The NFL’s top QBs are waking up to their power, following Tom Brady and LeBron James
This NFL offseason will be one of significant quarterback movement. The carousel is already spinning in a peculiar new way, the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams having set the tone for a wild market with their blockbuster swap of Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff. It established an any-trade-is-possible vibe, despite the monster contracts involved. Rumors are that Carson Wentz could be the centerpiece of the next blockbuster deal, even though his recent meager performance at a $32-million-a-season price tag makes Goff’s $33.5 million seem like a reasonable investment.
But most captivating is the growing dissatisfaction of a few top-tier quarterbacks. Watson remains the only one from that group likely to be dealt, even though the Texans claim they won’t trade him. Still, there’s something to the carefully worded push for clarity that Rodgers made. And Wilson, so fluent in quarterback cliche, is now taking his grievances public and lobbying for more sway in the Seahawks’ decision-making. These are indicators that, similar to what the NBA has experienced with its stars the past decade, we’re amid an NFL era of shifting power dynamics.
The superstar NFL quarterback, potentially the most powerful force in all of sports, is ready to test his might. Until now, he didn’t have the awareness or the nerve to aspire to such potency. He adhered to an institution-first mentality, interpreting the title of franchise quarterback as a lofty job description rather than a precious kind of football capital.
The importance and difficulty of playing the position have never been questioned, nor has the scarcity of elite talent. A great QB isn’t a brick of gold; he is an entire vault. At any time, there are only a handful of special ones, and if a team is blessed with such a player, it has a ticket to sustained success and prolonged pursuit of championships, which cannot be taken for granted in a sport of roster attrition and fluctuation.
These quarterbacks are testing their ability to leverage their indispensable talent and stretch their authority. It makes for a riveting NFL culture war, with coaches, front offices and ownership so accustomed to hoarding control and signal callers being satisfied with selling whatever product they are given. But they’re not so eager to be merely the face of the franchise and most credible spokesman anymore. They want to be, truly, that franchise player.
So there’s Wilson, stirring up drama this week in an interview with Dan Patrick, detailing the nearly 400 sacks he has taken in his first nine seasons and applying pressure on the Seahawks in an uncharacteristic manner. He risks upsetting the fans, not to mention his offensive line. But this was more about the company line. He doesn’t want to toe it without having a say.
If you like your athletes docile, this is a controversial shift in temperament. However, conflict isn’t always a bad thing in sports. Since back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, the Seahawks have been stuck on good the past six years. Urgency is appropriate, as long as Wilson can acknowledge that he needs to play better.
“I want to be able to be involved because at the end of the day it’s your legacy,” he told Patrick. “It’s your team’s legacy. It’s the guys you get to go into the huddle with and at the end of the day, those guys you’ve got to trust. When you think about one of the reasons why Tom went to Tampa was because he felt like he could trust those guys and [Coach Bruce Arians] was going to give him the opportunity. … You think about guys like LeBron [James.] He was able to be around great players that he can trust.”
It’s important to recognize that Wilson, 32, was in college when James signed with the Miami Heat in 2010 and worked with that franchise to take apart its roster to create a game-changing Big Three with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Watson, 25, was in high school then. Aaron Rodgers, 37, was about to begin a season in which he would lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory. They were all fledgling quarterbacks in some way when James became an aspirational figure with how he reimagined a superstar’s role in team building.
Then last March Brady did the unimaginable: He left the Patriots. He seemed like the ultimate company man, but at 43, he bet on himself. He played general manager, too, convincing Rob Gronkowski to come out of retirement and later advocating for the Bucs to sign wide receiver Antonio Brown despite his problems. When the team struggled in November, Arians changed his approach and adjusted his offense to fit Brady. In Tampa, Brady’s voice was stronger. And he won his seventh title.
In this copycat league, Brady has shown them another way. All his winning cannot be duplicated, but some will consider his second act a model.
Power is different from acclaim, influence, fame and money. The best quarterbacks are realizing that, while they have it good, they’d like more control. And they are so hard to find that teams can’t just ignore them or trade them for a low-maintenance replacement.
For as large a crew as it takes to be successful on the football field, it’s almost impossible to win a championship without an elite quarterback. And the more the game changes, the more vital that position becomes.
Let’s go back 29 years. That’s when Washington won its third Super Bowl under Joe Gibbs, doing so with a different quarterback each time. That run under Gibbs was a masterful exhibition of building a complete team around the position, and Washington thrived during an era in which many teams managed to lift the Lombardi Trophy without needing a Hall of Fame-bound quarterback. It was still a league of running backs and extraordinary defenses.
Since 1992, you can point to just four instances in which a Super Bowl champion triumphed without a QB in the Hall of Fame or tracking to be a Hall of Famer: the 2000 and 2012 Baltimore Ravens (Trent Dilfer and Joe Flacco), 2002 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Brad Johnson) and the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles (Nick Foles). Those squads are often hailed as reason to believe there is another way, but you’re talking about four exceptional teams over three decades.
The superstar NFL quarterback is the franchise, and he can remain the franchise for 15 years. It makes him the most valuable and durable asset in sports. The most powerful, too. And he’s only starting to toy with idea.
