From Michael (@MBison705): Is it time to ask whether draft pundits/scouts underrated the 2022 QB class? While there doesn’t appear to be a future Mahomes/Burrow in the group, Pickett, Ridder, Howell and Purdy are showing that they are competent starters with the right talent around them.
Michael, I have two thoughts. And the first is that, yes, I think it’s fair to say that the 2022 class was probably at least a little underrated, and that’s probably a reaction to recent history. It’s no secret that quarterback, always the NFL’s most important position, has become even more important in recent years with changes to schemes, the rules and the sport in general. And that’s led to a lot of quarterbacks being overdrafted—so in years when there weren’t enough first-round passers to go around, the NFL would simply manufacture them.
That’s how Christian Ponder and EJ Manuel and even Daniel Jones (even if that one’s turned out O.K. in the long run) wind up going as high as they did, and how a lot of mistakes were made. The correction was always coming, and I think it came in a big way in 2022, when teams were hesitant on good-not-great prospects, with the thinking being it’d be better to tread water than go all in on a quarterback who’d never be enough to compete with guys such as Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen.
