If Simon and Garfunkel wrote the seminal hit 'Mrs. Robinson' now instead of during the 1960s, rather than lamenting where Joe DiMaggio had gone, they might have instead wondered where Joe Montana had gone.
The nation turns its lonely eye to the lack of good young quarterbacks in today's NFL.
For every Carson Wentz, Philadelphia's second-year quarterback who is a leading MVP candidate, there's a Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota or Derek Carr, young quarterbacks who started fast but are now struggling. That's not to say Winston, Mariota and Carr can't regain the form they showed in previous seasons, but there are always bumps along the way when developing young quarterbacks.
And sometimes, those bumps turn into career-wrecking potholes, chasms that can't be navigated. Remember, it wasn't all that long ago quarterbacks such as Robert Griffin III and Vince Young were taking the league by storm. Now, neither has a job in the NFL.
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It's a fine line NFL teams have to walk, trying to develop young quarterbacks. Play them too early and face the risk of ruining their career. But in a league where you can't win without one, and often times the reputations -- and jobs -- of the head coach and general manager are on the line if they swing and miss at this most crucial of positions, the pressure to play a young quarterback early is great.
It's a Catch-22 for which most teams don't have an answer.
Is there anything better than experience for a young quarterback? I asked Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy that very question.
"There’s nothing like game experience, I agree with you," McCarthy replied. "We have ball security drills that we do each and every day. You try to emulate game play the best that you can in competitive team periods and situational team periods, all of those things. But, the best experience is game experience."
But to be patient enough to live though the ups and downs with a young quarterback, a coach must have great job security, a great team -- as the Steelers did in 2004 when they were forced to play rookie Ben Roethlisberger -- or a lot of faith in the young player.
And even then, it's not an easy transition.
As Steelers guard Alan Faneca said when asked if he was excited about the prospect of moving forward with a rookie quarterback just three games into the 2004 season, "Do you want to go work with some little young kid who's just out of college?”
The Steelers had no plans to play Roethlisberger in 2004 despite taking him with the 11th overall pick in the draft. They had planned to allow him to sit at least a year and learn behind Tommy Maddox while he gained some seasoning. Fate, however, had other plans.
But Roethlisberger is far more the outlier than he is the norm. That's what McCarthy and Green Bay had when Aaron Rodgers sat for three years behind Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre, playing very little. But Rodgers did get some playing time and, more importantly, time to learn.
"I think it’s a huge benefit," McCarthy said. "I think any time a quarterback can learn the trade the best he can, you’re better prepared for that first experience. Aaron’s no different from any other quarterback. He had to go through the bumps and bruises of his first experience. He did that in ’08. He fought through some injuries and the ups and downs of our football team. It’s the adversity that we all need. Your team needs it, every individual needs it. You need those adverse moments to fight through because there’s so much to gain from that. It’s a huge benefit to sit for a couple of years to get ready."
That's especially true when one considers how difficult it is for NFL teams to assess the skills of quarterbacks coming out of college. Because so many college teams now run the spread offense, many have never taken a snap from under center. They also rarely huddle, instead having the plays relayed in from the sidelines via placards that use visual keys for the entire offense to read.
"Many times, you're evaluating a quarterback who has never called a play in the huddle, never used a snap count," former Steelers offensive coordinator and current Cardinals coach Bruce Arians told me at the NFL Scouting Combine in the spring. "They hold up a card on the sideline, he kicks his foot and throws the ball. That's not playing quarterback. They don't even know how to get into and out of the huddle. They have to learn how to take a snap from center. You're teaching the position from scratch."
It's a big reason why, of the 35 quarterbacks who have thrown enough qualifying passes, nearly half (17) are on the wrong side of 30. Others, such as Kirk Cousins, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson, are in their late 20s. This is in a league where most players are considered over the hill by the time they reach 30.
It's a problem that's not going away soon. And with quarterback salaries now reaching into the $20- to $25-million range even for mediocre starters, teams are always searching for cheaper versions.
That's one reasons Buffalo coach Sean McDermott made the interesting decision recently to bench a quarterback the team isn't in love with, Tyrod Taylor, and go with rookie Nathan Peterman, a former Pitt star the team selected in the fifth round of this year's draft. This decision came despite the fact the Bills were very much alive in the playoff chase in the AFC.
The move backfired in spectacular fashion as Peterman, who had completed seven of 10 passes in mop-up duty in a loss to the Saints the week before, was pulled after throwing just 14 passes in a loss to the Chargers. He completed six passes to his teammates and five to the Chargers, posting a passer rating of 17.9.
"That sucked. That was tough, especially when you go to a team where you have an established quarterback - as some would say - and you get thrown in there," said the Steelers' backup, Landry Jones. "He was in a tough spot. That was unfortunate the way that turned out, but it kind of is what it is."
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It's debatable whether quarterbacking has declined over the years, though the discussion comes up anytime there is a rash of injuries to starters. By most measures, and for many varied reasons, passing performances are at an all-time high:
But that's overall, and it reflects more passing in the game across the board.
