Mike Freeman's 10-Point Stance: Is an NFL Quarterback Drought Coming? By Mike Freeman , NFL National Lead Writer May 6, 2015 
Nam Y. Huh/AP Images In the 2015 NFL draft, something remarkable happened, and it went mostly unnoticed. Teams drafted the fewest number of quarterbacks in more than 60 years. Sixty.Seven quarterbacks were drafted. According to Pro Football Reference, that's the fewest since 1954. Subtract four...subtract five...carry the one. Yeppers, that's 61 damn years.It's obviously impossible to tell where this quarterback class will rank in terms of ability. It's clear, however, where it will rank in depth. This is one of the lightest QB drafts of all time.
This could mean something, or it could not, but people I speak to around the league think it's a harbinger of things to come. They believe we are on the verge of a quarterback drought.This seems improbable to me, but the signs are there. No hard-core metrics. No exact data. And certainly young quarterbacks like Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson and others point to a solid future.Yes, it's all anecdotal, but it's there. Not quite melting ice caps signal the Earth is going to become Mars there, but still there.A few things to consider, according to personnel men I've spoken to:The Bust Factor: "The spread option is both good and a curse," one scout told me. "It's neat to run and can confuse defenses, but college quarterbacks have a hard time running it in the pros."For every Russell Wilson who has been wildly successful, there's a Tim Tebow or Blaine Gabbert. A lot of those spread busts are now out of the league or backups. The voids they left haven't truly been filled.The Bad Coaching Factor: Based on the ones I've talked to, if you polled every assistant coach in the NFL asking what football coach other than Bill Belichick they respect the most, it would be Jim Harbaugh, now at Michigan. The only criticism assistants I've spoken to have of Harbaugh is that he failed to develop Colin Kaepernick once the quarterback became a star. Kaepernick's evolution stopped—suddenly and violently—and that's on Harbaugh.But this isn't just a Harbaugh issue; it's a systemic problem around the NFL. The league is still having problems developing, and protecting, quarterbacks. Another example was Robert Griffin III. 
Ed Andrieski/Associated Press The Dad Jeans Factor: Some of the game's best quarterbacks are getting old. Really old. Tom Brady is 37. Peyton Manning is 39, with 69-year-old knees. Drew Brees is 36. Eli Manning is 34. Ben Roethlisberger is a creaky 33. Same with Philip Rivers. Tony Romo is 35. Same with Carson Palmer.Sure, some of those guys potentially have some years left, but that is a lot of firepower, name recognition and stardom getting up in age.Most importantly, look at the backups at those positions, and tell me who is replacing them. When Palmer went down last year, the Cardinals were done. They couldn't competently fill the position.Don't get me wrong: There will certainly be quarterbacks—maybe from this draft, certainly from ones in the near future—who turn into stars.But we might be seeing the end of a renaissance where names like Brady and Peyton retire and their replacements aren't close to Brady and Peyton because that's impossible. With the renaissance over, now comes the drought.link
