The 2020 NFL season is off and running and some teams are already looking forward to 2021. The pre-season is usually a time to iron out the kinks but with no pre-season games being played this season, a lot of NFL teams are far behind the eight-ball just five games into the new year. A few of those teams are already looking forward to the 2021 NFL Draft, and specifically the 2021 NFL Draft quarterbacks.
The 2021 NFL Draft is headlined by probably the best quarterback class since 2012 and could have large implications on the league for a long time. Perhaps most importantly on the teams in a position to draft one of the top three quarterbacks in the. Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence leads the big-three as debatably the greatest prospect of all-time followed by dual-threat quarterbacks Justin Fields from Ohio State and Trey Lance from FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.
These three quarterbacks present a unique decision for certain franchises. There are a number of teams with young quarterbacks three or fewer years into their rookie contracts. However, the ability to upgrade the most important position on a football team can never be overlooked. Whether a team has a solid young quarterback back or not, passing up on one of these three talents in the first round would be a big mistake.
Passing Up on the Big-Three 2021 NFL Draft Quarterbacks Is A Mistake
Who Is Inline To Grab the 2021 NFL Draft Quarterbacks?
Through five weeks of the 2020 NFL season, the New York Jets and New York Giants both seem like good candidates to end up with the first-overall pick in 2021. Both teams sit winless at 0-5 and have shown very little to make a turn around plausible.
Jets quarterback Sam Darnold was selected with the third-overall pick in the 2018 draft three years ago. Darnold was considered by many to be the consensus first-overall pick in the draft but slipped to the Jets at three. Since his selection they have not done a good job surrounding him with talent. The Jets have spent money on marquee free agents like C.J. Mosley and Le’Veon Bell but their signings have not contributed enough to make up for the bad roster Adam Gase has coached.
The Giants drafted quarterback Daniel Jones two seasons ago with the sixth-overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. He was never seen as a top-end prospect but the Giants and general manager Dave Gettleman saw enough to make him the future face of their franchise. So far in his career, Jones has done little to validate the selection. Over his first 17 starts, he is a fumbling machine with a staggering 22 fumbles and is regressing in his second season. Jones has played five games in 2020 and holds a passer rating of 70.7, a completion percentage of 61 percent, five interceptions, four fumbles, and just two touchdowns.
There are also other teams like the Atlanta Falcons, Detroit Lions, and Minnesota Vikings that are struggling to begin the season and could use a reset at the quarterback position. However, they have more proven quarterbacks and are less likely to be near the bottom of the league come January.
The Value of a Quarterback Is Too High To Ignore
Finding a quarterback to lead a franchise is hard no matter how it is sliced. Picking a quarterback can be like the newest slots of VulkanVegas casino but that does not mean a team should stop trying to find a player to improve the franchise. It is hard to give up on a player so early in their career but the reward heavily outweighs the risk of a team getting stuck in quarterback purgatory. This theory was already put to work by the Arizona Cardinals in 2019.
After selecting Josh Rosen with the 10th-overall pick in the 2018 draft, the Cardinals selected Kyler Murray with the first-overall pick in the 2019 draft. Since the switch, Murray has put together some MVP caliber games for head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who took over the Cardinals coaching responsibilities following Arizona’s last-place finish in 2018. Kingsbury was a fan of Murray’s since he was in high school and finally got his guy going into his first year as an NFL head coach. Rosen was cut by the Miami Dolphins this past off-season.
The Murray archetype should be one that is followed around the league. Quarterback is far and beyond the most important position on a football field and it is almost impossible to win without, at least, a serviceable one. If the management group of a team does not think their current quarterback can win a Super Bowl then they have to look to make upgrades.
Every quarterback needs help but it is a lot easier to rely on a player that does not make big mistakes as opposed to allocating resources to fix those mistakes.
The Draft Eligible Quarterbacks Are Special
The quarterback class of 2021 has a chance to be the best in a long time. The class starts with Lawerence but extends to the two quarterbacks battling for the right to be picked behind him.
Lawerence is a generational talent and is maybe the best quarterback prospect of all-time. Scouts rave about Lawerence’s accuracy, decision making, and ability to make every throw needed by an NFL quarterback with ease. He is comparable to Peyton Manning but with the ability to take off from the pocket and create yardage with his legs. Over his career at Clemson, Lawerence boasts an insane record of 33-1 and is on pace to improve his completion percentage and passer efficiency rating for the third straight year in 2020. There has debatably never been a player that could run for 500 plus yards in a college football season and throw the ball as well as Lawerence.
Fields is currently the more popular second-ranked quarterback behind Lawerence but Lance is not far behind. Both posted incredibly impressive numbers in their first seasons as starters in 2019, highlighted by a couple of notable achievements. Fields finished third in Heisman voting on heels of 51 total touchdowns. He is perhaps the best dual-threat NFL prospect of all-time. Lance finished 2019 accounting for 42 total touchdowns for NDSU and did not throw a single interception all season.
This quarterback class could be in contention for deepest at the top of all-time. 2021 is a great year to need a quarterback and it should be almost impossible for a quarterback-needy team to pass up on one of these three NCAA stars.
Main Image:
