If you enjoy sports, you know that getting great players on your team probably means the difference between success and failure. Teams with better players generally win more. It’s simple, and you can see that with baseball, basketball, hockey, football, etc.

You can argue that with baseball, pitchers matter more than just about any player. The thing is, though, a starting pitcher, even the most durable, can’t take the ball every day. You would be hard-pressed to find a player that matters more to a team than a quarterback, and we’ve seen some examples of that lately.

Let’s talk about how the right quarterback can turn around an NFL franchise’s present and future.

Hunting for the Perfect Quarterback

If you play fantasy football, you’ll probably want to draft a quarterback first when your league starts every year. You know that a quarterback can generate the most points for your team, leading to victory.

It’s the same in real life. In virtually every draft, teams look for the best quarterback prospects. They argue in the front office about who has the strongest arm or the best accuracy. The scouts even scrutinize things like a QB’s hand size.

Teams always look for the next great quarterback because they know a stellar QB can change a team’s fortunes within a single year. Look at Matthew Stafford and the Rams if you need the perfect example.

The Matthew Stafford Effect

Stafford played for the Detroit Lions for more than a decade. Nearly every year, he put up solid or even above-average numbers. Still, the Lions couldn’t draft or trade for players to put around him that made a difference. They only made the playoffs a couple of times, and Stafford couldn’t win a postseason game for them.

Last year, the Rams traded for Stafford. They sent their QB, Jared Goff, to the Lions in exchange, along with draft picks. The impact was immediate. The Rams already had a pretty good team, and they bolstered both their offense and defense by adding former Superbowl MVP Von Miller from the Broncos and wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. from the Browns.

Those pieces helped, but Stafford’s veteran leadership and steady hand led them to a Superbowl win. It was their second in franchise history, and their first since coming to Los Angeles from Saint Louis a couple of years before.

A Copycat League

If you look back to the previous year, something similar happened. The Buccaneers got Tom Brady from the Patriots when it seemed clear the aging veteran wanted to move on. Once the Bucs had Brady, they brought in the mercurial Antonio Brown and tight end Rob Gronkowski, with whom Brady played for years in New England.

The same thing happened. Brady and the Bucs won the Superbowl, and the GOAT added a seventh ring to his already impressive resume. You have to believe that the Rams noticed that when they traded for Matthew Stafford. They saw that model work from someone else, and they decided to do the same thing.

Will This Happen Again?

It makes you wonder whether we’ll see something similar in the 2022 season. If you look at some of the offseason trades, you’ll notice quarterbacks moving around in a pretty unprecedented way.

Some moves seem designed to underwhelm, like Carson Wentz to the Washington Commanders. Others seem strange and risky, like the Browns paying Deshaun Watson a ton of money to come over from the Houston Texans. Watson could face a lengthy suspension at some point because of sexual harassment allegations.

Russel Wilson going from Seattle to the Broncos is the trade that makes you think about the last two Superbowl winners. He’s a credible quarterback, just like Brady and Stafford. Like both of them, he’s a veteran presence coming over to a team in “win now” mode.

Many pundits feel that the Broncos became instant Superbowl contenders by adding a QB like Wilson. They already had some nice pieces on both offense and defense, and maybe Wilson can win a second Superbowl there when he couldn’t do it in Seattle.

What’s clear is how much quarterbacks matter. The idea of getting a good one led the Browns to make a crazy deal for Watson, while the Packers paid the often-controversial Aaron Rodgers an obscene amount of money to stay with them.

The quarterback position is the one that can mean the difference between a Lombardi trophy and obscurity for virtually any NFL team.

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