New wave of NFL youth could reshape league landscape

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Do not take this Rodgers comment as a concession. He stressed with confidence: "I always feel at the top of my game and I still have several years to play at a high level."

And do not take this piece as a rooting prediction for kids. No, their work is too limited.

But the combination of their physical and mental traits, and the approaches taken by their coaching teams, is enough to convince people like Rodgers and others close to the game to believe in the next generation of quarterbacks. And the year 2018 could serve as a decisive year for many of them.

"The quarterback of today is more ready," Rodgers believes.

Philosophies and approaches have changed since he and his colleagues began receiving their high school pass-game foundations. Most committed conservative and race-oriented offenses. They did not commit a direct offensive and did not have 7-to-7 passing camps to improve their guardianship. Now, however, the quarterbacks are entering college better prepared, and this leads to a better transition to the NFL, Rodgers believes.

"Football as a whole is better," says Rodgers. "Coaching and programs are better at lower levels. When I played high school 18 years ago … there was not much widespread. The broadcast was done a little later and allowed the crimes to take over and to be able to do the [run-pass option]and all these movements of the last 5 to 10 years have changed the way of doing things and have allowed the quarters to play to improve. You see players more ready to play even in the NFL, and it's normal that they include more RPOs and broadcast things you see at lower levels. "

The creativity of the game in high school and college has also reached the professional game. As quarterbacks have evolved, coaching minds have also evolved.

"More NFL coaches, more NFL offensive coordinators, quarterback coaches and coordinators are more willing to make the quarter more comfortable with what they do best, unlike the old school. . . Go and learn it We'll get back to you, "analyst NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock told TODAY Sports in a telephone interview. "Now you see that Bill O 'Brien can not do enough for Deshaun Watson to be comfortable with the first day so he can play fast without having to think and buy him time to learn more. plus an attack from the NFL. to play quickly and efficiently. "

Watson was certainly not the first to receive this treatment. The Panthers did it with Cam Newton, who in 2011 had one of the most successful rookie seasons in his history. The Broncos did the same for second-year pro Tim Tebow, and in 2012 Mike Shanahan and Kyle Shanahan were even stronger at adapting Griffin by running a series of option games that put pressure on defense. and let Griffin play fast and free. San Francisco and Seattle followed Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson the same year.

While Mayock thinks "Deshaun Watson is the post-boy of what the NFL gets" (and he sees Lamar Jackson as a similar hope), the quarterback guru also observes the college game producing more "combo guys" .

"They are Carson Wentz, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen – they are great athletic players who are NFL-style quarterbacks who can still extend games like Aaron Rodgers or in some cases like Ben Roethlisberger – size and athletic ability," explained Mayock.

But more traditional quarterbacks like Darnold, Rosen, Trubisky and Goff still have their place.

Everything comes back to form and vision. Coaches and organizations must have the ability to equip their young smuggler with both a diagram and a list of talents that provide them with the support they need to flourish. Goff is the perfect example. He looked like a bust as part of a carousel under Jeff Fisher's leadership and in an old-fashioned attack, but he shone when offender Sean McVay arrived last season.

Meanwhile, Wentz started with Day 1 with Doug Pederson, took up his duties as a rookie and then played as a MVP candidate before blowing up his knee in Week 14.

The Jets plan to launch Darnold immediately, while Mayfield, Rosen and Jackson will watch and wait. But that does not mean that either of these approaches is good or bad.

"The situations are different," said Rodgers, who admits he was ready for the NFL, but took advantage of Brett Favre's apprenticeship, while Roethlisberger flourished from day one with a solid team around him.

But he adds, "Sometimes you go into a team that does not really have the pieces in place to allow you to succeed right away. You look at Alex Smith and he had to go through a number of offensive coordinators and raw teams that did not have much talent. But his career is remarkable. He is also, like me, in his 14th season and has found a way to continue each year successfully and make a difference for the team on which he is.

Each of these young quarterbacks will face some adversity. Some already have.

The questions rarely stop. Newton and Wilson settled early as quarterbacks in the franchise, but still face elite questions, even though Newton won the League MVP title in 2015 and Wilson as a pro. second year. In recent times, both have had to prove that they can do more with less, as their second contracts have made it more difficult for their teams to have championship caliber lists.

So the questions and the definition of the answers will surely come.

A player like Goff, who seems to have lost the label of his rookie year, can he repeat the success of last year? Can Wentz and Watson recover their size shapes before the injury?

Can Darnold, and any other recruit who finds his way on the ground this year, take his responsibilities and build on the foundation with which they seem to have been recruited?

Their play this season will go a long way in determining whether each of them is as special as it seemed last season, or whether their success is just a flash in the panoply as before.

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