Tampa Bay Buccaneers Photo
The aftermath of Super Bowl 55 creates the conviction that it is time to update the use of the football phrase—Franchise Quarterback. This is the necessity for which 32 teams in the National Football League search with wanton and too often unfulfilled longing. Not the least of these teams has been The New Cleveland Browns (1999-to-forevermore).
The New Browns have taken so many swings (30) at finding a winning quarterback that neither Coach Kevin Stefanski nor General Manager Andrew Berry will utter the phrase. Under their shirts and around their necks probably hang cloves of garlic and crosses, and they do not stick their necks out for creatures with impressively long incisors. Some of their predecessors have done so and had the lifeblood sucked out of their careers.
Stefanski and Berry, now in possession of a quarterback who would seem every inch the aforementioned type, abstain from use of The Phrase so religiously that they may be giving Baker Mayfield a neither-fish-nor-fowlcomplex that will require attention. (Baker can be sensitive, or at least he has had a history of taking offense at slights.)
When they gave their States of the Team addresses at season’s end, both men professed their love for Mayfield’s leadership and play during a difficult season wracked by the coronavirus and spoke glowingly of his future. They probably have planned a socially distanced and masked Valentine’s Day celebration with little pink hearts and other sweets. On the NFL off-season calendar this could include in the coming weeks or months exercising the quarterback’s fifth-year option and/or signing him to a contract extension with so many figures Mayfield will have to drive it home in an armored truck.
It might fall something short of the $45 million per year beginning in 2022 that the Kansas City Chiefs presented Patrick Mahomes last off-season because, at least until his and KC’s 31-9 Super Bowl loss to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Franchise Quarterback in front of Mahomes’ name had become not only permissible but also comparatively risk free. If Brady is the GOAT (Greatest of All-Time), then Mahomes had become no less than current poster boy for Franchise Quarterback.
Nothing has changed.
The Chiefs, now dethroned Super Bowl champs, and Mahomes played like pretenders to the crown rather than the real deal. (This should be somewhat encouraging to the Browns who lost 22-17 to the Chiefs in the Divisional Round of the playoffs.) When the Bucs and Chiefs met during the regular season, Kansas City ran wild, particularly wide receiver Tyreek Hill, in a 17-0 first quarter from which Tampa Bay never recovered. Hill had two touchdowns (75 and 44 yards) in that fast start on his way to catching 13 of the 15 balls (269 yards) thrown to him. In the Super Bowl, he was comparatively unnoticeable.
Mahomes played as if a turf toe injury suffered against the Browns, still hurt and his makeshift offensive line could not protect him. He looked like the Energizer Bunny running from a fierce Tampa Bay defense executing to perfection the game plan of coordinator Todd Boyles. Only difference, between the Energizer Bunny and Mahomes was that the Bunny just keeps on going and Mahomes, after 497 yards of running around behind the line could complete just 53.1 percent of has passes, fourth worst in his 54-game career, and not produce a touchdown. If Baker Mayfield put on such a performance, he would be pilloried and accused of all sorts of untoward things. The point: It happens.
Perhaps only Brady is a Moveable Feast of a Quarterback, regardless of the franchise. Over 19 years in New England, he led the Patriots to 9 Super Bowls and 6 titles. When he took his talents to Tampa on the Bay, the Patriots were diminished to the point that even future Hall of Fame Coach Bill Belichick could not get them into these playoffs. Tampa, the Cleveland of the South, became just what Coach Bruce Arians, at 68 oldest to win a Super Bowl, promised Brady it could be if he joined up. (Brady helped assure this by luring his Patriot tight end Rob Gronkowski out of a one-season retirement and talking his new team into taking on sometimes troublesome Antonio Brown.)
As reported by NBC Sports’ Peter King in his post-Super Bowl “Football Morning in America” column: Arians said to Brady, “as confetti fell on their world champion heads Sunday night—Hey, dude, you remember our first conversation?”
“Vividly,” Brady said.
“Me, too,” Arians said. “ ‘You come, and we’ll win the Super Bowl.’ ”
And, of course, Brady and Bucs did as Arians predicted.
Brady joined Peyton Manning (Indianapolis and Denver) as the only quarterbacks to win Super Bowls with different teams. Manning was among the 2021 Pro Football Hall of Fame class presented to the few real people and many cardboard cutouts at SB55. At least we know where 43-year-old Brady’s talents will end up, if not how long he will play.
