Changing of the Guard:

The New “Faces” of the NFL

There is something changing in the NFL right now. It is the same thing that happened in the late 1990s when several elite quarterbacks retired all around the same time. Guys like Marino, Elway, Young, Kelly and Moon. The faces of the league were changing then. In the late 90s and early 2000s, some young, new QBs became the faces of the NFL and have carried the NFL for the last decade. Manning, Brady, Favre, Palmer, McNabb and Brees among others. And the same thing that happened a decade ago, is happening again. Those guys that took us through the 2000s are starting to fade, save for Tom Brady because he is just the freaking man who will probably play for the next 25 years.

With Peyton Manning and Drew Brees eliminated from the playoffs this last weekend, you are going to be seeing QBs with which you might not be too familiar. (Matt Hasselbeck notwithstanding. I am still sorry if anyone bet their house on that game....unbelievable.) And are these younger guys better than some of the older ones? Well I think the fact that they are still playing and the other ones are not makes my point, but the guys we are used to seeing every Sunday are going to start yielding to some different personalities and some different faces. Guys like Aaron Rodgers, Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan and Mark Sanchez. In fact, of all the teams left in the playoffs, the next generation quarterbacks play for six of the eight teams. (Roethlisberger, Cutler, Rodgers, Flacco, Ryan and Sanchez) These are the names we are going to have to get used to hearing for the next eight to ten years and frankly I am excited for it.

These young guns (apologies for using that phrase....reap the whirlwind...) are fresh, new, charismatic and above all, they are really good. Some are a little more proven than others and they are all a little different than one another, but they are fun to watch and the next ten years might have some of the best QB play that there has ever been. The next ten years are going to contain the end of legendary careers like Peyton Manning's, Drew Brees' and Tom Brady's.  And we are going to see the emergence and the prime of the careers of the new class of quarterback. So for you football strategy nerds like myself, get ready for awesomeness.

So to all you people who dwell on what you have seen and not what you might see, try to be open-minded when people like myself say that I would rather have Aaron Rodgers right now over Peyton Manning. Or when someone says Matt Ryan is the best QB in the NFC South, do not blow them out of the water...because they are correct. There is a changing of the guard in the NFL. It is OK. Do not freak out. Let it happen. All this has happened before and will happen again, to quote some hybrid from Battlestar Galactica.  And do you know what happens every time it does change??? The NFL gets better for you and me. Enjoy.