God is a quarterback

It’s a position on the field that conjures contrasting images of glorious triumph and abject failure. For every Tom Brady, Joe Montana, John Elway, or Dan Marino (yes, in that order), there is a Vince Young, Ryan Leaf or Tim Couch.

The NFL quarterback is the most vital position in all of professional sports.

Coverage of the NFL is always riddled with hyperbolic statements. Consider if you will how many pundits refer to it as simply “The Shield,” as if it were some form of official government arm or law enforcement agency. Many Australians balk at the over-exuberant fanfare.

But in this instance, and given the proximity of the NFL Draft, never has such a proposition been more relevant. The QB is god.

Consider the Hollywood heartthrobs who play them in film. James Van Der Beek and Paul Walker in Varsity Blues, Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Utah in Point Break (and again in The Replacements). So was Jerry O’Connell in Jerry Maguire. Dennis Quaid was Cap Rooney in Any Given Sunday (only to be replaced by Jamie Foxx’s Willie Beamen). Burt Reynolds was one too!

NFL wisdom dictates that “if a team doesn’t have a quarterback, it’s doomed.” Stress needs to be put on the determiner ‘a’ – if you have more than one QB, you don’t have one, and thus are doomed. Teams need a leader. Sports work better as a dictatorship, not a democracy.

Every Super Bowl winning team had a solid to spectacular quarterback. If you scour the results, there are really only two anomalies to this theory. Jeff Hostetler at Super Bowl XXV in 1991 (who was replacing the injured Phil Simms), and possibly Doug Williams in Super Bowl XXII in 1988 (if you consider his career statistics). Since 2000, the multiple winners include Peyton Manning, brother Eli, Ben Roethlisberger and the incomparable Tom Brady. Most of these players are certain Hall of Famers.

A good quarterback is more than just the guy who throws the ball. Their job list within the 40-second play clock is ridiculously long. While reading how the defense lines up, they consider the routes of the receivers, their matchup in coverage, what coverage the defensive backs are in, the blocks needed to run the play from both the linemen and backs, the snap count, the instructions from the 0ffensive coordinator in their ear, what the ‘mike’ linebacker might be calling to his defense, the noise in the crowd… it appears endless. But what the best quarterbacks do is ‘manage’ a game.

It’s not enough to simply score. The best quarterbacks are the ones who stay on the field the longest. They keep their defense rested and focused, because they don’t have to spend time on the field exhausting themselves. A quarterback who manages the clock and uses it up accordingly, is not only offensively strong, but defensively important. The term ‘jack-of-all-trades’ certainly applies.

When considering all this, we can understand why teams are sweating in their seats now, just hours out from the first round here in Chicago. Will the Rams secure their future in Los Angeles, taking Jared Goff with the first pick?

The Philadelphia Eagles traded a treasure chest of picks for (presumably) Carson Wentz, a stud from FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. Will his college experience work in the fast-paced NFL?

Certainly the Eagles will be hoping so, because a misstep with this pick can be catastrophic. Just ask the team down the road in Washington.