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I remember back around the start of the 2017 season, I was wondering "where are all the good young quarterbacks?". I may have even made a post about it on here somewhere.
We were nearing the end of an era of great quarterbacks; Peyton had retired, Brady, Brees, Rivers, and Roethlisberger all had a limited window left. Rodgers wasn't that much younger. Guys like Matt Ryan and Stafford were kind of in that next age group but also weren't getting any younger. Even Luck, who seemed like the heir to the mantle was turning 28 and showing some durability issues.
In terms of young quarterbacks, neither Wentz nor Goff looked very good in their rookie seasons. Winston and Mariota each had two years under their belts and also didn't scream superstar or potential HOFer. Not much needs to be said about Blake Bortles. Derek Carr was coming off a great year and was arguably the best young quarterback.
As for the 2017 draft class itself, the Bears were already getting a lot of flack for reaching on Trubisky and as much as everyone else apparently saw it, not being a college football fan myself, I didn't foresee Patrick Mahomes being what he was.
The lack of future superstar or Hall of Fame level quarterbacks was glaring and I really wondered what the NFL would look like once Brady, Brees, et al all retired. It seemed like there was a dearth of future QB talent and we were destined for an era of mediocre signal callers.
What a difference six years makes. Mahomes became the biggest star in the league and is currently the same age as Luck was back then. Mahomes is also the elder stateman of a group that includes Burrow, Herbert, Allen, Hurts, Lamar and Lawrence. When you factor in guys like Watson, Tua, Murray, and Fields, as well as the potential of a lot of other young guys, the amount of young quarterback potential is overwhelming.
It's a great time to be a football fan and the future is way brighter than I anticipated back in 2017.
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