Back in 2023, the season when Aaron Rodgers made it precisely four plays before reminding Jets fans of their cursed position in this universe, we had something approaching an epidemic of quarterback injuries to high-profile veteran players. Joe Burrow hurt his wrist and missed seven games, Kyler Murray tore his ACL and missed half of the season, Deshaun Watson missed 11 games with a shoulder injury, and Kirk Cousins tore his Achilles and missed nine games.
This was reminiscent of the 2017 season, when we made similar complaints about the fragility of the position and the utter disaster that is an NFL team without its starting quarterback (most of the time, unless you’re the Eagles). Rodgers missed nine games that year as the Packers sank from playoff contention, Watson tore his ACL in practice, Carson Wentz sustained a very famous ACL and LCL tear that led to the rise of Nick Foles (that one exception), Andrew Luck missed the year after labrum surgery, Carson Palmer missed half the season with a broken arm, and Sam Bradford began the end of his NFL career as a degenerative knee issue reared its head.
