erod
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Cowboy Nation is divided. While everybody loves who Dak Precott is, there's a cavernous divide about what kind of NFL quarterbacking dexterity he's capable of. I need not recount the endless threads that carry that thematic argument within this very forum.
It may very well be ultimately irrelevant. A complete and unnecessary waste of time and energy, in fact, when you ponder where the league is headed instead. We focus too much on what we've known it to be for so long.
The days of the "elite" quarterbacks in the NFL may soon be over.
Peyton Manning is gone. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger aren't far behind him. Philip Rivers, too. Aaron Rodgers now entering the latter stages of his amazing career. Romo, Eli, Flacco....gone or about to be.
Soon, who's it gonna be? Who are the elite passers of five years from now? I don't see them.
Russell Wilson isn't in that category, but he's the closest. It's not Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariotta, Blake Bortles, or Alex Smith. And I don't see Dak, Watson, Wentz, Trubisky, Mahomes, any of them ever reaching the levels of Brady, Peyton, Brees, or Rodgers. Goff maybe? I doubt it.
Shoot, Baker Mayfield might be the best suited because at least he ran a semi-pro style offense in college. Most quarterbacks and receivers coming out of college these days are just not trained for the NFL game anymore. College offenses are exactly the same as high school offenses with rare exceptions.
So while we may question Dak's abilities at the NFL level in the traditional sense, it may not matter one bit in 5 years. "Elite" quarterbacking is going the way of the dinosaur.
We already see the devaluing of wide receivers. So few are "No. 1" receivers anymore. There used to be lots of them in the league - Irvin, Rice, Reed, Brown, Ward, Moss, Carter, Pickens, Galloway, etc, etc, etc - but not anymore. I count 4 today in Jones, Brown, Hopkins, and Beckham. (Fitzgerald no more.)
Receivers are flaming out in droves from the draft. Busts all over the place. They have no idea how to run a stinking route because they were never asked to in college. They just flood zones with lazy slants and hooks, and that's it. The 15-yard out and the option read routes are dead and buried.
The league is headed toward hike and chuck it, just like college. Perhaps quarterbacks will devalue much the same as receivers and running backs as a result.
I don't like where the league is headed one bit, but they don't ask me my opinion. If the NFL soon resembles more what the SEC is as we know it, then Dak Prescott is as good as anyone to play that kind of football.
So while I constantly point out that this is the year Dak has to prove himself as the future, maybe I'm kidding myself. Perhaps when Brady, Brees, Rodgers, and Roethlisberger hang it up, Dak will be as good as anybody left.
It may very well be ultimately irrelevant. A complete and unnecessary waste of time and energy, in fact, when you ponder where the league is headed instead. We focus too much on what we've known it to be for so long.
The days of the "elite" quarterbacks in the NFL may soon be over.
Peyton Manning is gone. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger aren't far behind him. Philip Rivers, too. Aaron Rodgers now entering the latter stages of his amazing career. Romo, Eli, Flacco....gone or about to be.
Soon, who's it gonna be? Who are the elite passers of five years from now? I don't see them.
Russell Wilson isn't in that category, but he's the closest. It's not Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, Kirk Cousins, Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariotta, Blake Bortles, or Alex Smith. And I don't see Dak, Watson, Wentz, Trubisky, Mahomes, any of them ever reaching the levels of Brady, Peyton, Brees, or Rodgers. Goff maybe? I doubt it.
Shoot, Baker Mayfield might be the best suited because at least he ran a semi-pro style offense in college. Most quarterbacks and receivers coming out of college these days are just not trained for the NFL game anymore. College offenses are exactly the same as high school offenses with rare exceptions.
So while we may question Dak's abilities at the NFL level in the traditional sense, it may not matter one bit in 5 years. "Elite" quarterbacking is going the way of the dinosaur.
We already see the devaluing of wide receivers. So few are "No. 1" receivers anymore. There used to be lots of them in the league - Irvin, Rice, Reed, Brown, Ward, Moss, Carter, Pickens, Galloway, etc, etc, etc - but not anymore. I count 4 today in Jones, Brown, Hopkins, and Beckham. (Fitzgerald no more.)
Receivers are flaming out in droves from the draft. Busts all over the place. They have no idea how to run a stinking route because they were never asked to in college. They just flood zones with lazy slants and hooks, and that's it. The 15-yard out and the option read routes are dead and buried.
The league is headed toward hike and chuck it, just like college. Perhaps quarterbacks will devalue much the same as receivers and running backs as a result.
I don't like where the league is headed one bit, but they don't ask me my opinion. If the NFL soon resembles more what the SEC is as we know it, then Dak Prescott is as good as anyone to play that kind of football.
So while I constantly point out that this is the year Dak has to prove himself as the future, maybe I'm kidding myself. Perhaps when Brady, Brees, Rodgers, and Roethlisberger hang it up, Dak will be as good as anybody left.
