u/The-Untrained-Eye

What's Really Going on with Bo Nix & the Broncos? I'm a tiny bit worried about quarterback Bo Nix & the Broncos offense.

We’ve all had our first football game. In its awe. Live, televised, radio. What’d you eat? I love food. It’s a top favorite of mine. Add in football. Then you’ve got two of life’s greatest joys. Like all joy, it’s meant to be shared. Your first game, who was there with you? Maybe your parents cheered on with you. A brother. A friend. Or, significant other, perhaps. Maybe you were watching your first game with your cat. Just you and your fur-friend. We support cat-people and animal lovers here at Normal Football Stuff. Love and support is part of what makes football great. Between football, food and friends there’s great moments to be made. Ones that’ll last for a whole lifetime. Enjoying the game. Laughing. Yelling. We’re all fans of the greatest game for different reasons. 

My early holidays were spent trying not to watch football. The older men slept in their recliners. With their stomachs full of the holiday meal. Allegedly “watching” their favorite sport. I had to sit there. Bored. Wishing cartoons were on. Holidays in our family are an excuse to get together. Just a reason to get off work. Get paid overtime for working. Or getting our family together in a holiday-esque fashion. Since we only watched it during family galleries, I never grew into it. Once I did though, I was awe struck. The game was like a brutal mix of boxing, basketball, rugby, track and field and ballet. Elegant. Yet a battle of cartilage. Of hard pain. Of body blows. A battle of wills. I was engrossed and in love. 

How I chose my team. Or, how my team chose me. Has a story. Like every fan. Many fans have passed down their team. The family torch. Lots of Jets fans out there that would have been better off choosing their team. My best friend was lucky. His dad was a diehard Niners fan. He introduced me to football. At the age of twenty-one, late to the party. His dad introduced him to the game. As for how his father came to be a Niners fan, I still don’t know. Sadly, never will. My friend and his dad were there for my first day. Good company. Hot-wings. They always made hot-wings on football Sundays. Homemade delicious sauce. Pounds of dead chickens. People we surround ourselves with are vital. So is the food. Especially, when it comes to the sacredness of gameday. Though, to be fair, I read the Twilight series as they watched. I still watched and enjoyed it though. Oblivious to the calls, at first. I had a reason then to learn more.

That’s how it all began. Started as a Colts fan. In the past tense. It’s when Tony Dungey transferred from Tampa to Indianapolis. I had started “watching” football the year Tampa Bay and Gruden won their superbowl. I knew nothing about Peyton Manning. Once I did, I was amazed. Fast-manic pace. Confusion on the defense. Wayne and Harrison’s sideline, six inches out of bounds-toetap, catches. It was intense. As my love for the game grew, I grew. Eventually realizing the only way for me to enjoy the game, to its fullest, was not to be on any one side. In all its grandeur and awe, why just not cheer for everyone. Obvious, right? Other fans might violently disagree. Everyone has a story. 

The Manning years' seem far and away. Manning’s game was cold. Heartless, almost. Too mathematical, of sorts. On the sideline, he most often could be found yelling at other players. On his own team. A constant look of agitation. Andrew Luck was the exact opposite of Peyton ‘Painting” Manning. One superbowl and a bunch of high stress the rest of the time. That cold and calculated brutality seemed almost one dimensional on the field. Luck though was the kind of player I was proud to rep. If Manning was mathematical, Andrew was vibrance. The kind of person that leaves me wondering, in any given situation, “What would Andrew do?” It was Andrew Luck who was my distant mentor. The person that drew my attention to the game. That was the first time I really felt football in my bones. He brought all new possibilities for what the game could be and what players could be. 

