One week into the 2024 NFL season, the league has seen one of its highest-paid quarterbacks sidelined by injury in the Packers’ Jordan Love. He’s expected to be replaced this week by backup Malik Willis, 25, who has yet to throw a touchdown in his two-plus seasons in the league.
Love suffered a sprained MCL, escaping serious injury, and could return soon. But when a starter is lost for a significant period, it can ruin a team’s entire season. And that, of course, is because there’s a significant dropoff between the QB1 and the QB2.
When we set out to do our “QB Confidential” anonymous survey this summer, we asked 38 NFL quarterbacks about their picks for the league’s smartest quarterback, the best arm, the top receiver they’d like to throw to and the toughest defender they go up against.
But we also asked them about a deeper issue concerning the league: How can the NFL better develop its backup quarterbacks?
“That might be the hardest question yet,” one quarterback said, echoing the frustration across the league with a system that must focus in-season on preparing the starter, leaving little time to help backups grow and learn.
“It is a challenge,” one veteran quarterback said. “I’ve gone several seasons where I didn’t play a snap, backing up the whole year. You get better by playing. So that’s a good question. There definitely is not an obvious answer. It’s a challenge when you’re not going to beat out a guy unless he gets hurt, and you don’t wish that on anyone.”
Training camp and preseason may have some semblance of competition, and with that, some division of practice reps, but once the regular season begins, roles are set and meaningful reps are reserved for the starter.
“The hardest part about being a backup is you don’t get any reps during the week,” one quarterback said. “How do you get backup quarterbacks more reps? In order to do that, you’re taking away reps from QB1, which you don’t want. If you want to add reps, you’re putting more on the starting…
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Publish date : 2024-09-12 14:01:19
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