It seems as though no matter what is going on in the Chicago area once the NFL season starts all that any sports talk show talks about is the Bears. Of course with the Cubs and the White Sox not in the baseball playoffs and the Blackhawks and the Bulls not looking like contenders I guess the hope was that the Bears would make a trip to the playoffs like last season and maybe even find their way into the Super Bowl.
I was a little surprised with all of the talk about the Bears actually making it to the Super Bowl, but that was how it was going. I found it a little odd since the defense did things that where going to be difficult to repeat. They had also traded away their top running back from last season and didn’t really replace him. It also seemed like their young quarterback Mitchell Trubisky was on the right track after taking a big step forward from his rookie year.
Things haven’t quite went the way the Bears or their fans had hoped and as I’m sure you as you can guess the talk isn’t as positive as it was during the pre-season. The Bears are off to a 3-3 start which isn’t terrible, but the rest of the division is playing well and the Bears find themselves behind the 6-1 Green Bay Packers and the 6-2 Minnesota Vikings and they’re just ahead of the 2-3-1 Detroit Lions.
Now when an NFL team struggles what’s the first thing that anyone and everyone looks at; the quarterback. Trubisky was hurt in Week 4 and missed the Bears Week 5 game. He returned last week and struggled a little bit in the Bears loss to the New Orleans Saints. Overall Trubisky’s numbers aren’t terrible. He’s completing 64.4% of his passes this season and has thrown more touchdowns 5 than interceptions 2, but his average yards per attempt is way down from last season.
Now this has brought up a lot of questions. Trubisky was the #2 pick in the 2017 draft and the Bears traded up to get him. This of course has started the bust talk and it’ made me wonder if you really need to be drafting a quarterback as high as some teams do.
Coming into this season it already seemed clear that the Miami Dolphins where going to “tank” this season so they could get the 1st pick in the draft and select what they believe will be their quarterback of the future. We’ve seen plenty of teams “tank” to try and get a better draft spot, but does it work? and is it the right thing to do?
Let’s take a look at the other starting quarterbacks starting in the Bears division. Aaron Rodgers was a 1st round draft pick, but not what you’d consider a high one. Rodgers actually wasn’t selected until the 24th pick of the 1st round in 2005. Only one team took quarterback ahead of Rodgers. That was Alex Smith who was the 1st pick in the draft by the San Francisco 49ers. The Detroit Lions used the #1 pick in the 2009 draft to select Matthew Stafford. He’s been the Lions starting quarterback for the last 11 seasons and while his numbers have been good throughout his career the Lions haven’t been to the playoffs with Stafford as their starting quarterback. When the Minnesota Vikings where looking for a quarterback they went out on the free agent market and signed Kirk Cousins. In 2012 Cousins was the 2nd quarterback selected by the Washington Redskins and it took three years before Cousins became their full time starter.
As you can see there’s a mixed bag of choices and results right there. I’m sure that you could go through every division and find a wide variety of where a quarterback was taken and by which team.
The obvious choice for success by a power round quarterback would be Tom Brady who was a 6th round draft pick and is considered by many as the best quarterback to ever play the game.
Just as Brady may be the biggest selection of a late round quarterback there are the ones that just haven’t worked out. Marcus Mariota was the #2 overall pick in the 2015 draft and just recently lost his starting job to another former 1st round pick Ryan Tannehill. The Dolphins selected Tannehill with the 8th overall pick in the 2012 draft. While the questions about Trubisky have started Baker Mayfield is also going through the same kind of issues in Cleveland. The Browns used the 1st overall pick in the 2018 draft to select Mayfield with limited results.
Will we see Trubisky and Mayfield turn things around and become the quarterback that their teams projected them to be when they drafted them or are they headed down a path similar to the one Mariota went down. It’s difficult to say and of course the players that are put around them are extremely important to the success of the quarterback.
If the Dolphins end up with the #1 pick in the next draft which quarterback would they select? It seems like Tua Tagovailoa is the leading choice right now, but Joe Burrows is starting to make a case to be the first quarterback picked.
Even if the Dolphins don’t end up with the 1st pick in the draft and they might not. There are a few other teams still in the running to have the wort record in the NFL. It’s still expected that Miami will select a quarterback with their 1st pick. When the Dolphins make that selection will they be getting the guys that will lead them back into contention or will they get a player that they’ll look to be replacing in a few seasons.
It’s clear that there are no guarantees when it comes to drafting quarterbacks; so everything is a wait and see type of situation.
If you where making the 1st selection in the next draft and your team needed a quarterback; who would you choose?
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