Quote:My conclusion is this:

 

It is not accurate to suggest that most of the good QBs IN TODAY's NFL struggled.  Many of them found success very early on.

 

The best example of QB struggling early and becoming elite is probably Drew Brees.. but I would also argue that playing back then was much different than now (different passing rules).

 

Another decent example is Eli Manning.  He struggled and was up and down his first 3 or so years before he "turned it around".... yet he is still known to be a turnover machine at times.  He's got 2 rings so all is forgiven for him though.

 

Guys like Romo and Rodgers sat for 3 years, so it's not really a fair comparison.

 

I keep bringing up Tannehill because I would LOVE for Bortles to progress like he has.  Tannehill was raw (like Bortles) and struggled his rookie year.  By year 2, he was improved - by year 3 he was passing for over 4000 yards with QBR of over 90.  I think we would all take that from Bortles.

 

Luck, although his qb rating wasn't great - threw for a ton of yards and had a positive TD to INT ration from the get-go and got his team to the playoffs.

 

Dalton, Wilson, Ryan, Newton were all significant upgrades over the garbage they had their previous years and succeeded from early on in their rookie years.

 

 

 

My conclusion:  Most successful QBs in today's NFL did not struggle mightily in their rookie years, and almost all of them had significant "jumps" in production in year 2.  

 

The only QB who did worse in year 2 was Drew Brees surprisingly.