At The Mike
Dynamics Have Changed For Drafting Quarterbacks
By Mike Prisuta

This year's draft had its share of sexy names at the quarterback position, as most every draft does and most every draft will as long as such things are staged. Still, you have to wonder if the likes of Carson Palmer, Byron Leftwich and Kyle Boller are destined to get beat up, bounced around and all but written off before they manage to find success in the NFL; assuming they'll be able to find it at all.

And while we're at it, we might include the likes of David Carr and Joey Harrington amid such speculation. Do the Houston Texans and Detroit Lions still have the right idea by drafting and then developing potential franchise players? Should they be spending millions while suffering years of mistakes and losing, all the while advancing slowly but surely toward Super Bowl glory? Or have quarterbacks become glorified final pieces to the puzzle, relatively speaking, that can somehow, someway be gleaned once a team has put itself into contending position?

The NFL has become a league that just doesn't seem to produce many Dan Marino, John Elway, or Troy Aikman-type scenarios any more.

One reason why is players of that ilk are as rare as well-officiated games. But another is that free agency and the salary cap have drastically altered the availability of players at the position, particularly experienced ones, and what's expected from them, at least to an extent.

Last January's Super Bowl featured a pair of big-name gunslingers opposing each other in Tampa Bay's Brad Johnson and Oakland's Rich Gannon. Neither player made it to the big game with the team that initially brought him into the league. Johnson was a No. 1 pick of the Minnesota Vikings and also made a stop in Washington. And Gannon, the AFC's MVP in 2002, bounced around and collected rust for years prior to resurrecting his career with the Raiders.

And those two represented much more the norm of late than aberrations as far as finding winning QBs is concerned.

Super Bowl XXXVI was won by Tom Brady, a former sixth-round pick who was only playing because former No. 1 pick Drew Bledsoe had been injured and because Brady had pretty much refused to lose games while Bledsoe mended.

In Super Bowl XXXV, retread Trent Dilfer stewarded the Ravens to victory by not making mistakes and not getting in the way of a dominating defense.

In Super Bowl XXXIV, it was former grocery store employee and Arena League refugee Kurt Warner leading the Rams.

Where have you gone Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana?

Even Brett Favre had to change teams before becoming one of the great quarterbacks of this generation, as did Mark Brunell, one of Favre's former teammates with the Packers.

One reason why so many passers are now suddenly available each season is that quarterbacks eat up salary cap room the way Shaquille O'Neal takes up space in the lane. And as teams take a harder look at what they're spending and where, it's becoming more and more difficult to justify what is being spent on quarterbacks based on results.

And as more and more out-of-nowhere quarterbacks surface and all-but-forgotten names re-emerge, teams less and less feel the need to draft high, spend big and then hope the player they've put their faith in ultimately pans out.

Just this past season, the Steelers salvaged Tommy Maddox, a former No. 1 pick in what now seems like another lifetime, from the insurance business in Texas and the XFL.

The St. Louis Rams, meanwhile, discovered that Marc Bulger was a lot better than just a 2000 New Orleans sixth round draft pick.

So the jury may be out all of a sudden as to which is the best way to go about getting a quarterback. Should a team draft a quarterback high and develop him, or let another team do the dirty work and wait for free agency? Is the quarterback the first championship component or the last?

This much hasn't changed: You better make sure you have one, no matter where he came from.

"It's so subjective," Steelers head coach Bill Cowher acknowledged. "But you don't want to pass up the opportunity to get a good quarterback because nothing can deflate your team quicker than not having someone that can run your team.

"That's the one thing that you want to make sure you have."

Which is why the Palmers, Leftwichs and Bollers from year to year will always be the most intriguing characters of any draft.

Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the sports director of WDVE-FM in Pittsburgh.