Isolating on young quarterbacks -- meaning 26 or younger for this purpose -- there has been at least a little change in productivity when measuring the current season, five years ago and 10 years ago:
• In 2007, there were 13 young quarterbacks who topped 200 passes. Of those 13, four went on to become top-level quarterbacks: Eli Manning, Jay Cutler, Phillip Rivers and Roethlisberger. All were first-round picks.
• In 2012, there were 16 young quarterbacks who topped 200 passes. Of those 16, the same number -- four -- went on to become top-level quarterbacks: Matthew Stafford, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson. For the record, Andy Dalton and Ryan Tannehill were among the 16 and got lucrative contracts, but they aren't of the same caliber.
• So far in 2017, there are 12 young quarterbacks who have topped 200 passes. Of those 12, the three with the highest yards-per-attempt average -- maybe the best barometer when balancing history -- are the Texans' Deshaun Watson (8.3), the Rams' Jared Goff (8.2) and Wentz (7.5). All were first-round picks, and all have shown franchise potential.
Is it good enough for the NFL to be unearthing roughly three or four significant quarterbacks a year?
It might be worth wondering, especially in light of the NFL's decline in TV ratings this season. The final Week 11 figures from Nielsen showed that viewership dropped 6.3 percent from the same week in the 2016 season. That's roughly 1 million fewer viewers on a weekly basis.
Setting aside any other possible causes, no position in football entertains quite like quarterback. And if a viewer flips on the game and sees Billy Backup behind center, it's possible, if not likely, that it minimizes the chance he or she will commit to the full 60 minutes.
Starting QBs for Week 13 in the NFL:
Geno Smith
Ryan Fitzpatrick
Brett Hundley
Jacoby Brissett
Trevor Siemian
Matt Moore
Josh McCown
Tom Savage
Blaine Gabbert
Mitch Trubisky
DeShone KizerShocking the ratings are down.
— Jimmy Traina (@JimmyTraina) November 28, 2017
So, for that and for countless other reasons, the NFL and the sport as a whole has everything to gain from an upgrade.
Former Browns scout and ESPN.com NFL analyst Matt Williamson said there could be a solution.
"King for a day, I’m creating a minor-league system in the NFL, much like baseball and hockey," said Williamson, now an analyst for the Steelers Radio Network. "It’s one team per team. Then I would get around to fixing world hunger and creating world peace after that was all set up.
"(It would) mainly be for quarterbacks and offensive linemen, where there’s a shortage," he continued. "Linemen come into the league so unprepared. That would be huge. Quarterbacks, they would get an opportunity. For example, Josh Dobbs right now would be at the Wheeling mini-Steelers or something like that and he would be getting reps. He would be playing in games against some potential NFL players at probably a level higher than college. There would be some guys there who are old, you know, the 'Crash Davis' types who are quality minor-leaguers that are there forever who are hard to play against but not NFL level. And then there would be a handful of players who are future NFLers."
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Joshua Dobbs. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
Dobbs, the Steelers' rookie third-string quarterback, would be all for such a setup.
He got plenty of playing time in the preseason, when his 64 pass attempts were the 11th most in the league. Peterman, by the way, attempted an NFL-high 79 passes in the preseason. But since taking his final snap of the preseason, Dobbs, a fifth-round draft pick out of Tennessee, has spent most of his time running the scout team at Steelers practice, reading the opposing team's offense off a playcard and trying to replicate it for the first-team defense. His time learning his own plays consists of being in quarterbacks coach Randy Fichtner's meeting room with Roethlisberger and Jones and watching them run the offense in practice.
"You can get reads in practice per se," Dobbs told DKPittsburghSports.com. "But the speed of an actual game is just so amped up. I just think that getting that timing, the feel for when to get the ball out of your hand, when to move out of the pocket, when to let a pass rusher just go by you ... that's just so different, so huge."
A minor league would certainly help that. But the NFL has tried to form one before with its failed World League/NFL Europe experiment. And there are a number of other current leagues independent of the NFL, such as the Arena and Canadian Football leagues, that also serve as places where players can gain experience outside of the NFL.
But since NFL Europe closed up shop in 2007, the NFL has been out of the business of minor league football.
"I thought (NFL Europe) was tremendous," Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley told me. "A couple of places I was, they sent us down to their training camp in Orlando or Tampa or wherever it was. We'd spend a week as coaches watching. I thought it was a very good training ground for young players, especially the quarterback position, because you just don't get to play a whole bunch when you get done with college if you're not a starter."
To Haley's point, NFL Europe proved to be a good training ground. In fact, several players, led by the Steelers' James Harrison and Indianapolis kicker Adam Vinatieri, are still active. Others still active include Atlanta kicker Matt Bryant and Tampa Bay cornerback Brent Grimes.
Harrison and Vinatieri are two of the more famous NFL Europe alumni. But the list also includes a number of quarterbacks, including Pro Football Hall of Fame member Kurt Warner, who was sent by the St. Louis Rams in 1998 to play for the Amsterdam Admirals. Warner, who also played in the Arena League, became St. Louis' starter in 1999 and led the team to a Super Bowl title.
