INDIANAPOLIS — When the Rams and Buccaneers won back-to-back Super Bowls with something resembling the same formula—acquiring an elite quarterback to steer a roster that was otherwise packed full of elite players—there came an idea that this could supercede traditional, slow-burn roster building and represent a new kind of standard for general managers willing to roll the dice.
This week at the NFL scouting combine, we’ve seen the deterrent: the moment when a team realizes that no star quarterback is coming to rescue the fine roster a given GM has built for himself, no matter how many levers he might try to pull behind the scenes at the league’s annual let’s-tamper-safely convention.
For now, at least, just a few days before the start of free agency and Lord knows how long before Aaron Rodgers announces his decision through a series of tarot cards, it seems like a lot of the posturing about quarterback movement (outside of the teams that are willingly jockeying for a quarterback who is under police investigation for sexual assault, which you can read more about here) was just that. Quarterbacks wanted to redistribute the balance of power, rode the tailwind of Tom Brady and Matt Stafford’s departures and seem to have gotten concessions on the part of their respective clubs. If they had gone a few years without feeling that requisite appreciation, they are most certainly feeling it now.
