Chapter 745: A Hundred Flowers Blossom
In 2011, three rookie quarterbacks—Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and Lu Ke—shined throughout the regular season. By the end of the season, they had secured a place for themselves in the league as rookies, making it a rare year of rookie blossoms.
With the excellent performances of defensive players like Von Miller, J.J. Watt, and Aldon Smith, the young blood of the league was bubbling with excitement, and people saw the future hope of the league.
Everyone thought 2011 was a great year for quarterbacks, but who would have thought that 2012 would be a year of a full-scale quarterback rise?
In fact, at the beginning of the year during the draft, there was a lot of gossip and hot topics surrounding the quarterbacks.
For example, the Indianapolis Colts, who had the first overall pick, had already decided on their franchise quarterback. To make room for Andrew Luck, they chose to let go of Peyton Manning. The first overall pick had been decided before the draft even started.
Throughout the summer, almost everyone was talking about how Luck would be one of the top five quarterbacks in football history.
This was truly unbelievable.
In this era, there were still excellent quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Matthew Stafford, and Ben Roethlisberger. Not to mention a comparison with historical legends, even among active players, it was not easy for Luck to make a name for himself.
But that was the reality.
An executive from the Colts, after watching Luck train, asserted that Luck would be one of the top five quarterbacks in NFL history. A senior scout from the NFL officially affirmed that the era of Luck was coming after watching the rookie camp.
Even senior scouts from various teams showed more or less agreement.
For a time, the 32 teams in the league were envious because the Colts were very likely to welcome a second franchise quarterback, just like the sweet dilemma they faced in 1998 when choosing between Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf. The Colts' "luck" was truly enviable.
As the draft began, without any suspense, Roger Goodell announced the Colts' first overall pick: Andrew Luck.
Another example was the St. Louis Rams, who had the second overall pick. They firmly believed that their franchise quarterback was Sam Bradford, the first overall pick from two years prior, so they started to sell their second overall pick. Robert Griffin III, who had won the Heisman Trophy by beating Andrew Luck with an excellent performance in his junior year, was a highly sought-after player by countless teams.
Luck was a traditional pocket quarterback, which was why the Colts chose him. They believed that Luck could take over Manning's legacy and quickly take over the team, becoming the key to victory. Griffin, on the other hand, was an emerging mobile quarterback who shone in college games, just like Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick, and was a new addition to the offensive system.
Among the fierce competition from multiple teams, one team finally fought its way to the top.
In the end, the Washington Redskins paid a huge price—their first-round picks in 2012, 2013, and 2014, and their second-round pick in 2012—to trade for the second overall pick in a transaction that shocked the entire league. In the draft, they unsurprisingly chose Robert Griffin III.
This draft strategy was still mocked and ridiculed by the entire league years later.
It wasn't that Griffin III's ability wasn't worth it, but the price was far beyond imagination. Everyone said that Rams' general manager Les Snead "sold his crutches well."
Besides that, there were still many other notable points.
For the first time since they chose legendary player Dan Marino in 1983, the Miami Dolphins used a first-round pick, the eighth overall, to select a quarterback, Ryan Tannehill.
After signing Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos still chose a rookie quarterback, Brock Osweiler, with the 57th pick in the second round.
The Seattle Seahawks chose Russell Wilson with the 75th pick in the third round. The Philadelphia Eagles chose Nick Foles with the 88th pick in the third round. The Washington Redskins also chose Kirk Cousins with the 102nd pick in the fourth round.
And so on.
A total of 11 quarterbacks were selected in the entire draft. All the teams were very enthusiastic about drafting, which, in a way, could be seen as a continuation of last year's trend. Lu Ke, who came out of nowhere as an undrafted rookie, had undoubtedly changed the draft strategies of many teams.
But very few people could have predicted that six years later, looking back at the list of quarterbacks drafted that year, how many miracles and surprises were born from the names listed above. All of this made the 2012 draft one of the most special drafts in a decade.
There was no need to wait six years. When the 2012 season officially kicked off, the commotion and turmoil of the draft continued onto the field. In the 32 teams of the league, a total of 11 rookie and sophomore quarterbacks were named starters!
This was truly unheard of!
Before this, the highest number was in the 2000 season, when a total of seven rookie and sophomore quarterbacks were named starters in the entire league. In Week 1 of last regular season, the record was five.
Now, the number for the 2012 season had boldly raised the historical record to "11," which was unbelievable!
However, no one could be sure if the excellent performance of the three rookie quarterbacks last year gave teams more confidence and courage to use rookies and sophomore quarterbacks, placing more trust and responsibility on the shoulders of these young players.
But the fact was that in Week 1 of the regular season, one-third of the teams in the league were building their teams around inexperienced young quarterbacks. For these rookies, did this herald the beginning of a new era in the league? Or was it the beginning of a complete collapse?
Looking back at the distant year of 1983, a class of excellent quarterbacks emerged, including John Elway, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Todd Blackledge, and Ken O'Brien, who all found their place in history.
1983 is widely considered the best quarterback class in history, and after the 2012 draft, it seemed that everyone believed that this year would surpass it.
In Week 1 of the regular season, the offenses of the 32 teams shone throughout the league. Four teams scored more than 40 points. Eight quarterbacks passed for over 300 yards, including two rookie quarterbacks, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. In addition, Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan passed for 299 yards, and the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback, Lu Ke, passed for 298 yards.
The entire offensive performance was revitalized, but on this excellent report card, the other young quarterbacks couldn't be found. Aside from Luck and Griffin III, the performance of the other starting rookie quarterbacks had to be questioned.
Cleveland Browns rookie quarterback Brandon Weeden's performance could only be described as terrible. His passes had no tactical sense or strategy. In a 16-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, Weeden completed only 12 of 35 passes and threw four interceptions. His performance was considered a strong candidate for the worst debut in the past decade.
Miami Dolphins rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill's debut was also disappointing. He completed 20 of 36 passes, with three interceptions and three sacks. However, the weak wide receiver lineup was considered a major reason for Tannehill's unsatisfactory performance, and he still had a chance to prove himself.
In the Seattle Seahawks' loss to the Arizona Cardinals, rookie quarterback Russell Wilson started. Wilson actually had a chance to reverse the game in the final moments, but he unfortunately missed it. He completed 18 of 34 passes for 153 yards, and his performance was not good. At least, it was better than Travis Jackson.
But no matter what, having 11 rookie and sophomore quarterbacks as starters still created a huge storm in the entire league. With a hundred flowers blossoming and a hundred schools of thought contending, the NFL welcomed a new atmosphere in the new season, becoming a hot topic for every commentator and analyst.
Among them, the Colts' Luck and the Redskins' Griffin III undoubtedly became the focus of attention, and unintentionally, they were more or less linked to Lu Ke.
For Andrew Luck, his first career pass was a 63-yard touchdown pass, which reminded people of Lu Ke's first pass last year. The difference was that Lu Ke's feat was in a regular season game against the Seattle Seahawks, while Luck's pass was in a preseason game.
Luck's first pass in the regular season was an interception, and his opponent even returned it for a touchdown.
In the end, he completed 23 of 45 passes for 309 yards, with one passing touchdown and three interceptions, for a quarterback rating of 52.9 and a PFF grade of -1.5.
This was Luck's debut report card. The Colts lost to the Chicago Bears with a huge score of 21-41.
Obviously, this was not the performance expected of a "top five historical" quarterback. It was even a terrible performance. The huge gap was truly frustrating.
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