The room is dark and quiet when you walk in with a binder full of scouting reports, a pen, a spit cup and a coffee. It’s just you, a projector and the 2017 class of quarterbacks on the 90-inch screen in front of you. Now, how do you find a quarterback in an era of football that we’re told is changing as teams adopt spread principles and take more responsibility away from the quarterback?
The game has not changed—no matter what you read on Twitter or hear on the TV broadcast. Going back to the days of Montana, Marino and Elway, the NFL has always been dominated by a tier of roughly five elite quarterbacks, followed by a tier of 10 quarterbacks who are good enough to win ballgames and another tier of 10 quarterbacks who are solid starters.