Andrew Luck’s last game opened the exit doors. Football was failing. Years' of narratives changed its essence. Andrew, its next lamb. Ideals as “ambassador of the sport” are now a form of pop culture. Where money, looking good, podcasts and being heard rule over players' directional sense. Where once was a sport of hope became greed and endless commercials. All those fans booing Luck, the way he left the stadium demoralized, just left a mark on me. It was 2019 and I’d had enough too. It’d be four years since Luck’s retirement. Four years of me not watching football. Not talking about it. Not even thinking about it. Until one day. For a reason I can’t recall. I started watching every single game of Andrew’s career. After I’d finished his games, I watched them in reverse order. All the while watching his interviews. Restudying him. A renewed passion. A spark had lit.

As the 2022 season approached, I was reinvigorated by football.  Completely in love with the game. Interested in every, and anything, I could get my hands on. Interviews, articles, podcasts, endless games. I even approached anyone playing it. Is there any room for players like Luck? Moreover can football survive without players like him. Lovers of the sport. Who just wants to play ball. Educated. Well rounded. Built to be ambassadors of the sport. There’s a deep hole and pursuit within me. It craves all the answers this game has. To take it all the way to its end. Football’s very core. As I venture on and on, that core seems weakened.

It was just a desire to learn, at first. I listened to podcasts. The usual suspects at ESPN, the Athletic, Rich Eisen, the dreaded McAfee, Pundits. Including most players turned pundits. Pushing narratives and bad takes. Not only bad but horrible takes’. Narratives make what became of football, in its ways. Narratives by the media and by owners, etc. My passion for the game took me to new ways. I really want to learn the game. Things like film study. Books. Including Finding the Winning Edge. Bill Walsh. Real thoughts on the game. By the people who best made it what it was. Legends. There’s a long difference between what’s said and what is. I learned my passion would not be quenched by halfway measures. If nothing else, I had to try to help the game I’d fallen in love with.

As any advice to those planning on becoming media in football. Or anything, in general. Record the process from the start. It’ll help to learn. In the long run you could put together videos. With all the things that come along with the journey. I wish I would have. If you love something, plan to be involved. Act accordingly. I just never thought it’d come even this far. One day I was watching Andrew Luck games again. Then a little later it seemed I would be a media persona. It quickly turned into an opportunity to coach. Now what one day was just curiosity in the pursuits of love became much more than I could ever imagine. And since it’s football, there’s a million things along the journey. 

When I realized I had the ability to coach, I realized I needed the know-how never to ground a player negatively. Instead of taking on coaching the first opportunity I’d spend another year learning all the idiosyncrasies of the game. While some may think coaching is easy. I assure you it's not. Nor does it include being a weight trainer. Stretching for field exercise, sure. Very independent jobs off coaching, not so much. Jobs like nutritionist are a whole college career. Coaches don’t just “know it”. My forte is the offensive side of football. Particularly, quarterback. I’d spent time at PATH and Stepping Stones. I knew the dark side of life. I also knew how to bring people back from the depths and keep them even keel. Coaching is about preparing the players for life's challenges. Being a day to day support structure. And, teaching them the art of the particular position. 

Even with a coaching opportunity I continue to stay with the media, as well. If nothing else I know that coaching will help my media insights. And, vice versa. Hat on a hat, to speak. So here I am. Someone who just loved a game. Just wanting to be a part of it. In whatever way it’d take me. Even if it were just as a janitor. With a desire for every answer I can find. I’ve learned  it’s true when people say “Anything can happen. If you let it happen.” There’s a theory that if you spend roughly ten-thousand hours deliberate on any particular complex skill, you’ll have a mastery of it. Currently I’ve spent about five thousand on football. Around 1,200 hours every year. Literally one third of my life. Going into the fifth year of my football study. The ten thousand hour theory is being put to the test. At this rate I'll reach the ten-thousand hour mark in year eight. This is how my love of football began and where it is. I hope it brings you an amazing journey too. I can’t wait for more. And, that is just one way football is the greatest game.

