Does the Washington Football Team need an elite quarterback to win the Super Bowl?

How important is it that an NFL team have an elite quarterback if they want to win a Super Bowl? As the Washington Football Team approaches free agency and the draft, that seemingly obvious question deserves a little bit of perspective.

And as you ought to know, I am all about perspective.

We can quibble over the definition of “elite.” For my purposes, I’m using the Hall of Fame and Pro Bowl selections as barometers. I’m sure we can quibble over plenty of other things as well, but I’m not all about quibbling. Just perspective.

Does the Washington Football Team need a top-tier QB to win a championship?

So, to be clear, you want to have a good quarterback. If you’re choosing up sides for your Thanksgiving touch football game, and you’ve got Patrick Mahomes and Mark Sanchez standing in front of you, you’re taking Mahomes. (Unless your team gets extra points for having good hair – then maybe you have to think about it for a bit.)

I’m not saying it is not advantageous to have a great quarterback. It is advantageous to have great players at every position. The question I’m posing is just how important is it to have that great quarterback if your goal is to win the Super Bowl.

I’m asking because, to hear some analysts discuss it, acquiring an elite quarterback is now bigger than winning the lottery or finding the holy grail. In the Super Bowl era, quarterback play has always been deemed crucial, but in 2021, it seems to be lifeblood. Oxygen, water, quarterback.

That’s the triumvirate for survival. Quarterbacks have moved ahead of food.

After all, you can go for a week without food. Can you really go for an entire week with Nathan Peterman as your quarterback?

OK, enough foreplay. On to the numbers.