Rotoworld ranks Patriots' QB situation as 7th-best
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As far as starting quarterbacks are concerned, Tom Brady is the best of them right now, even at almost 40 years of age. You'd be hard-pressed to argue anything different.
That's where Rotoworld comes in.
Patrick Daugherty, a writer for the site, says the Patriots have the seventh-best quarterback situation in the league, which seems a little too low. Ahead of the Patriots are Oakland, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Seattle, Green Bay and Atlanta.
Note: Age, potential retirement are two of the big factors here.
Here is his reasoning for placing the Patriots' in seventh:
Tom Brady was the best player on the best team in football last season. He’s also older than the new president of France. The most accomplished player in NFL history turns 40 in August. That’s a perilous age if you’re playing rec softball, let alone football. By nearly every account, Brady is in remarkable shape. So was Peyton Manning when a 2014 Week 11 battering in St. Louis left him never quite the same. It’s true that, if any quarterback can beat the aging curve, it’s probably Brady. That’s still just a hope, not a plan. This being the Patriots, they have a plan. Against all odds, they’ve hung onto Jimmy Garoppolo, creating a scenario where he’s either franchise tagged or allowed to walk in 2018. That is, unless they part with Brady, amicably or otherwise. CSN New England recently guessed that the unthinkable was at least within the realm of possibility. Today, right now, Brady is the favorite to be under center in New England in 2018. That alone is enough to give the Patriots a top-10 quarterback situation. The kicker is, should Brady retire or the Pats decide to move on, they have a well-groomed replacement waiting in the wings.
So he's basically saying a lot of this hinges on when Brady retires and/or when he starts to decline. But the decline hasn't happened yet. And as of now, the Patriots have held on to Jimmy Garoppolo and it should be obvious at this point that they want to keep him for as long as possible.
Sure, Garoppolo's sample size is small in terms of what we've seen in meaningful games, but even then he's shown he's a capable quarterback. He might even be the best back up in the NFL.
We've seen what happened when Derek Carr, Andrew Luck and Aaron Rodgers missed time in recent seasons - their teams dropped off significantly. That didn't happen with the Patriots while Garoppolo was under center last season. Hell, the Seahawks are still looking for a legitimate back up for Russell Wilson. The only somewhat capable back up in this group aside from Garoppolo is Ryan Fitzpatrick, now of the Buccaneers.
A lot of it has to do with the personnel around them. But based on recent performances by teams who've had star quarterbacks miss time, the logic behind the Patriots having a worse quarterback situation than Indy, Tampa and so on is laughable.
Make no mistake - despite Brady's age and potential decline, when/if it happens, the Patriots have the best quarterback situation in the NFL right now, and it isn't even close.
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