For much of the last decade Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have been head-and -shoulders above the rest of the league’s quarterbacks, but now they are getting older and the younger competition is coming into the league.
Below Manning and Brady are younger quarterbacks, not  exactly rookies but very much in their prime. They are forces to be reckoned with.
Those forces would include Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, Philip Rivers of the San Diego  Chargers, Tony Romo of the Dallas Cowboys, Eli Manning of the New York Giants, Ben Rolesburger of the Pittsburg Steelers, and Michal Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The youth quarterback movement actually started around 2008 when Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons and Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens were drafted to help restore their respective franchises to glory.
Both quarterbacks started right away and became the first two quarterbacks in NFL history to lead their teams to the playoffs in their rookie year. Joe Flacco became the first rookie quarterback to win two playoff games, while Matt Ryan’s team lost in the opening round.
Success like that had obviously not been seen before and other teams were then quick to try and throw quarterbacks into the fire right away verses letting them sit in the coming years.
Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets followed up Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco’s success the following year and led his team to the AFC championship game the last two years.
Young quarterbacks that people should keep an eye on are Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers, Sam Bradford of the St. Louis Rams, Christian Ponder of the Minnesota Vikings, Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos, and John Beck of the Washington Redskins.
So what do the Bucks students think about this youth movement in the NFL?
“I think the coaches in the NCAA are starting to model their quarterback coaching methods after the NFL more and translating it to the college level” Brian Armstrong, marketing major, said.
Kyle Berger, another marketing major, said, “I think guys are just putting more emphasis on things like accuracy and just pushing harder towards their goals of becoming professional quarterbacks.”
Justin Dicken, an engineering major, had similar thinking.
“I guess they’re just coaching them better, as far as getting them ready to play in the NFL,” Dicken said.
Safwan Kluan, a business administration major, said, “I think it’s just recent trends that we’re seeing lately. There’s just a lot of amazing quarterbacks that have come out of the draft lately.”
When Kluan was asked if he thought some of these younger quarterbacks were starting to take Brady’s or Manning’s spotlight he said, “Brady and Manning will never fade, but guys like Aaron Rogers have potential.”
So Brady and Manning should not be filling out retirement papers anytime soon, but if they did, there would be no shortage of quarterbacks to take their places.