The arms race to find an elite quarterback can go hand in hand with winning the NFL.
In recent years, several teams have given up on quarterbacks who were considered great in hopes of finding someone better. In 2021 Rams moved from Jared Gough when they traded for Matthew Stafford from Lviv. The 49ers took a different approach in trying to replace Jimmy Garoppolotrading away several draft picks, including three first-round picks, to move up in the draft and select an unproven Trey Lance.
A year later, the Rams were Super Bowl champions and the 49ers found themselves in an awkward situation with Garoppolo as Lance sat out most of his rookie season before suffering a season-ending injury in week two.
For Colin KaustukhThere’s one question to answer when you make a move at quarterback: You have to find the obvious best solution, and going through the draft isn’t the best way to do that.
“The 49ers roster is too good to give away to someone like Trey Lance right now, who we don’t know if he can play,” Cowherd said Thursday “Herd”. “You can’t move Garoppolo because of that. You can’t move because of this Tua and Gough. The NFL draft gives us one great quarterback a year, or about 1.5 great quarterbacks over the past 20 years.”
Why Jimmy Gee, Tua and Jared Goff are the ‘Most Underrated QBs’ in the NFL
Colin Cowherd broke down why the 49ers, Dolphins and Lions need to be careful with how they approach quarterback situations.
The 49ers and Rams situations are just two recent examples of teams moving on from quarterbacks because they thought they were good but not good enough. The Dolphins addressed questions this offseason as to whether or not Tua Tagavailoa was good enough to be a franchise quarterback. (It didn’t help Tagovailoa’s case that Miami got involved Tom Brady in recent seasons.)
Goff is once again at the center of another quarterback situation, this time in Detroit as the Lions are in the second year of their post-Stafford days.
Cowherd reviewed the respective resumes for each of the aforementioned quarterbacks. Garoppolo has a 98.6 passer rating with a 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio, winning 69.4% of his 49 career starts. Goff reached the Super Bowl with the Rams and has posted a 93.5 passer rating with the Lions thus far, winning four more games than he has lost in his career. Tagovailoa has the best passer rating in the league heading into the 2022 season and is 16-9 as a starter.
According to Cowherd, in order to move on from quarterbacks like that, he needs to be similar to what the defending Super Bowl champions did a year ago.
“If you’re going to move Garoppolo or Tua, and I’m not a Tua fan or a Goff fan, you have to give me an answer or a solution, like [Sean] McVeigh said.” Cowherd said. – McVay said, “I like Goff, but I’m going to go with someone in the league — Stafford.” GOOD. If you want to go away from Garoppolo for those you see around the league, it’s better, like Stafford was there for them, fine. If you want to switch from Tua for someone like a Derek Carrwho is better for me, OK.
“But the quarterback play at the top is so good right now that we’re finding Garoppolo and Goff and Tua saying, ‘Oh, just get me a college guy! Get me an FCS guy who hasn’t played much.” Are you out of your mind? Do you know how good you have to be to get Garoppolo, Goff and Tua’s numbers? Two of them were in Super Bowls. The Rams did it right.”
Get more from the National Football League Follow your favorites to stay updated on games, news and more
