The Broncos are proof that building a football team is all about the QB

What is the right way to build a football team?

For the better part of the last century, head coaches, general managers and fans alike have fiercely debated that very question. Some feel the key to winning is dependent on the strength of the overall roster, and others believe success rests primarily on the shoulders of the quarterback.

The truth is, there isn’t just one way. The path to success has evolved in concert with the game itself.

In its infancy, the NFL was filled with offenses reliant almost entirely on running the football in Glenn “Pop” Warner’s revolutionary single-wing formation. Players routinely spent time on both sides of the ball, and the quarterback position was merely a part of the offense, rather than its focal point.

As time progressed, the modernization of the NFL coincided with an exponential rise in both the talent level and overall value of the quarterback position.

Sammy Baugh became Johnny Unitas, who paved the way for John Elway and Joe Montana, who set the bar for Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. All the while, NFL offenses grew more and more reliant on the passing game, and the quarterback became king.

For proof, look no further than the last year. The 2020 season, despite the many changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, proved to be one of the most-prolific periods of offensive football in history.

On average, more touchdowns were thrown and points were scored per game last year than ever before. It was undoubtedly a continuation of the trend that has gained significant momentum since the 2010 season.

Every year, teams at the top of the NFL draft order are forced to evaluate their quarterback situation, and many choose to select a young, up-and-coming signal caller to become the new face of their franchise. As they should. Because in today’s NFL, the quarterback opens the window of opportunity for success, not the roster.

Let’s be clear on one thing: A quarterback cannot win consistently all on his own. In fact, in a team sport, you will rarely find a single player who, alone, can lift an entire franchise to sustained greatness.

But without a talented quarterback, even a top-tier roster will struggle to achieve consistent success. Since the 2010 season, 11 of the 12 Super Bowls have been won by elite-level quarterbacks, including: Tom Brady (four times), Patrick Mahomes (once), Peyton Manning (once), Russell Wilson (once), Joe Flacco (once), Eli Manning (once), Aaron Rodgers (once) and Drew Brees (once).

An argument could be made that Flacco who beat the Broncos en route to a Super Bowl victory in 2013 wasn’t “elite”. But his postseason numbers that season would suggest that he was certainly playing elite-level football at the time. He threw for 1,140 yards and 11 touchdowns with no interceptions and had an average quarterback rating of 117.2 during that postseason run.

The only true outlier in the sample is Nick Foles, who made a magical run in the 2017 postseason after filling in for the injured Carson Wentz, but has since fallen back to earth.

Did those quarterbacks, many of which are current or future Hall of Fame players, accomplish their successes alone? Obviously not. But their presence set a foundation for the team to build upon and established a time frame in which success can be achieved.

Admittedly, Super Bowl wins are a bit of a lofty metric to measure success. But even analyzing playoff teams from the 2010 season to present yields similar results.

Outliers such as Mark Sanchez (2010) and Tim Tebow (2011) appeared from time to time, but the majority of teams who found themselves consistently in the playoffs in recent years were led by quarterbacks considered above-average to elite at the time.

Again, quarterbacks benefit greatly from the talent level of the roster around them. But a quality roster without a quarterback is hamstrung by a limited ceiling.

Just ask the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 7-9 in 2019 with Jameis Winston at the helm, and then won the Super Bowl last season with Tom Brady. If that’s not a testament to the true power of the quarterback, nothing is.

Tom Bradys don’t grow on trees, though. So to think that a team can simply devote all of their energy toward fortifying its roster and then simply pluck a quarterback from the ether to tie it all together is both naïve and, honestly, arrogant.

For the best chance at success, the order of operations needs to be reversed. When a team invests in a quarterback, either via free agency or the draft, they immediately establish a window of opportunity for themselves, through which they must filter any and all roster or personnel decisions.

The Bengals, for instance, drafted former LSU standout Joe Burrow with the first-overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. In doing so, they immediately opened a five-year window with which they can attempt to rebuild their roster before Burrow’s rookie contract, and fifth-year option season if necessary, expires.

Because Cincinnati identified and acquired their quarterback, they can now (responsibly) devote all of their energy going forward to building around him.

The Buccaneers, as mentioned earlier, also opened a window for themselves when they signed Brady last offseason, albeit one with a much smaller time frame. By signing Brady to a two-year deal, they inherently understood that every decision they make going forward must be geared toward winning the Super Bowl within that time frame. Mission accomplished.

It’s important to note, as it relates to the Buccaneers, that while their roster was fortified and ready to plug in the right quarterback, that wasn’t actually their intended strategy. They drafted Winston with the first overall pick in 2015, and then attempted to build around him for four consecutive seasons. As they should have.

They swung and missed on their evaluation in the 2015 draft, but their philosophical approach toward building their team was sound.

Ironically enough, the Broncos have tried to piece together their team by focusing primarily on the roster since Super Bowl 50, and it has likely contributed to the team’s worst stretch of football in decades.

By drafting with a roster-minded approach and turning to Band-Aid quarterbacks like Trevor Siemian, Case Keenum and Joe Flacco, the Broncos provided a perfect case study on why the strategy is flawed.

It worked when Peyton Manning was in town but, again, Hall of Fame signal callers don’t hit free agency very often.

Building a championship-level roster is an incredibly complicated juggling act that requires strict financial discipline, shrewd talent evaluation and a little bit of luck. Differing contract lengths and potential coaching turnover present constant challenges that must be addressed in both the short and long term.

To expect to manage all of that year in and year out while waiting for the perfect quarterback to manifest itself in time is ill-advised and uninspired.

Every ship needs a captain. Even the finest vessel with the most experienced crew sits motionless in the harbor without one. Or worse, it wanders out to sea aimlessly, with no one to point it in the right direction.

No matter who wears the “C” patch on their chest on Sundays, the quarterback is the captain of the football team. He is the one who determines the success or failure of each voyage.

So, what is the right way to build a football team?

Find your captain, build him a vessel and set sail.