Could other Super Bowl-winners still bear up under the grandiose-sounding Franchise Quarterbacktag? Give a nod and a chance to: Drew Brees, New Orleans, who is great but fading into retirement; Aaron Rogers, Green Bay league MVP who had such as good year that State Farm may actually offer a Rogers’ Discount, yet lost to Brady’s Tampa Bay in the NFC final on his home field, and Mahomes, The Young Guns’ Top Gun.
Almost Top Four but…: Russell Wilson, Seattle, still in his prime, NFL Man of the Year, wants to—as Brady seems bent on doing—play until he is 45; he is the best shorter player alive (sorry, Baker), which makes me love him. And then, there is the human statue, Ben Rothlisberger, Pittsburgh, who won two titles after the Browns passed him by in the draft. He doesn’t have much left in his bulky and powerful tank, if the Browns-Steelers playoff game is an indicator. Maybe he was sandbagging.
Still hanging around: Joe Flacco, who won Super Bowl 47 at Baltimore, but now a backup for the Jets, and Nick Foles, who finished off a championship season for Philadelphia in Super Bowl 52 after Carson Wentzwas injured in the regular season.
Sliding down the greased pole that is Franchise QB Expectations: Speaking of Wentz, he is chief among a crop of recent top draft choices who were thought to have Franchise Quarterback inscribed across their foreheads . . . in disappearing ink because they have been moved to other teams or soon may—Jared Goff, Los Angeles Rams, traded to Detroit (with a big, fat extension handed to him too soon) for Matthew Stafford, who has often lived up to his vast potential but could not do enough to make the Lions a winner); Sam Darnold, New York Jets (No. 2 to Baker Mayfield in the 2018 draft), a quarterback who may have had some Cleveland admirers. Thank the ghosts of Paul Brown, Otto Graham, and common sense that Darnold did not prevail. And, Jimmy Garoppolo, former understudy to the GOAT himself and a pretty darned good QB for the San Francisco 49ers when he is healthy—which he has not been that often.
Quarterbacks Most Promising of the New Franchisers (but we’ll see): Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Colts, a man who can run like a cheetah, dart like a lizard on a hot tin roof, and who has striven to improve his throwing and succeeded; Josh Allen, Buffalo, who had a sterling season. The Bills (Believeland East) may have found their new Jim Kelly, who may have been from “the U” but played as if he were, like Allen, a forgotten guy who found himself at Wyoming, a Kelly kind of place.
Newest of the New Franchise Quarterbacks: Kyler Murray, Arizona, Baker Mayfield’s caddy and successor who has greater athleticism and more than a few Sooner fans might argue is the better of the two. Joe Burrow, Cincinnati, the kid from Athens who wasn’t good enough for The Ohio State University but was damned fine for LSU, which he took to a national championship and himself to the Heisman Trophy (like every AFC North quarterback except The Statue who played at Miami of Ohio where the quarterback would have to play nude to get enough attention to win a Heisman). Burrow missed much of his rookie season because of injury. Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers, who had an impressive debut and looked Oregon ducky. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia, the Alabama quarterback who learned how to play when he transferred to Oklahoma and benefitted from Lincoln Riley’s coaching. Now, he is Lamar Lite.
Other Seriously Good Guys (which could include even more names because you do not get to play QB in the League unless you are really good): Ryan Tannehill, Tennessee, who salvaged his career and improved Tennessee after the Miami Dolphins gave up on him; Matt Ryan, Atlanta (he probably should be in the Stafford category); Kirk Cousins, Minnesota; Derek Carr, Las Vegas; and Teddy Bridgewater, Charlotte, who made a place for himself by successfully replacing an injured Brees in 2019.
Finally, the Texas Two: What must the Houston Texans be thinking to alienate Deshaun Watson, who has demanded a trade that he may not get (I wouldn’t give it to him) and the Dallas Cowboys to dither on extending Dak Prescott’s contract?
Missing a QB who should be listed? Make your own list.
The number and quality of most of the names here—and the courses of careers—would indicate that identifying a Franchise Quarterback is difficult even for those paid to do so. Brady, for instance, was passed over and over and over before finally being chosen in the sixth round as the 199th pick of the 2000 draft. Look at him now.
It’s why I have concluded that Brady is not only the GOAT but also The One and Only Franchise Quarterback.His next step should be obvious: Put together an investment group to buy the Patriots from Robert Kraft, Brady friend, and let Kraft retain a minority ownership share. Then, name himself Quarterback for Life, which he has proved himself to be.
