Why Washington Football Team shouldn’t force a quick fix at quarterback this year

The Washington Football Team isn’t the only one that needs a QB

Well, here’s the first bit of bad news.  In a league built on parity, half the teams in the NFL are a QB away from taking a giant leap.  This year alone, there are 10 teams that seemingly are a QB away from being contenders.

As passionate fans of the Washington Football Team, we get consumed with our team.  But the reality is Colts fans (just as an example), they’re having the same visions of Matthew Stafford (as one example) leading their team.  They’re photoshopping him into Colt’s uniforms and he’s the main topic of discussion on local sports talk radio. I should know, I live in Indy.

So I bring up Stafford for a good reason.  He appears to be the most viable option of any of the high profile QBs that are on the market.

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Next question, does Stafford help make Washington a Super Bowl contender? That’s a highly debatable question that can really only be answered on the field. However, we can look through history to determine the probability of Super Bowl success with trading for a QB.

To do so, let’s take a look at the past 20 years of Super Bowl quarterbacks.

There have been 11 different Super Bowl-winning Quarterbacks (Thanks Tom Brady!). Of those 11, all but three — Peyton Manning, Brad Johnson, and Drew Brees — were drafted by or first played with their current team.

So let’s take a closer look at the three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks who were not drafted by the team they won the Super Bowl with.

Peyton Manning. Quite frankly, he’s one of the best players of all-time and he automatically made any team he played for an immediate contender.  He had already won a Super Bowl with the Colts when he signed with the Broncos as a free agent late in his career.

Drew Brees. Brees signed with New Orleans as a free agent after his first rookie contract.  He had seen mixed results in San Diego and was not highly touted although he did have interest from the Dolphins as well.

Brad Johnson. He signed with the Bucs as a free agent.  He was not highly sought after and was considered a recycled stop-gap type of QB when he was acquired.

As we look at the past 20 years, one thing is certain.  The path to winning a Super Bowl typically occurs by drafting your own QB.

It’s also worth noting that no team has won the Super Bowl by trading for the QB (past 20 years).  The exception being Eli Manning who was part of a draft-day trade and never played for the Chargers.