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Entry-Level Quarterbacks

ESPN and the NFL Network treated Jimmy Clausen's fall into the second round of the draft as a sob story akin to the death of Old Yeller. Colt McCoy's slide into the unspeakable horrors of the third round was presented as one of the bleaker works of Aeschylus, except that Rich Eisen didn't have his tongue cut out before being sacrificed to the gods (pity).

Every time I clicked the remote back to the draft (one minute of every 15 did the trick), and the commentary was STILL about quarterbacks and their fate, I thought about Ryan Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick, whom I covered, was the greatest quarterback in Harvard history, which is long. Harvard, of course, ain't Notre Dame. Fitzpatrick was a seventh-round draft choice of the Rams in 2005, earning him a paragraph or two in the Herald and Globe, and no notice from the national media at all.

Five seasons later, Ryan Fitzpatrick is still an obscure figure in the football universe. The point is, he's still in that universe. Fitzpatrick has been a backup for the Rams, Bills and Bengals. He's been a marginal guy who's never known if he'll make a roster from one summer to the next. But he's made them. He may do so again in 2010. Fitzpatrick will now draw an NFL pension. That's more than the majority of draft picks, low or high, ever do.

Fitzpatrick can play quarterback in the NFL. Not well enough to be a star, but well enough to get a team through the loss of the guy it's paying to be a star. So he's earned considerably more in his career than he ever got signing that seventh-round rookie contract.

The point of Fitzpatrick's NFL life for other rookie quarterbacks, even the causes celebres like Tim Tebow, is this: If you can play the position at the NFL level, even a little bit, you will be signing more than one contract. Your economic and social status as a rookie is of little to no importance. The idea is to get that foot in the door and show coaches and executives you CAN play.

As of this morning, the four quarterbacks of renown in the 2010 draft are equals in every respect except to their accountants. Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, Clausen and McCoy were all drafted by teams that, let's face it, need new quarterbacks. If these kids can't beat out the likes of Matt Moore, Kyle Orton and the ghost of Jake Delhomme for jobs, then they shouldn't have been drafted at all. The rookies all have the same chance to succeed. And if they do, they will all wind up rich and famous. No one will remember where they were drafted, or the supposedly heartwrenching dramas of how long they waited by the phone with a bunch of ever-more-uncomfortable family and friends.

The deal for Qbs is, if Draft Day remains you of the biggest moments of your football life by the time you're 30, hell, make it 26, then you are not Peyton Manning, you are Ryan Leaf.

posted by Michael Gee @ 6:23 AM