Now, finally, it seems safe to turn the page from the veteran NFL free-agent and trade market to the draft. But before we get there, ex-Vikings general manager Rick Spielman, who’s been following the class a lot longer than the rest of us, has his own thoughts on the chaos.
In fact, he brought it up on his own, as he and I talked just after he’d finished a 25-hour drive to complete his move from Minnesota to the Gulf Coast of Florida, and I asked whether he misses the fray.
“You do miss the evaluation part, especially the draft, putting the board together, working with the coaches and the scouts,” Spielman said. “That part, you do miss. But boy, just watching what’s happened in free agency, and how things are changing, and I’ve talked to other GMs, had numerous calls from GMs in the league, BSing through the free-agency period, it’s a lot different than it was even three or four years ago.”
And for good?
“I don’t know,” he continued. “With all the player movement, the quarterbacks, last year when you saw [Matthew] Stafford get traded to the Rams and they end up winning the Super Bowl, the league tends to be a copycat league. And if you don’t have a franchise-type quarterback, depending on how you feel on this year’s draft class, everyone seems like they’re gonna do whatever’s necessary to get that quarterback.”
There are plenty of story lines to get to with this year’s draft just three weeks away—and as is always the case, the class of quarterbacks provides a pivot point for that discussion.
It’s just that, this time around, it’s in a different way than you might be used to. In 2022, it’s coming in testing what Spielman’s saying, only in a totally different way than the premise was tested the last month. Where the veteran market, and in particular the chases for Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, reinforced Spielman’s point in one respect, the draft could drive it home in a completely different respect.
Simply put, where the former showed NFL teams’ level of determination to find a great one, the latter may well display the overall desperation to get one, period.
This year’s quarterback group unequivocally lacks the star power that the last two brought, when guys with household names entered the league after years of anticipation of their arrival. This year, among the presumed top five at the position, there isn’t a single signal-caller from a blueblood (Pitt and Ole Miss are closest), with two coming from non–Power 5 schools (Liberty and Cincinnati).
But, as Spielman would tell us, that does mean there isn’t a great one to be mined—even if this sure looks like the kind of year where teams get burned for overreaching to address the most important position on the field. And, as the ex-Vikings GM said, there happens to be an environment present ripe for that kind of thing.
