What matters is that of course Patrick Mahomes is spectacularly talented. All that matters is that he is almost always available to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Same goes for the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts.
Those are the big reasons the Chiefs and Eagles will meet in the Super Bowl — with AP NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year finalists Mahomes and Hurts taking the snap — on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona. Sure enough, the San Francisco 49ers almost managed to make it all the way to the championship game with a last-pick-of-the-draft rookie who went from No. 3 on the depth chart to starter due to injuries to others. collided. , But then Brock Purdy injured his elbow in the NFC title game in Philadelphia, leaving the Niners to try to rely on journeyman Josh Johnson until he got hurt… which means Purdy had to Needed to go back … despite being unable to throw .
“That,” said 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, “was hard to stomach.”
This season showed, as never before, a palpable amount of instability at quarterback in the NFL, whether due to injury — the cause of nearly half of all changes during the regular season, according to an AP analysis — or poor performance. A total of 68 QBs started at least one game, an average of more than two per team and a record for a non-strike year.
What’s more: The 13 Club, another high, requires at least three starters to be used at the most important position in this or any game. Some even went as far as four—the Arizona Cardinals used multiple starting quarterbacks in the span of only four weeks.
A quarterback shuffle can go a long way toward changing a team’s trajectory, as the Jets, Titans and Panthers found on their way to missing the playoffs. The Dolphins made the post season despite losing Tua Tagovailoa to a series of injuries, then backup Teddy Bridgewater dislocated his pinky, leaving him with third-string rookie Skylar Thompson and his 18-for-45, two of their wild-cards. – Left with blocking performance. To remove.
“When you, as a guard, see a guy at quarterback who hasn’t played a lot, you’re going to lick your chops and you assume he’s not in rhythm and you assume he Won’t be ready to go,” said Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott. “Our coach, Bill Walsh, basically said, ‘Hey, Ronnie, a team is only as good as the backup quarterback, because if the backup quarterback can’t come in and do the job that he needs to be able to do, , then there’s a team that’s going to be in trouble.'”
And keeping the starter straight is almost always essential to success.
The top five regular-season teams in the AFC, including the Chiefs, had their No. 1 QB available for every regular-season game (and when Mahomes left a playoff game with a bad ankle, Chad Henne came in and delivered, leading a 98 -yard TD drive that resulted in a seven-point win).
Overall, nine of the 14 post-season participants never had to turn to a backup QB to start.
The Eagles came closer: Hurts missed two games with a bad shoulder; Philadelphia went 0–2 with Gardner Minshew in his place.
Seems obvious: Having your favorite QB1 available week in and week out increases your offense’s chances of success. And this increases the chances of your team winning.
Consider that the passer rating for starting QBs was about 10 points higher than for replacements. Or look at the Jacksonville Jaguars and Trevor Lawrence: He stuck around for 17 games and closed with five consecutive wins — three against the QB-troubled Jets or Titans — to earn a playoff spot.
“It’s definitely important, just because everyone continues to gel. You get chemistry together. Receivers know, ‘If I run this way on this move, the ball is going to be thrown to this point. Just because we’ve done it a million times,’ Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said. “You can understand how (absence of an injury) throws people off.”
Backup quarterbacks typically get zero practice time with the rest of the first team’s offense during the season, so when the top option at that position is taken away, the pain can increase. Purdy was an exception, of course, and there have been others.
“Sometimes when a quarterback goes down,” Cowboys guard Zack Martin said, “there’s a sense of panic in the locker room and on the team, like, ‘What are we going to do?'”
Some of the season’s major story lines ranged from Miami’s Tagovailoa to Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson to Matthew Stafford of the Super Bowl champion Rams, sidelining QBs through attempts to act to save them, whether rough-the-passer. Be it the outcry among defenders over the call or the 15-yard holding penalty on Bengals defensive end Joseph Osai for pushing off Mahomes that helped put Casey in position for the winning field goal in the AFC title game.
“Reducing the number of quarterback injuries is obviously a major priority for us,” said Troy Vincent, NFL executive vice president of football operations. “It’s important that we investigate … where are they coming from. Are they legal hits? Are they in-pocket? Out-of-pocket?
When it comes to wins and losses, some get impatient for switching—the same itch that gets first-year coaches fired.
But it always seems to come back to injuries.
One possible reason: rushing attempts by signal-callers reached a record high (2,309) and were also at their maximum per game, up 47% from 2012. This increases the chances of getting injured. Another: His 1,297 total sacks were third-most around the NFL and his average of 4.8 per game was third-most over the last nine years. (As an aside, Mahomes and Hurts might want to watch on Super Sunday: Eagles rank No. 1, Chiefs No. 2, in sacks.)
It’s certainly possible, or at least plausible, that whatever the NFL does to try to keep quarterbacks safe isn’t working — and, in fact, can’t work.
“At this point, you’re hoping,” Lott said, “that your quarterback can withstand the pounding.”
The 49ers under Shanahan are Exhibit A: The team kept a quarterback healthy only once in its six seasons — in 2019, when they just happened to reach the Super Bowl.
He went through at least three starts in four of the past six seasons; This time, Trey Lance broke his ankle while running in Week 2 and Jimmy Garoppolo broke his leg on a sack in Week 13.
“It’s awesome,” said star tight end George Kittel sarcastically. “It’s an experience. I have a lot of quarterbacks to choose from.”
The sting of injuries to the 49ers and others raises the question of whether the league should bring back some form of a 1991-2010 rule allowing teams to have a third QB in uniform not against game-day roster limits. Will be counted and will be available in case of emergency.
Shanahan said, “We were horrified when that rule came out, but you forget about it, because you don’t see anybody have to go through that.” “But then you’re reminded how quickly a football game is over once it’s over.”
The NFL’s Vincent said there have been “many discussions” about reinstating the third quarterback rule, and the General Managers’ Advisory Committee is “considering” it before the full membership.
“What you don’t want is Christian McCaffrey playing quarterback,” Lott said, referring to the 49ers’ do-everything back. “With all due respect – he’s one hell of an athlete, but he needs to be where he’s most effective, and that’s running and catching the ball, not playing quarterback.”