The NFL & Starting Rookie QB's

When an NFL team drafts a QB in the first round of the NFL Draft, everyone wonders if this is the guy that is going to save their franchise. Take the Jets for instance. Last year they signed Brett Favre out of retirement (chuckle), and he turned the team into a playoff team for half of the season, but then showed his age in the second half as the team went downhill and missed the playoffs. After the season, Favre again retires… and then unretires to sign with the Vikings, but enough about Favre.

The Jets organization was left in limbo without someone to play QB. Sure, they still had Kellen Clemens, but he has proven time and time again that he isn’t a starter in the NFL. The Jets could have looked to sign another free agent QB, but since they got screwed over by doing that the previous year, they set their sites on the NFL Draft where they selected a young kid out of USC with the 5th overall pick in Mark Sanchez. Everyone then wondered when he would be the team’s starter.

This same question was asked by many when the Detroit Lions drafted Matthew Stafford number one. The Jets already named Sanchez as their week one starter, but the Lions have yet to name theirs. My question is how does a team that went 0-16 last year not name the number one overall pick their starter by now, no matter what the position is? You have a guy in Daunte Culpepper who, in my opinion, has tons of knowledge and experience and can share that with Stafford week in and week out. But to think about starting him over Stafford is just silly.

One thing about NFL coaching (which has a lot to do with the fans and media) that I just don’t understand, is why they think that if you start a young player at QB, he then has to play the entire game. I say you throw your rookie QB out there every week to start the game, and if he plays poorly, you have a veteran number two (like Culpepper) to bring in to try to keep your team in the game. Meanwhile, the rookie goes over his mistakes on the sidelines. Then there’s no QB controversy after the game, just two QB’s in the same stat book. You don’t leave the veteran in the rest of the year, you put the rookie back out there the very next week to start.

I don’t know how Stafford or Sanchez will do, but I do know that the less stress and pressure put on their shoulders, the quicker they can play in the NFL at a high level instead of becoming the next Alex Smith, David Carr or Rex Grossman.