PAGING DREW BLEDSOE

by The Original JD, Six Pack Sports Report

There is a startling trend in the NFL right now and I don't mean the fact that we have about four quality teams and a bunch of crap. If you're like me and God lets all hope that you aren't you probably try to watch as much NFL as possible on Sundays. Whether this means ignoring your significant other for eight hours on a Sunday when it's 80 degrees out in October, or putting a small child in a locked broom closet so you're sure they don't drink Drain-O while you're not paying attention I'm sure that you do everything in your power to ignore the outside world and enjoy grown men beating each other up. If I've just accurately described you then I'm sure you're also well aware that there is an epidemic plaguing the NFL this season - it's a drug resistant strain of crappy quarterbacks.

At any time on Sunday you could have used DirecTV and the NFL package to watch games where an offense was being run by Chad Pennington, Trent Edwards, Cleo Lemon, Kyle Boller, Trent Dilfer, Tarvaris Jackson, Damon Huard, Brian Griese, the Joey Harrington/Byron Leftwich project, Sage Rosenfels, Marc Bulger with broken ribs, and Kerry Collins. That list doesn't even count the David Carr/Vinny Testeverde double-headed monster that was on the bye week, or Derek Anderson who has actually surprised the entire planet with his average to above average quarterback play. I've also left off that list quarterbacks who are average or questionable like Kurt Warner, Jason Campbell, Daunte Culpepper, Jon Kitna, the ghost of Matt Hasselbeck, or the artist formerly known as Drew Brees. You could probably also throw some names on that list who are either performing way above expectations (see: Favre, Brett), leading their team into the toilet (see: Palmer, Carson), or surprising everyone with how unterrible and unspectacular their play has been (see: Cutler, Jay). In all I just named 25 quarterbacks who either played significant minutes, or expect to play significant minutes for their teams.

In case you're wondering there is 32 teams in the NFL - meaning that if my list is the comprehensive list of quarterbacks that you wouldn't take to build a team around then you're looking at an astonishing 7 teams with their quarterback situation taken care of. I'd say that Kerry Collins is a place holder until Vince Young comes back so you could take them off the list, and Sage Rosenfelds was standing in for Matt Schaub so they probably don't count either. But even with those taken into account you're talking about less then 10 teams in the NFL who have the most important position on the field locked up for the foreseeable future. In case you're wondering those teams are New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Dallas, NY Giants, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay. Included in those teams are some questionable choices as well like Eli Manning who has been playing much better as of late, Philip Rivers who is unspectacular but not a negative player on the field, Donovan McNabb who is a grab bag of awfulness and greatness, and Jeff Garcia who has been released by every team he's ever played for.

In all you could probably say that if you're not New England, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, or Dallas you're quarterback situation is up in the air for the foreseeable future. Is there any surprise then that if you were going to name the four best teams in the NFL those four would show up on about 99% of the ballots? How is it possible then that nobody in the NFL has been able to find a quality quarterback through the draft? I'd assume that everyone in the league realizes that they need a quarterback and then a serviceable back up plan right? Then how is it that Vinny Testeverde winds up being a starter 21 years after winning the Heisman trophy?

College football has roughly 38941 football teams in a given season and I'd wager that each one of them has a quarterback. Let us assume for the sake of this argument that 50% of the teams in the NCAA graduate a quarterback and of that number 10% of them have actual arms and brains to the point where they could be a not negative impact player on the football field. You're telling me that each season there isn't at least - AT LEAST - two quarterbacks who could be above average NFL players eligible for the draft? Because if there has only been four quality NFL starting quarterbacks coming into the league since Peyton Manning was drafted that is a pretty terrible indictment of the scouting ability of each team in the league, and the playing ability of every human quarterback in colleges across the country.

In the NFL quality running backs, stand out wide receivers, really good tight ends, shut down corners and hard hitting safeties fall out of trees. But for whatever reason there doesn't seem to be a single person in the entire NFL who can find quality quarterbacks - and I understand that comparing players to Manning or Brady is unfair because those two will go down in the books as two of the best ever - but you've got to admit that there is a high number of crappy players leading NFL offenses (offensi?) this season. So I throw it out to you the EC faithful - why can't teams seem to find quality quarterbacks?