NFL: QB Carousels Are Out Of Control

What once was considered to be blasphemy is becoming more commonplace in today’s NFL. Only in rare circumstances or injury would a coach make a switch on a quarterback mid-season. Now, coaches seem to be flipping a coin to decide which player should go out and lead the team. It all seems so disorganized and left to chance. These players aren’t starting pitchers who rotate so teams see a different look each game, nor do they play 162 games in a season. Is this what today’s NFL has become to excuse the lack of success by head coaches?

It goes all the way back to four seasons ago. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers before Tom Brady would flip-flop to whatever quarterback was playing well out of Ryan Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston. Fast forward to the Miami Dolphins and again the team would bounce back and forth between Tua Tagovailoa and Ryan Fitzpatrick. This year, the New York Jets benched Zach Wilson and miraculously found a way to go back to him. Then the Washington Commanders started Carson Wentz, benched him, and found their way back to him again after Taylor Heinicke. What in the world is going on in today’s NFL?

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These are preseason decisions that are being made mid-season. If your team does not have a clear-cut frontrunner at the quarterback position you can trust to lead you in all 17 games, you have failed as a head coach. Too many coaches are flip-flopping back and forth to try and muster up wins, but in the end, it just ends up looking like a desperate attempt to save their job. Truth be told, they just end up looking more clueless. It’s strategical? What’s the strategy, throw off any hope of every finding consistency. Yeah you might keep other teams guessing, but there’s a good chance if you’re switching quarterbacks mid-season it’s not because defensive coordinators have your guy figured out.

I’ll give these coaches a slight pass on the fact that there’s not 32 elite quarterbacks in today’s NFL. Heck there’s not even 32 starting caliber quarterbacks either. There are up years and down years but in the end it all comes down to proper coaching and more so the GM. If your team continues to struggle to find an adequate QB, get a competent one and build a power rushing team. Can’t build a rushing team that dominates, give the struggling quarterback a beast of an offensive line to give him all the time in the world to process the field in real time.

If you can’t build a great passing game, a great run game, or a stellar offensive line then you have failed as a GM and coach and shouldn’t be putting your players through this hellscape to begin with.