The Sports Xchange

This is the week every fan of every team needs to take a deep breath because, too often, the reaction to the opening week of the season is an over-reaction.

Marcus Mariota is not going to the Hall of Fame yet, and Jameis Winston is not a bust yet. But if you must insist on drawing a definitive conclusion from their debuts, well, this one is easy: A young quarterback is more likely to succeed if he has a quarterback-friendly coach.

Ken Whisenhunt, the Tennessee Titans’ head coach and Mariota’s coach, has a history of good work with quarterbacks. Got Ben Roethlisberger through the early years and into the Super Bowl in Year 2. Guided Philip Rivers to arguably his best season. Now Mariota.

Lovie Smith, the Tampa Bay Bucs’ coach and Winston’s coach, is a defensive coach. A good one. But his quarterback history is littered with the bodies of Rex Grossman, Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler. Smith is not going to help much in Winston’s development.

Nonetheless, in this hyper-connected era when talking heads on television make an art form of jumping to conclusions, it is, sorry to say, way too early to even open the book on these two kids, let alone close the book.

Once upon a time, back in the dark ages 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, teams frequently had something called a “five-year plan” to work in their quarterbacks. Of course, those also were the days when teams limped back home from road games or defeats and the coach and GM only had to answer questions from a couple of local reporters. Nothing like the mad media crush from locals, networks, cable and sports networks we have today.

History tells us that such lighter scrutiny made patience more of a virtue, and players were allowed to develop. So, for those who believe we now need to make definitive judgements on every pass, every game, every day, some of these young players are just trying to learn their craft and consider some of that history.

–When Terry Bradshaw joined the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team already had the popular Terry Hanratty, drafted a year earlier out of Notre Dame. Critics immediately said drafting Bradshaw made no sense. Let’s see now. Which Terry is in the Hall of Fame? A hint: He’s the one who, in 1974, his fifth season in the league, began the season on the bench behind Joe Gilliam and ended it clutching the Lombardi Trophy.

–When Steve Young was traded from Tampa Bay to San Francisco in 1986, Joe Montana was still at the height of his career. But Bill Walsh saw something in Young no other coach or executive in the NFL saw. Fans didn’t see it, either. When Montana underwent back surgery, fans responded to a newspaper poll by saying they wanted Steve Bono to start instead of Young.

–John Elway was an immediate starter as a rookie for the Denver Broncos, but in his first two starts, he was yanked and replaced by Steve DeBerg. In one of those games, Elway even mistakenly lined up behind a guard instead of the center to take the snap and was benched after completing just one of eight passes. You might have heard: Elway got his job back and turned out alright.

–Conversely, in his first game for San Diego in 1998, Ryan Leaf didn’t light it up but did throw a touchdown pass and looked like he might develop into the decent NFL quarterback he was expected to be. Leaf threw only one more touchdown pass that season, and we know how he turned out.

–And, in 2012, Robert Griffin III, who had been the second player chosen in the draft, certainly looked like it as a Redskins’ rookie, leading the team to the playoffs and ranking third in the league, behind Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning, in passer rating. Griffin no longer is considered a savior or a starter, and his career is very much in doubt.

Which brings us back to Mariota and Winston.

Mariota seemed the more natural player coming out of college, and he surely seemed the more mature. Based on a single week, he seems to have made the jump to the NFL with ease, but we’re all kidding ourselves if we think he won’t hit some speed bumps.

Winston, meanwhile, seemed to be more troubled off the field than on it, but there were questions about his ability to process certain coverages, and his first game did not silence any doubters.

Nonetheless, can we just pretend we’re back in the pre talk-radio days, and let this thing play out for a while? Please?

–Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football League for more than four decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is a national columnist for The Sports Xchange.