I'm concerned by the Rodgers/Garoppolo situation in which excellent quarterbacks weren't allowed to play, even though other teams would have been delighted to have them and even though the player would have been delighted to leave.
It's obviously bad for the quality of the sport for top QBs to have to sit for years.
And it's obviously bad for the players themselves - reality is that had Brady had to sit another few years behind Bledsoe, his career would not have been as great as it was. It's ridiculous to predicate all the great performances we've seen on an injury fluke.
The only people it's good for is the particular team that is holding onto this non-playing QB.
Now, that makes sense in a true free market. But the NFL is pretty far from that, particularly for draft picks.
I don't know how it could be done exactly. But I wonder whether there should be some rule that if a non-injured draft pick is sat out for two years (modulo a few games), he should have the option of becoming a free agent in his third year.
It's obviously bad for the quality of the sport for top QBs to have to sit for years.
And it's obviously bad for the players themselves - reality is that had Brady had to sit another few years behind Bledsoe, his career would not have been as great as it was. It's ridiculous to predicate all the great performances we've seen on an injury fluke.
The only people it's good for is the particular team that is holding onto this non-playing QB.
Now, that makes sense in a true free market. But the NFL is pretty far from that, particularly for draft picks.
I don't know how it could be done exactly. But I wonder whether there should be some rule that if a non-injured draft pick is sat out for two years (modulo a few games), he should have the option of becoming a free agent in his third year.
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