Rookie QBs getting trial by fire on NFL opening weekend comes with mixed history
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Three quarterbacks were drafted in the first round this past spring, and all three — Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson — will start their first NFL games on Sunday.
League history is littered with successes and failures of rookie quarterbacks who’ve been anointed as starters right away.
Two of the league’s current top quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, began their respective careers on the bench, learning from veteran starters. We live in an impatient sports world that demands success now, in the case of the Panthers, who picked Young first overall, the Texans, who chose Stroud with the second pick, and the Colts, who took Richardson at No. 4. Their franchises are all in need of an immediate shot in the arm.
Whether that translates to instant gratification remains one of the mysteries to be solved this season. It’s important for those teams and their fans to understand that struggles are certain to come and to remember these past cases:
- Troy Aikman had nine touchdown passes to 18 interceptions and finished with a 55.7 passer rating in his rookie year with the Cowboys in 1989 and famously got his butt kicked. Where is he now? In the Hall of Fame as a three-time Super Bowl champion.
- Peyton Manning’s rookie year was a wild one, consisting of 26 TDs but also 28 INTs, and those 1998 Colts went 3-13. In his next 16 seasons, Manning endured just one more losing record and ended up in the Hall of Fame, regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of all time.
- In 1970, Terry Bradshaw completed 38.1 percent of his passes and threw for just six TDs to 24 INTs, but it worked out pretty well for him in the end, as he won four Super Bowls and was elected into the Hall of Fame.
- John Elway completed just 47.5 percent of his passes in 1983, his rookie year in Denver, throwing for seven TDs with 14 INTs and a 54.9 passer rating, but he ended up winning two Super Bowls and being voted into the Hall of Fame.
More recently, Trevor Lawrence, after growing pains in his first year in Jacksonville, led the Jaguars to the playoffs last year in his second season.
There is the other side, too, as with David Carr, the Texans No. 1-overall pick in 2002. He threw for 2,592 yards with nine TDs and 15 INTs in his 16 starts as a rookie, but was sacked an NFL single-season-high 76 times that year and never reached his potential. Carr, at that time, became the poster child for the argument that teams should not starting a rookie quarterback right away.
<figure class=”wp-block-image aligncenter size-large”><img src=” alt=”” class=”wp-image-28646348″/><figcaption>C.J. Stroud</figcaption></figure>
This, of course, is a different era, and the Panthers, Texans and Colts are hoping that their rookies can do what Dak Prescott did with the Cowboys and Ben Roethlisberger did with the Steelers as rookie starters, winning an NFL-record 13 games.
Now this new crop will get its chance to make history.
Panthers head coach Frank Reich said of Young: “He’s in control. He knows what he wants and how he wants it done.’’
Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer called Young “unflappable,’’ adding, “He looks young in the face, but he’s a grown man.’’
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said his biggest advice to Stroud has been to “not make the game bigger’’ than it is and to “go out and do what got you here.”
Colts head coach Shane Steichen had similar advice for Richardson, who sounds like he has taken it to heart.
“Don’t overthink it and just play football,” Richardson said. “The trust from my teammates and the coaches … them believing in me and trusting me and me knowing my information, that lets me know that I’m ready.’’
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