It can be easy to forget that Aaron Rodgers–now arguably the best quarterback in the NFL–sat behind Brett Favre for three full years before taking charge of the Green Bay Packers huddle. Rodgers may have been the last true apprentice quarterback. Even Colin Kaepernick didn’t last two full years on the bench before taking over.
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Quarterbacks are now expected, if not be coaches but certainly by fans, to take over the starting job at some point in their rookie seasons. Guys like Andrew Luck and Russell Wilson were given the starting job their first years, and each led their teams to the playoffs (and Wilson has already won a Super Bowl, for God’s sake).
This year’s class includes Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater and Derek Carr. All three of them have started games for their respective teams, and it’s only been four weeks.
That’s a lot shorter than three years.
But Rodgers isn’t resentful of the opportunities rookies have early on, and admits that they are more prepared now than he was when he was drafted to the NFL. Per ESPN.com’s Ben Goessling:
"“Definitely not as prepared as the guys are now,” Rodgers said Tuesday. “The guys coming out now are a lot more prepared than maybe myself and Alex Smith and Jason Campbell, the three guys who went in the first round in 2005. We’re all still in the league and still playing, but definitely, you look at some of the guys who have been starting the past few years, they’re a lot more prepared.“I think the coaching at the high school level and the college level, the exposure guys are able to get, makes them a little more prepared. The schemes they’re running in college gives quarterbacks the freedom to read and do more things at the line of scrimmage. Obviously, we’ve seen some guys step in the last few years and really play well in their first, second and third years.”"
The aforementioned trio of Bortles, Bridgewater and Carr have already impressed and look to be the starters for the rest of the season. Because Rodgers played so well when he finally took over in Green Bay, you could assume he had been ready to play before that but Favre was start-blocking him. Though he may not have been ready three games into his NFL career.
There is no doubt that the rookie quarterback is on a faster time table to take the field now. While I agree with Rodgers that rookies are simply more ready to do so in today’s information age, I have another theory. Because coaches are on a shorter leash now than they were, say, 10 years go, I think head coaches make decisions to start the rookie as soon as their team is struggling in order to prolong their job security. They can write off future losses to the fact that the rookie quarterback is still developing. That’s not the entire reason, but I do think it is part of it.
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