There is no doubt that the NFL is now a quarterback-driven league. The rules are slanted in favor of quarterbacks and receivers. College quarterbacks and receivers are coming into the league with more passing experience than ever before. NFL offenses are starting to embrace the college shot-gun spread offensive schemes that college quarterbacks are comfortable with. All of this makes having a franchise quarterback more important than ever before. Gone are the days of winning with dominant defenses and "game-managing" quarterbacks. Defenses can't be dominant anymore.
The 2012 draft class of quarterbacks was a once-in-a-decade class. RGIII, Luck, and Russell Wilson. All three are in the playoffs as rookies. The Browns missed out on all three. The current league is dominated by Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and even the next teir of elite quarterbacks have won superbowls and are in the hunt year-in-year-out: Drew Brees, Eli Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger.
Unfortunately, the QB class of 2012 looks to be the heir apparent to Manning, Brady and Rodgers. The Browns, and every other team without an elite quarterback, will be chasing these guys and their teams for the next 6-8 years. Unless and until the Browns find a quarterback capable of being elite, that Superbowl will never be attained.
The Holmgren-Heckert regime's failure to land RGIII will come back to haunt this franchise for years to come. We tend to agree with those that say the Browns would have no talent to surround RGIII with after giving up those picks. But Washington went out into free agency to get him talent and so far, it worked. Meanwhile the Browns shunned free agency thinking they had 5 years to become relevant. Some said it would take 3 years to figure out if not making the RGIII trade was the right move. I think we can safely say it was not, after just one season.
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