By Kelvin Butler
With free agency still having three former number one overall picks and with the draft coming up, it poses a question. What happened to sitting rookies for a year or two behind a veteran so they can study film, practice and all the other things that help them transition into becoming a professional in the NFL?
Cam Newton, a former MVP who is finally healthy after two years of playing injured, is a free agent. At the age of 30, he isn’t old for a quarterback, and before he got injured, he was showing people that he can do more than just run.
Even though the medical staff are making these players safer, these owners don’t see the money – money that the fans aren’t giving to the team because they’re unhappy with not seeing the player play.
Fan is short for fanatic, so they should be crazy for their team. However, when you’re talking smack about your own team, they hear it. Money-hungry teams are forced to move on from hurt players who just had two bad years of injuries and instead draft 20-year-old college players, hoping they produce in two years.
These players feel immense pressure to produce on the field even though they should grow at their own pace. For example, Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes both sat behind veteran quarterbacks for a year before they became good. Even though Alex Smith was a productive quarterback, Andy Reid put in Patrick Mahomes, because Reid knew he was better for the Kansas City Chiefs moving forward.
Hopefully, a team signs a player like Cam Newton, Jadeveon Clowney or Jameis Winston so we can see if he can grow and learn how to be an NFL player.