Why are teams, and media, fixated on giving every first round quarterback draftee three years, at best, to prove he’s a generational talent? Or, for the organization to think they are. Even if they’d never won a big game. Paying them is just what happens. If that quarterback happens to be next in the signing carousel of stupidity. Over paying quarterbacks could be coming to your team soon. Obviously talented, perceived top of the class, quarterback draftees go in the first. Let’s say a team can get their quarterback in the second round. That somehow they know they can get him. They still move back up, for no other reason but a single contract year, why? Sure there’s a set of economics to this. The extra year of cheaper draftee cost. Tens of millions. Making it possible to better the team. It’s an obvious fact. Though it’s not the only way. But if the organization fizzles the quarterback position, while also overpaying hundreds of millions and locking themselves in contract years in the meantime, then when does that extra year really matter? If they prematurely sign a quarterback in their 3rd year, who cares if they saved a year of contract! When it seems to work out less than more. Are owners, general managers, media and coaches getting hung up on some ideas more than they should? All that draftee quarterback conversations, when a team thinks they have their future quarterback, and all of its encompassed ins and outs, leading most teams to prematurely deciding their quarterback’s fate is what I come to call “The Three Year Itch.” 

“He’s Steph Curry with a football. Bryce Young is a generational quarterback. Patrick Mahomes. Aaron Rodgers. A slam dunk #1 pick.” -Everyone and their mother during the 2023 pre-draft process. Fast forward two years “This is definitely the ‘own it year’ for Bryce. Coming out everyone knew his height, size and arm strength were a problem. The Panthers should have seen this coming. It's this year. Then it's time to draft a new QB. Or, get one in free agency if you can’t find one in the draft.” -Everyone and their mother two years after the Panthers drafted him. Larger than life horrible draft takes from most Usual Suspects. Laced with their classic humbleness “It’s all just guess work.” Why does the media, and also general managers/owners, say that? It’s all guess work. I thought ESPN paid their media, and especially owners pay their front office, not to guess. Or, have a damn good educational guess they call facts. In the meanwhile, us fans have to experience cliche debates around: teams, media, players. Is any of it worth a damn when the pundits keep changing their mind day to day? Either way, us football-natics are hearing it. 

We’ve all seen how failures look or happen to look. There’s a couple scenarios. One way to easily, and obviously, fail in quarterback draftee development has been the Chicago Bears. That constant mistake of theirs. Bring in a new coach (general manager too) Draft a quarterback. Fire the coach two years later. Bring in a new coach. Maybe a new general manager. Get rid of the quarterback that following year. Draft a new quarterback. Two years later fire the coach. Rinse and repeat. No case is the same. There’s obvious mistakes in the fundamentals of every team's failure. Like an individual tick for each. Each has its particular ways of not being able to help consistently failing one particular way. You know what methodology wasn’t really a failure, a good back-up. Look to Brock Purdy or Kirk Cousins for a proper way to draft and develop, and also hone your losses, by drafting two quarterbacks when taking one in the first. 

Now Bryce’s contract is hurling towards the end of year three. He’s been doing ok. He still has two years on his rookie contract. With the extra fifth year option for first round players. Side note to the reader, as of now Bryce’s fifth year option has been taken. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen it done. As of now, I think that’s still up in the air. I digress, moving on. If the Panthers rush Bryce’s fourth coming year, a couple bad things can happen. If the Panthers rush their quarterback situation, they could end up overpaying him. Even if he’s won a couple playoff games this year, I don’t think a six to ten year contract would be the smart bid for them. Even if he’s only won two to three playoff games it could be a mistake. Even when the organization is touting, upon contract signing, of the super bowls he’ll never probably play in. The decision should be made in his development. Layers of what needs to add up to show he can play long term in the NFL. 

