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Teams Don’t Need To Draft A Superstar QB To Win A Super Bowl
Everyone wants to draft the next great quarterback — but the next “pretty good” one would do
Several teams — the Bucs, Titans and Jets primarily standing out — will head into this year’s NFL Draft hoping to land the next Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck in the form of Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota.
But to win a title, all they really need to do is find the next Eli Manning or Joe Flacco — a quarterback who will baffle at times with inconsistency in the regular season, but is solid enough to string together the three or four consecutive good games needed to win a Super Bowl.
Needless to say, it’s a much easier task than finding a perennial Pro Bowler. But it also requires having 52 other parts on your team that are strong enough to carry that weight — the better overall organization will often trump the better quarterback.
In the cases of the three aforementioned teams, that means there is a lot more rebuilding to do than just behind center. Until they get help, performing at a Flacco-like level won’t be enough.
The members of last year’s quarterback draft class seem like better potential candidates for the Eli/Flacco QB model than the Brady/Peyton/Luck variety.
Teddy Bridgewater was the top-rated rookie passer at 85.2, a mark that was only good enough for 22nd in the league overall. But that figure is better than Flacco’s 84.8 career rating and Eli’s 82.4 career rating. It certainly seems like Teddy B could be on the right path to become that sneaky-good quarterback that can lead a team to the promised land. That’s a heck of a value for a guy taken with the last pick of the first round rather than at the head of the class.
Granted, that’s a lot more left to be seen — the Vikings still have a long way to go before they are contenders, and Bridgewater has yet to perform on a significant must-win stage. But they should have reason to feel confident that their young quarterback is good enough to get the job done if that day ever comes. And they are closer to turning that corner than the franchises currently in need of quarterback help.
Not every draft has an all-time great floating around. Given the choice, a team would obviously prefer to have someone of that caliber on their roster. But if he’s not there, it doesn’t always mean fans will be forced to despair. Sometimes “good enough” is all you need.
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