You can.

It's just so much more rare than people want to admit. I mean it's an every 15-20 years thing.

Some fans try to convince themselves that it happens every 4-5 years; like 20% of the SBs are won by average QBs.

That's just not the case. It's like 5%. It just doesn't happen often at all.

But if you're a team that doesn't have a great QB you just have to hope that you're the 5%.

Right now, if you're in the NFC yes.

Because you just have to beat an elite QB 1 time. Maybe 2 if Stafford is hot.

Yeah, it's probably a different story in the AFC.

You're not going to get a bye out of the AFC if you don't have a HoF caliber passer. And if you don't end up in the top 3 seeds, you're going to have to beat 3 premier QBs to get to the Super Bowl.

Good point. You can win a Super Bowl with a mediocre QB coming out of the NFC (the Eagles are trying to do exactly that). But out of the AFC, that seems pretty much impossible.

Philly just has such a loaded roster (losing Dean is gonna hurt them though defensively).

The problem is that McCarthy squandered exceptional talent and made them mediocre. I’m not a fan of dak but that team has far too much talent to have imploded like that last year. And to have been that bad this year with or without dak. His hiring of zimmer is pretty symbolic of who he is… just a guy who’s willing to settle for meh at this point.

Dallas should be looking into a defensive coach and get themselves a rb again. They are an anomaly that in a conference that beefed up the run they did the complete opposite.

84 people would pay Darnold $40 million next season? Amazing.

Their roster is so good that people have kinda forgotten that Jalen Hurts...isn't.

They've won enough games with him at QB that folks have decided he's an elite QB. But he really isn't. He's an expensive Purdy.

Shit, now that I think about it, Hurts may be the best comp for Nix.

He's...fine. He's not a problem but he's not a force multiplier.

Is it Barkley that says "he's the wagon not the horse"? I think it's Wright that says he's a thermometer not a furnace or something like that.

Essentially, if he looks good it's because his team is playing well. He's not the REASON his team is playing well, but rather a proxy for that good play around him.

It’s crazy to me that 4 QB’s have dominated the AFC since the Patriots reign started in 2001: Brady, Peyton, Big Ben and Mahomes

Only 3 of those 23 years was a different QB: Gannon, Flacco and Burrow

Statistically it’s 13%. Not great

The year they lost to SF in SF was their chance. Last year, it just didn't work out.

But they've never had "exceptional talent". Specifically at QB.

He had the one year. Other than that he's a replacement level QB.

But whatever. Howie is one of the best in the Biz. They'll pivot at some point.

We forgot to mention the cheating

And Flacco is the only one of those 3 who wasn't playing at an MVP level leading up to the playoff run.

You just don't carry a QB through the post-season anymore. Not in the AFC where all these premier QBs live. You can go steal a game against a superior QB with that but you're not gonna steal 3.

It’s funny that Mahomes has only lost in the Super Bowl
To another elite QB. Which wasn’t even his
Fault. His Super Bowl wins were against good, but not elite guys. You could argue his AFC playoff games have been tougher games because the opposing QBs have been better overall

Obviously the move now is to franchise him and see if some poverty franchise will bite and trade a haul for him. If not, you see if he can replicate his regular season success for a year and maybe step up a little more come the postseason. It was his first year as a full time starter in several years, and you can't disregard the season he had.

Even though we all know he'll never win shit, there are plenty of teams that would gladly take what the Vikings just had. Someone will trade for him and pay him, and if not, you ride it out for another year and switch to McCarthy once it's obvious the experiment is over.

They had exceptional talent to build around on defense. Parsons and diggs are elite. Even with all the injuries and dinosaur zimmer they were still a really good defense at the end of the season. Back in the day they had a stellar OL. If McCarthy built that team around a running game instead of dak and he didn’t absolutely shit the bed last year… this is not a Super Bowl team but you can’t tell me the makeup of their team isn’t different from the Vikings other than a better qb (who I agree is not top shelf).