The 2012 NFL draft has been full of surprises, and possibly one of the most exciting ones is the number of young quarterbacks looking to find their place in the hectic rotations and crazy charts characteristics of the league. And there is no better proof of this takeover than the first two weeks of the preseason games.
Last year was without the shadow of a doubt, the year of the Quarterback. Eli Manning leading his team to the Super Bowl, Matthew Stafford and Tom Brady engrossing the list of select players ever to pass the 5,000 yards in one season and Aaron Rodgers named the MVP award, 2011 was the definitively the year of the quarterback.
Despite this, the forthcoming season is set to become the year of the youngsters. The biggest proof is that the average age of quarterbacks decreased from 29.1 to 28.3 in the last 2 years. And to put things on perspective, the average age back on 1998 was of 30.1 years of age. And with promising players under the age of 25 such as Tebow and Sanches, this number might decrease even further in the next couple of years.
One of these promising youngsters is Jake Locker, who ended up winning the Titans quarterback job over veteran Matt Hasselbeck. Another example is Ryan Tannehill. Even though the starting is still open for the Dolphins, rumor has it that he might have an edge over favorite Matt Moore. Talking about rookies causing excitement in the last couple of weeks is Russell Wilson, whose battle against the more experienced Matt Flynn has kept Seahawk’s fans on the edge of their seat.
Young players have encountered success at an even earlier age this year. With examples such as Locker, Tebow, Tannehill and Pryor already are facing success under the age of 25 and players like Colin Kaepernick, Ryan Mallet and TJ Yates pushing their way to the next stage of their careers, veteran players better watch out their backs.
As popular quarterbacks like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are slowly but surely entering the dusk of their professional careers, this new bunch of young talent could positively push their careers from rookie to stardom even sooner than expected.
