Elite qbs

[*Nately120*]

(01-12-2020, 11:33 AM)BengalsFan1986 Wrote: Ryan Tannehill and the Tennessee Titans beating the Ravens and Patriots in back to back games is not something to use as a reason to not draft a QB if you think they can be elite. Derrick Henry became the first player to rush for 180 yards in back to back playoff games. If anything you argue that an elite OL and an elite RB are still important pieces in today’s NFL, not that you don’t need a QB.

Right-o.  Tannehill went 1/4 for 9 yards in the second half of that game, so looking at him and declaring that you can win without an elite QB when there is decades of data of elite QBs making multiple runs is a bit myopic.  Remember, Bort Bortles was in the AFC championship game a few years ago, too. 

What it comes down to is every year there seems to be one QB who has a career year and makes it the final four or SB or all the way where he slugs it out with the elite QBs who are there every year before he regresses back towards the mean.  Let's see...which guy and his team were punching above their weight...

2019 - Tannehill and the Titans...this year there are actually new QBs in the final 4 rather than the old guard
2018 - Mitch Trubisky and the Bears (no one really went above and beyond this year)
2017 - Bort Bortles and the Jaguars...lost to a post-season staple in Brady
2016 - Tannehill and Carr played well and were injured in the playoffs, Matt Ryan was the MVP and lost the SB in OT to a QB who is a post-season staple
2015 - Cam Newton and Carson Palmer both had career years but an elite QB in an iron lung who couldn't play anymore still won the day


and so on

It just seems like every year there is a QB who puts it all together to make what ends up being his one single run at the SB and win or lose he tends to just go right back down to his prior levels of performance after that.  QB who is on fire for the first time in his career rises to the playoffs and has to run through a gauntlet of QBs who have been there year in and year out.