The NFL's 180 at the Most Important Position in Sports
How this new era of QBs has changed the NFL forever
May 27, 2020, 11:19 am
Photo by Getty Images and composite image by Jack Brame.
Being a Caucasian male, writing about African-American quarterbacks in 2020 can be like dodging landmines with each typed consonant or vowel. This is a league that once believed that African-American men weren't smart enough to take on the position, not too long ago. There were only three starting quarterbacks of color in 1990. 30 years ago it was Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham and Rodney Peete holding down the starting quarterback position for NFL franchises. Despite the fact that Moon and Cunningham were both ranked among the top five in QB Rating that season, the league didn't see a heavy influx of African-American starting quarterbacks until decades later.
African-American quarterbacks would routinely get classified as "dual-threat" quarterbacks when they were coming out of high school. College coaches would tend to lean towards their athletic side by running triple options and leaning on the bulk of their athleticism, instead of continuing to develop them as pocket-passers.
In recent years, these players have been taking part in 7-on-7 drills, passing camps, etc. Now, we see coaches utilize these athletic assets in unison with a continuous development towards becoming better passers. The league is flourishing because of it. The use of RPOs or run-pass option plays have made the more accurate, athletic passer, all the more dangerous.
For the first time that I can remember, the NFL has an abundance of starting quarterbacks. The heavy passing attacks in college have help expedite the proficiency of these young passers. While it's helped the development of the quarterback position, it's hindered that of their offensive tackles, so much so, that I believe for the first time in history, it's harder to find a franchise offensive tackle than it is to find a franchise quarterback.
The NFL was slow to adapt to the African-American signal-caller. Warren Moon was the first African-American quarterback for four different franchises. They were the Houston Oilers, Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings. Now, in the cities where three of those four franchises played, their teams, now, all employ African-American quarterbacks that are considered among the best at their positions.
While Patrick Mahomes is multi-racial, he'll be classified as an African-American, both as a quarterback and a human. I've often been curious to why this is, but I don't make the rules and my kids aren't omitted from this classification. My kids are all multi-racial and despite their genetic make-up coming from Caucasian, Asian and African ancestors, they will be referred to as "black," predominantly in their life.
Prior to 2010, there were only three African-American quarterbacks to even play in the Super Bowl. Doug Williams did so in 1988, Steve McNair in 2000 and Donovan McNabb in 2005. Since 2010, rather, since 2013, there's been four. Colin Kaepernick in 2013, Russell Wilson in 2014 and 2015, with Cam Newton in 2016 and Patrick Mahomes in 2020.
Also prior to 2010, there was only one African-American quarterback to win the MVP award and actually, his win was a tie. In 2003 Steve McNair and Peyton Manning won co-MVP awards. In the last five years, there's been three African-American quarterbacks to win the MVP award. Cam Newton did so in 2015 with Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson going back-to-back in 2018 and 2019.
When you look at the top performing, young quarterbacks from last season, you start to see what the landscape of the NFL will start to look like for the years to come. Below, I list the top six quarterbacks under the age of 28 and where they ranked in 2019 statistically.
| NAME | AGE | QB Rating (Ranking) | Comp % (Ranking) |
| Lamar Jackson | 23 | 113.3 (1st) | 66.8 (3rd) |
| Patrick Mahomes | 24 | 105.3 (2nd) | 65.9 (4th) |
| Dak Prescott | 26 | 99.7 (3rd) | 65.1 (5th) |
| Teddy Bridgewater | 27 | 99.1 (4th) | 67.9 (1st) |
| Deshaun Watson | 24 | 98.0 (5th) | 67.3 (2nd) |
| Carson Wentz | 27 | 93.1 (6th) | 63.9 (8th) |
Here are all of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL under the age of 28 and some others that may move into a starting role over the years to come.
| Patrick Mahomes (24) Deshaun Watson (24) Lamar Jackson (23) Dak Prescott (26) Teddy Bridgewater (27) Kyler Murray (22) Dwayne Haskins (23) Jalen Hurts (21) PJ Walker (25) Jameis Winston (26) Jacoby Brissett (27) | Carson Wentz (27) Jared Goff (25) Baker Mayfield (25) Sam Darnold (23) Joe Burrow (23) Josh Allen (24) Mitch Trubisky (25) Gardner Minshew (24) Drew Lock (23) Jarrett Stidham (23) Daniel Jones (23) Tua Tagovailoa (22) Justin Herbert (22) Jordan Love (21) Marcus Mariota (26) |
Soon Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger will hang it up with Aaron Rodgers not too far behind. When that happens, the league that shunned African-American quarterbacks for decades will spend the foreseeable future being led by them. The early steps are already being taken as Dak Prescott, Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes are talking to their franchises about paydays in the range of $35-45 million per year.
Now, it should only be 30 more years before the NFL has an African-American owner and start to equally employ African-American men as coaches and general managers as well.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”