Coming off an abysmal 3-13 record in the 2018 season, changes had to be made.
Steve Keim’s 2019 draft decision puts him into NFL Draft lore, and the rest is history. Kyler Murray over Josh Rosen was an absolutely crazy move for it’s time. Even though that was just three seasons ago, we’ve now seen this be copied by a handful of teams around the league. Examples include:
- The Eagles drafting Jalen Hurts
- Packers drafting Jordan Love
- San Francisco’s jump from 12th to 3rd overall in 2021 NFL Draft
- Miami drafting Tua Tagovailoa
All of these moves are similar in the fact that the team is either 1) admitting that they were wrong with their current choice at quarterback, or 2) preparing for the future way ahead of time. Of course there is some grey area on all of these situations and nitpick everything down the smallest detail.
49ers' source today: "Jimmy is here to stay. He's our guy this year."
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 26, 2021
All of these besides Tagovailoa being drafted were all considered a crazy move. I think teams are finally doing this more often after seeing Steve Keim’s 2019 draft decision work out so well (so far). All it took was for someone to go down that road first and actually come back with some success. In reality, all teams should do this when there is a guy that just isn’t working out. There isn’t time to sit rookie quarterbacks and have them learn.
With rookie contracts getting so valuable to a team’s success, those drafted need to play and start week 1. It’s how the Cardinals got to where they are. The antithesis of this strategy can be seen with the Chicago Bears and their misery at the quarterback position with a front office that doesn’t know how to move on or accept that they’ve made a mistake and head forward.
From now on, this kind of move should have a name, or just be known as “Steve-Keiming” and getting the quarterback that works best for the team. Nice work, Keim.