut Johhny Unitas.


Rockon

[papillon]

The new rules are making it easier to be considered an elite or franchise quarterback. Holding has been legalized provided your hands aren't outside the guys shoulders, the secondary can't touch a receiver after 5 yards, hitting a quarterback except in specific locations has given quarterbacks some hubris that they may not have had a few years back and the criminalization of hard hits in the secondary has certainly given WRs some bravado to go over the middle. All this is leading to increased passing numbers and making quarterbacks look better than they may actually be or would have been under a slightly different set of rules. The rules are what they are and defenses have to adapt and they will, then the NFL will alter the rules again, wash, rinse, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat, etc

Pappy

[NW Steeler]

There is a big difference between being able to put up big numbers as a QB in today's NFL and being THE guy that can put a team on his back and will them to a win. I would say franchise QB's are FAR from a dime a dozen.

[Eich]

Was Archie Manning an elite QB when he played?
What about Dan Marino, Jim Kelly or Fran Tarkington?

Was Dilfer elite?

Super Bowls are important, but not the only factor.

That said Romo, Rivers and Flacco are obviously not elite.

But Ryan, Stafford, Shaub and Luck may well be elite QBs.
Not sure about RG3. He may peak very early, then settle in the upper middle for 10 years.

Good points. And I think that O'Donnell and Maddox were our "Romo/Rivers/Flacco". At the time, I was hopeful that Maddox would be our "Kurt Warner" - and he very well may have been - if it weren't for that paralysis-inducing injury. He was never the same after that.

I also wonder about RGIII. He could continue to get better (like Ben, Rogers, Brady) or he could be a flash-in-the-pan like Newton appears to be. What a massive year-over-year change he's turned out to be.

[Mister Pittsburgh]

I am starting to wonder if we should start to look to groom another QB before Ben gets too much longer in the tooth. Seems to me the ONLY reason we have both Batch and Leftwich is because both of them are so frail they may snap a bone within 5 plays of being called into action.

[flippy]

The new rules are making it easier to be considered an elite or franchise quarterback. Holding has been legalized provided your hands aren't outside the guys shoulders, the secondary can't touch a receiver after 5 yards, hitting a quarterback except in specific locations has given quarterbacks some hubris that they may not have had a few years back and the criminalization of hard hits in the secondary has certainly given WRs some bravado to go over the middle. All this is leading to increased passing numbers and making quarterbacks look better than they may actually be or would have been under a slightly different set of rules. The rules are what they are and defenses have to adapt and they will, then the NFL will alter the rules again, wash, rinse, repeat, wash, rinse, repeat, etc

Pappy

This is what I was trying to say. We get this great QB and all the rules change and he doesn't have as much value versus other QBs as he would have had 10 or 20 years ago when the rules were different.

[NW Steeler]

Good points. And I think that O'Donnell and Maddox were our "Romo/Rivers/Flacco". At the time, I was hopeful that Maddox would be our "Kurt Warner" - and he very well may have been - if it weren't for that paralysis-inducing injury. He was never the same after that.

I also wonder about RGIII. He could continue to get better (like Ben, Rogers, Brady) or he could be a flash-in-the-pan like Newton appears to be. What a massive year-over-year change he's turned out to be.

I think the biggest difference between RGIII and Newton is between the ears. Newton appears to be a tad Vince Yong-ish.

[steeler_fan_in_t.o.]

I would say that fantasy franchise QBs are a dime a dozen. It is easier to put up numbers in a point system that doesn't penalize losses and bad decisions, and only minimally penalizes turnovers......would you want a QB who throws for one TD and 3 ints? In fantasy that breaks him even.