Warner isn't the only Super Bowl-winning quarterback to have played in NFL Europe. Other future NFL starting quarterbacks who played in the league include Brad Johnson, who helped Tampa Bay win a Super Bowl with a young Mike Tomlin as an assistant coach, Jake Delhomme and Jon Kitna.
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Carson Wentz is a rare example of young quarterback success. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS[/caption]
While NFL Europe was supported by the NFL with both players and money before eventually failing, what Williamson and others have in mind is something a little different.
Troy Vincent, the NFL's Executive Vice President of Football Operations, has openly discussed the formation of a minor league since 2014. Last spring, he told CBSSports.com the time is overdue for such a venture.
"We have some viable potential options that are ready to share with the Competition Committee, the Coaches Subcommittee and with some of our active and former players," Vincent said. "Our goal is to create a platform that addresses the entire football community -- coaches, officials, front office personnel and players -- is essential to the long-term sustainability of our game."
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said at his yearly Super Bowl news conference earlier this year that the league is still considering its options on how it might work.
And therein lies some of the problems. College football has long served as a free feeder system to the NFL, albeit one over which the league has little control.
"I don’t know how all of the logistics of it would work. But each team would have a team close by and you could call up a guy if your left tackle gets injured. You could call up a guy who has eight games of experience in the minors," Williamson said. "You’d run the same systems. You’d have another guy or two in the front office who would run the minor-league team and you could run the same defensive scheme with the same playbook. I’m sure there are glitches with it, but I don’t think it’s too far-fetched."
The question of how colleges would react is, of course, an issue.
After all, what would keep players from trying to jump right from high school to the minor leagues as they can now do in other sports?
"That was a thought. What if Joe Blow, great athlete, great running back, but doesn’t have grades?" Williamson said. "Can he go right to the minors? There would have to be some rule to not allow that, don’t you think? If you didn't, everybody would do it. I think maybe the rules stay the same but you have 12 rounds of the draft with the thought that the Steelers take (cornerback Brian) Allen and throw him in the minors with the intention that five of these guys are going to be starters in the minors for a year or two."
It would certainly mean more quarterbacks would be developed, along with other position players. And, as Williamson noted, coaches, scouts and even referees also would be in demand.
Would it make for better players? The extra game reps certainly wouldn't hurt, even if they weren't against NFL-caliber players.
Jones, who played only in the preseason in his first two seasons, was forced into action in his third season when both Roethlisberger and backup Mike Vick were injured. He played well enough to earn the No. 2 job last season and the Steelers felt confident enough in his skills that they re-signed him as a free agent this year.
He knows there's nothing that compares to playing time, but isn't sure a minor league would provide the right kind of experience.
"If you do a minor league, it’s just another level that you’d have to step up to the NFL. I don’t know. I think it’s just one of those things that you just have to get into the game," Jones said. "Practice is one thing. Doing it in a game is just totally different. The speed of it, how things happen, just the ebb and flow of an NFL game, it’s not like college. Most of the time in college, I had very few games that were real close. A blowout in the NFL is 14 points."
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With more than half of the teams in the league now carrying just two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, where are future starters coming from? More importantly, where are they gaining valuable experience?
When the Browns put together their roster at the end of training camp this season, they had four quarterbacks. None had led an NFL team to a victory. They still haven't, even though the Browns have used three of them, with rookie DeShone Kizer getting most of the snaps.
But the Browns can do so because they have little expectation to win this season. For a player such as Dobbs to get work, injuries have to happen. And that's something no NFL team wants.
It makes for a long season for players like Dobbs. They have no idea if they're making any progress.
"I was actually just thinking about that today out there on the practice field," Dobbs said last week. "It tests your mental toughness. It does. You have to come in, and it's now Week 11 or Week 12, and you're studying the game, you're studying the plan, you're processing it all as if you're going to play ... and then you go out there on Sunday and you don't play. You watch the game. For the first time in your life, you're out there just watching. And then you come back on Monday and do it again.
"The first couple of weeks, you're excited. Of course you are, because it's all new," Dobbs continued. "But as the season grinds, you're more like, 'OK, it's Wednesday, I've got to go in and watch mixed downs.' It really does test your mental toughness. But I'm also aware that it gets you prepared."
Perhaps. But not as well as actually playing the game.
I asked Tomlin about just that, particularly when it comes to young quarterbacks.
It's a line the Steelers are going to have to walk sooner rather than later as they contemplate finding a replacement for the now 35-year-old Roethlisberger, who openly considered retirement after the 2016 season.
Someday soon, Steelers fans will turn their lonely eyes to Roethlisberger.
"What you see out here in a practice setting is one thing. What you see in a stadium oftentimes is something else," Tomlin said. "What somebody is capable of displaying in that setting may be very different than what they’re capable of displaying in an in-stadium setting. That’s one of the reasons that I value preseason games, because it is a different venue, a different atmosphere than a practice setting or a scrimmage setting for that matter. It’s more regular season game-like.
"So, yes to your question – there are certain answers you can’t get until you put him into a stadium at that position, but my contention is it’s the same at all positions. It’s just probably less noticeable or reportable."
Christopher Carter and Dejan Kovacevic contributed to this report.
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