A big mistake, and say what you will about organizational pressure, is when teams start rookie quarterbacks (Though it’s a case by case basis) who is a year away from being a year away. It happens far too much these days. Like I said, the organizational pressure. Also just plain idiocy. Thank god fools pay idiots, for them, I suppose. All I ever hear in the media, especially from the washed up quarterbacks turned bobble-heads, talk about the importance of getting live playing reps. How’d that work out for most of the quarterbacks that did? Matt Lionhart, Brady Quinn, Anthony Richardson unfortunate perfect example of that going sideways. While people vary, one of the biggest changes, besides the physical aspect, from going to college into the NFL is that of everyday living reps. The money, the fame, the day in day out pursuit of the game, developing into a system, etc. Even with the difference from the past to present in NIL. The change to the NFL puts large amounts of pressure on the draftee in developing as a NFL player. 

Now, for what will be the splittest of seconds, with Baker and Darnold contracts an opening to look to change signing levels for quarterbacks. Not this whole, “Pay the next in line more.” soliloquy. I think teams should not pay a quarterback the next amount in line. The main reason, I want to see teams with filled rosters. I want to see lower roster players paid better. I also hate seeing teams multiple seasons (plural) just vanish into thin air when their quarterback sucks or goes down in action. Not just an average quarterback with a great team or the opposite and that’s the only choice. Each one's different and stats don't say everything. It stings even more if you don’t pay them and let them walk. Will the Panthers do what too many others have done? Pay him now with a six to ten year contract. Or when his two years are up, and if he hasn’t made it to the division game then should the Panthers offer him a two to four year, prove it contract, with a two year option for the team to release him? 

The greatest lesson of drafting a quarterback for the future comes from, what was hailed as, "The Year of the Quarterback”. It’s the perfect example of moving too fast on rookie QBs. The Raiders didn’t draft a single quarterback from that 1971 year’s crop. Yet, they went to 4 super bowls. Won 3 of them with 2 of the QBs from that draft. One, Jim Plunkett, was on his 3rd team when he led them to the big game, 3 times over! He was a 1st rnd pick who was originally drafted by the Patriots, traded to the Niners and eventually the Raiders. Then there’s Dan Pastrioni. Also a 1st round pick, by the Oilers, only to be traded to the Raiders and lead them to another superbowl win. That’s 4 super bowls and 3 wins without ever even drafting a quarterback. Jim they got off free agency and Pastrioni they got by trading away their QB Ken Stabler. Nothing short of brilliant for the Raiders. Nothing is what it seems to the quarterback position. That draft is, to me, the best look in real time. The reminder that should be in the back of every organization's head prior to the draft room.

Football isn’t in a vacuum. It’s in the human spirit. And, the human spirit is messy. It’s complicated. Interrelated. Even if a quarterback is capable of playing in the NFL, a list of things need to go right to translate onto the field. Each person's job and life is layered together. Hard work and luck become real. A grand fate seems suddenly possible. If everything lines up together just right. Those ideas are just some of the things that make football the greatest game ever. It can bring a kind of belief. Yet. Without two good quarterbacks, great teams' chances are derailed when their franchise quarterback has a season ending injury. I know cap-ologists will smite me. “That quarterbacks should get all they can from rich owners”. But has it worked out for the betterment of the game? How many second stringers can come in the game and give your team a shot? How about all the second and third stringers making under a couple hundred thousand in comparison. You think that imbalance is going to play out. How many are passed up because of time and spent money? How do you feel about the overall quality of the game? A lot of questions for a little article. If I knew the absolute truth I promise I'd tell my fellow football-freaks. Alas there’s different truths for every single different quarterback. And of course, the Three Year Itch fucking everything up. Better hurry.

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Mike Florio over at u/profootballtalk has become way too comfortable sharing his bowel movements at the beginning of all his episodes. He's officially told us about his full bladder and having to take a deuce. And now, He's his own Vrable/Russini. One moment he says "stay on target" then the next episode he says "It's laughable that anyone thinks he can shut Chris Simms up" to finally come full circle and say "He was trying to shut up and protect Simms from himself." All the while calling people "jabroni(s)" for thinking there was something else and that he stopped Simms from spilling the beans. So which is it, jabroni Florio?