Football season is finally back. The 2025 NFL season kicks off in just a few days when the Eagles and Cowboys face off on Thursday Night Football. Now is the perfect time for think pieces about the NFL as fans begin locking in ahead of the new season.
That's exactly what The Athletic's Zak Keefer did on Tuesday. Keefer released an article title “The bust files: How NFL teams break young quarterbacks.”
In the article Keefer outlines both success stories and failures of young quarterbacks. One common scenario that Keefer argued fails young quarterbacks join a team that needs them desperately. Which puts the rookie under immense pressure right away.
Legendary NFL quarterback Peyton Manning weighed in on the phenomenon. He argued that teams should wait to have some stability before plugging in a quarterback. At the very least, they should have a consistent coaching staff.
“I just wish a team would admit, ‘OK, we need a quarterback this year, but we’re not 100 percent sure our coach is the right guy, so we’re not gonna bring him into this,'” Manning said. “Of course, they always draft the quarterback.”
Manning even cited the Bears and Panthers as two teams that fell into this trap recently.
“Those teams were not ready,” he says of the Bears and Panthers. “That’s just how I feel.”
Both Caleb Williams and Bryce Young are already on their second head coach of their young careers. They've also had to adapt to multiple playcallers.
That kind of environment is not ideal for the growth of a young NFL quarterback.
Caleb Williams, Bryce Young both intriguing case studies on the value of a rookie quarterback
The Bears and Panthers are both excellent recent examples for Manning to cite.
Carolina was in a desperate situation when they aggressively traded up for Bryce Young in 2023. The Panthers sent away multiple first-round picks, and even receiver D.J. Moore, just to acquire Young.
Unfortunately, Young has yet to live up to his massive hype. In large part because the Panthers put the cart before the horse by bringing in Young first.
Meanwhile, Chicago used Carolina's first-round pick in 2024 to select Caleb Williams first overall.
Williams joined a more talented roster than Young had. But coaching problems still haunted his rookie campaign, highlighted by Matt Eberflus's inauspicious exit after Thanksgiving.
None of this is to say that Young and Williams are doomed to fail.
But it is hard to ignore that they were not set up to succeed early in their careers.
