Welcome to the NFLquarteback blog!

Greetings,

My purpose for this blog is mostly aimless. I'm merely a knowledgeable football fan with a direct interest in the quarterback position.
Football dynasties have risen and fallen due to the ability, or inability, of quarterbacks throughout the history of professional football. The drafting of a rookie quarterback in the first round usually causes the most anticipation going into the regular season. Will he be a Manning, or a Leaf? Will this kid be the face of our franchise, or its undoing shame? Did we pick the best of all possible options? And when will he be ready?
Then of course, there are the unknown quarterbacks who exceed expectations. The caliber of the exceeding, of course, differs. The Redskins once drafted Heath Shuler, now a politician, at the beginning of a draft and later drafted Gus Frerotte. Shuler was soon displaced by Frerotte, and soon out of the league. For all of Frerotte's faults at quarterback, he exceeded the ability of a 7th round draft pick, and defeated a 1st rounder. Perhaps Shuler would have benefited for sitting on the bench a few years and returned to the field as an enlightened quarterback.
My definition of an "enlightened quarterback" is one who either sits for a long time, or one who starts off badly, sits for awhile, and then emerges as something unpredictable. The best example off the top of my head is Rich Gannon. His first season was 1987 with the Vikings. He did not really play until 1990 through 1992. At that point, he was not a good quarterback. At this point, he's mainly on the bench. He emerges, "enlightened", by 1998 and goes on to have five phenomenal years before injuries end his career. There are others.
However, many quarterbacks are thrown into the fire without having their "padawan" stage of their career. They're knighted, given their armor and their sword, and sent into battle. They did not anscend through the Squire, Page, Knight process of learning the craft.
In this draft, we have three first rounders: Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, and Josh Freeman. Sanchez will probably be "knighted" immediately. Stafford will probably resemble what I'll call the "page" stage, he will be anticipated to start at some point this season, and will be slowly worked into the games. Freeman could potentially sit out almost all year as a "squire". As you can see I've read too much history, and literature, but anyway. It's interesting to think about.
Since the Great Quarterback Class of 1983, the following QBs have been full time starters during their rookie seasons (that is played all 16 games, barring injury):

1984 - Warren Moon, Oilers (he doesn't count because he was in the CFL since 1978)
1989 - Troy Aikman, Cowboys (injured for 5 games), 9 Tds 18 Ints, 0-11 record.
1993 - Rick Mirer, Seahawks, 12 Tds 17 Ints, 6-10 record.
1998 - Peyton Manning, Colts, 26 Tds 28 Ints, 3-13 record.
2001 - Chris Weinke, Panthers, (29 year old rookie, out one game) 11 Tds 19 Ints, 1-14 record.
2002 - David Carr, Texans, 9 Tds 15 Ints, 4-12 record.
2008 - Matt Ryan, Falcons, 16 Tds 11 Ints, 11-5 record.
2008 - Joe Flacco, Ravens, 14 Tds 11 Ints, 11-5 record.

What can I discern from this? Not counting Warren Moon, this is what I notice: The immediate full-time starting of a QB throughout an entire rookie season, barring injury, is an exceptional rare thing. If we were going into the 2008 season, we would say that is never a successful thing to impliment (although Aikman and Manning ended up eventually emerging as legends). Then what happpened in 2008? Was it just due for a rookie to have a winning season, and so, was it coincidental that this occured with two QBs having winning records in their first season? Who knows. But regardless, it is rare. Since 1983, Ryan and Flacco are the only winning rookies. Since 1983, Aikman and Manning are the only rookies on this list (too soon for Ryan and Flacco) to have successful careers. If Ryan, and/or, Flacco make the Hall, then it appears to be approximately a 10 year difference between star QBs coming out of the full-time-rookie-starter crop of QBs. Will Sanchez, and possibly Stafford, follow the rule, or show that the rookie starter situation is entirely different now than it was in the past?

Anyway, that's my first post. More will follow, especially if I'm urged to do so.