Washington Not Moving On A Rookie QB A Mistake?

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August 26, 2021

by David Earl

Numbers Are In

I know it’s a small sample size, and the fact that it’s still preseason matters, but let’s take this walk anyway: this 2020 draft class offered one of the deepest quarterback classes in quite some time, which put a young talented Washington team in position to make a run at solidifying the most important position in all of sports. From the “Generational Talent” in Trevor Lawrence, the high riser in Zach Wilson to the modern-day multi-threat quarterbacks in Trey Lance and Justin Fields, Ron Rivera and Washington would have been justified to make a move up in the draft to draft one of them. While realistically Lawrence and Wilson were out of reach, and with Lance eventually becoming an untouchable lock at pick 3, Justin Fields and Mac Jones were the best options available to move up for. Before we talk about the realistic options let’s quickly look at the way too early and pretty irrelevant preseason stats thus far:

Rookie Class

  1. Zach Wilson: 191 yards, 2 TDs, 0 Int, Rating 137.7
  2. Trey Lance: 230 yards, 3 TDs, 1 Int, Rating 95.8
  3. Mac Jones: 233 yards, 0 TD, 0 Ints, Rating 84.6
  4. Justin Fields: 222 yards, 1 TD, 0 Int, Rating 83.5
  5. Trevor Lawrence: 184 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int, Rating 78.1

Washington QB:

What The Poll Says

As an early gauge on where this fan base stands on the current quarterback situation, the votes came in relatively split. To be honest, a couple of preseason games where the offensive and defensive schemes are watered down was truly never going to sway the masses, but the initial hype (good or bad) tends to create some questions and doubt based on their play in these early games.

Alex may appear to be indicative of most fans, who can get a bit frustrated seeing these rookies playing well early, but the process of building this team cannot be rushed. We all know the mess of a roster Ron Rivera inherited and the strides he’s made. Rushing into a rookie quarterback just wasn’t in the cards this year. So when the thinking among Washington fans is “Progress is a process”, a few teams come to mind who’ve followed that path: Kansas City, Houston, and now San Fransisco.  For all of those teams, the process of building their roster outweighed any quarterback option until the time was right. This appears to be the model Ron is following – the only diversion from this path he was willing to take would have been a move on Matthew Stafford, which was understandable. While some fans can be, and are, very impatient, which is 100% understandable, the timing of a major quarterback move must be calculated.

To Gabriel’s point, yes, next year’s draft does seem to have some interesting and talented QB prospects, but rewind to a year ago. Were we not saying the same thing back then? The majority of the 2020 offseason, going into the regular college season, was mainly a two-man race for the top spot between Lawrence and Fields. Mac Jones was regarded as a mid-round guy mainly due to his lack of mobility, while Lance and Wilson were looked on as possible late first-round developmental players. Fast forward to today and we are seeing what could now be five viable franchise quarterbacks for their respective teams. The future will obviously be told soon enough but one thing the past has taught us about quarterbacks is that more times than not forecasting this position is a futile effort. While the 2021 college quarterback race appears to be a two-man race in Sam Howell and Spencer Rattler, one name that could quickly climb that list is Malik Willis. Much like the 2020 college season, we could see a class currently forecasted to be thin end up producing much more. Then again, the 2022 draft class could also emulate 2007 with overhyped JaMarcus Russell and the “Steal of the draft” Brady Quinn. The point is, nothing is an exact science heading into the draft and I believe Ron Rivera wants to stay the course, like Kansas City did, and finish the foundational building blocks before bringing in a young quarterback.