Have Quarterbacks lost their importance?

There have been many great quarterbacks that have taken the field in the history of the NFL. Names like Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and Dan Marino forged their names in history due to their outstanding performances. Quarterbacks often get a lot of credit for the success of a team. The evidence for this is that in the long history of the league there have only been a handful of non-quarterback players that have won the MVP award.

However, recently we have seen teams getting great results without having an elite quarterback. Yet those teams have good playmakers around the quarterback. This begs the question whether having an elite quarterback isn’t as crucial for teams as it was in the past.

A quarterback is key for a team’s success, as they are the players running the offense during a game. The likes of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Aaron Rogers have proven that it is good to have a ‘clutch’ quarterback behind centre as it can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing a game. There is an argument to be made that if you build a good situation around a decent quarterback, you can find a large amount of success.

You can see this when looking at the Philadelphia Eagles’ performance last season. Philadelphia’s quarterback Jalen Hurts didn’t have an exceptional first two seasons in the NFL. In his third year you saw a jump in his and the team’s performance. You could make the argument that Hurts just made a huge step in his development.

However, a key difference was that last season the Eagles brought in a lot of good playmakers for Hurts’ offense, examples of these playmakers were AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert. This suggests that the improvement of the team was down to the addition of these players, rather than Hurts’ development.

Of course, there are two sides of football with the defence being a crucial part of a team’s success. Without a good defence a team will always struggle to get results. The reason for this is that the defence controls how the offense play. This is because when a defence plays well it takes a lot of pressure off an offense as it allows a team to take less risks if the score is low.

Back in 2015 the Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl, and it is easy to forget how dominating the defence was that season, with players like Von Miller, Chris Harris Jr, and DeMarcus Ward leading the charge. The reason it is easy to forget is because it was Peyton Manning’s last Super Bowl.

Yet, looking at Manning’s numbers in 2015 it wasn’t his best season.  He threw for 2,249 yards, but what was the most worrying stat was his touchdown to interception ratio.

The hall of famer threw nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions, this shows how big of a role the defence played in the franchise winning the Super Bowl. The offense struggled which meant the defence needed to keep the score low. This proved that even when a quarterback isn’t playing well a team can succeed when they got a good defence.

The coach is a crucial part of a team’s performance as they are the ones scheming up and calling the plays. Some people may argue that a coach is the most important person in an NFL franchise. This is because they are responsible for the performance and development of a team.

There has always been a debate around who is more important a coach or a quarterback. Kyle Shanahan may have put an end to the debate in 2022. Shanahan managed to take the San Francisco 49ers to the NFC championship game with three starters at the quarterback position.

After losing both Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to injury, Shanahan was left with rookie Brock Purdy, but the 49ers still managed to get a record of 13-4. This was achieved by Shanahan using his offensive playmakers like George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and Christian McCaffrey to make plays which took the pressure off the quarterback.

It is important to note that the San Francisco defence last year was incredible. Having said that, it was Shanahan’s ability to make adjustments that was the key for San Francisco last year.

Quarterback will always be an important position in the league. Yet, there are certain scenarios where they are not crucial for a team’s success. With the NFL having a great crop of playmakers at the moment it’s hard to see other teams not following this trend in the future.