The NFL has a quarterback problem.
At the conclusion of week two, there are now seven starting quarterbacks who are going to or have been missing time with injuries.
This includes Kyler Murray, Michael Penix, Caleb Williams, and Jayden Daniels.
Roger Goodell decided to continue his social justice stand this year by painting “End Racism” in the back of the end zones again, but he can’t even prevent the systemic racism in the league from wiping out his black quarterbacks.
It sounds preposterous, but it will probably be a topic of discussion on ESPN this week.
I tuned into the Monday Night Football game just long enough to see Jaxson Dart get injured for the Giants, and promptly tuned right back out.
One of the downsides of the league pushing offense and tailoring things to quarterbacks so heavily is that when they get injured, the desire to watch their games absolutely plummets. And the numbers don’t lie.
Recent years have seen injuries to top quarterbacks in Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson and Dak Prescott, and it’s a ratings killer. Last season’s conference championship round drew its smallest combined audience since 2021, with Sportico pointing to the absence of star quarterbacks like Mahomes and Josh Allen.
The major disparity around the league has been between the haves and have-nots when it comes to those rostering a franchise quarterback. There aren’t 32 human beings on earth who can play quarterback at an elite level in the National Football League, and when the ones who can are getting injured en masse at the beginning of the season, it creates a substantially less watchable product.
Thursday Night Football will now feature Michael Penix Jr. starting for the Falcons against the Packers in his first game back after tearing his ACL in week 11 of last season, and Monday Night Football will likely showcase Tyson Bagent under center for the Bears against the Eagles.
Sure, there’s always a chance that somebody steps in and becomes the next Tom Brady. That chance is about one in a billion, but sure, there’s a chance. In the meantime it will produce a lot of lopsided games that end up being stuck in national broadcast and primetime windows.
Sunday Ticket is a huge revenue driver for the league, but it also inhibits them from adapting to these changes on the fly. College Football has every game available on network, cable or ESPN streaming, and will always have the week’s best matchup on national TV.
This Saturday, there are six AP-ranked games, the first time it’s happened since 2023. Networks being able to adjust which games are on which windows also gives them an advantage over the NFL. The NFL has the “flex” system to replace bad primetime matchups with better ones, but it’s rarely used and creates more headaches for fans who have already made travel arrangements to see games.
Expect Roger Goodell to introduce a few more rule changes to protect his cash-cow-quarterbacks even further.
Photo: Dennis-cabrams / Wikimedia Commons