Three rookie quarterbacks have started games this season, and early verdicts are in.
We asked NFL personnel around the league for early reactions on the three first-year QBs: Dillon Gabriel, Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart. And of course, you can’t talk about the Browns without discussing Shedeur Sanders.
Here’s what we learned.
Dillon Gabriel & Shedeur Sanders
Ralph Vacchiano: The Browns saw enough from Dillon Gabriel in his first start that they felt comfortable trading away his backup, veteran quarterback Joe Flacco.
And that might have been a mistake.
“Flacco is the kind of veteran you’d want behind a kid,” an NFL scout told me. “You want a vet who has experience as a starter, but understands his role. Someone who can be a guide for a young quarterback, who can show him everything from how to study defenses to how to handle himself off the field.
“Who is supposed to do that now?”
With Flacco now in Cincinnati, the Browns have only Gabriel, fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders and Bailey Zappe, a fourth-year pro who has made nine career starts and is now on Cleveland’s practice squad.
“When you have a young quarterback, it’s really important to put a support system around him,” the scout said. “I don’t understand why [the Browns] just dismantled theirs.”
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Shedeur Sanders has made more headlines for his press conferences than his play so far this season. (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images)
Eric D. Williams: After sitting and watching behind Flacco, Gabriel got his first chance to start on Sunday — against one of the top defensive coordinators in the league in Brian Flores. The rookie QB held his own with 190 passing yards and two touchdowns in a 21-17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Flacco was then traded to the Bengals, so Gabriel gets an opportunity to earn the starting job in Cleveland over the long haul.
The play of Gabriel, a third-round selection out of Oregon, did not come as a surprise to a longtime national scout who evaluated him coming out of college.
“He’s got a super-quick release,” the scout told me. “Great work habits that overcome his limitations in length. He’s very mobile and has good arm strength. He’s left-handed, which doesn’t really matter, but some coaches don’t like it to this day.
“He’s a cool customer. Nothing bothers him.”
NFL teams have always eyed quarterbacks coming out of college with heavy game experience. And Gabriel’s 63 college starts — at Central Florida, Oklahoma and Oregon — appealed to NFL evaluators.
“Lots of college snaps are still a great predictor of NFL success, if all other traits are present,” the scout told me. “Dillon will do just fine going forward. He just needs to play.”
Sanders has a chance to move into the backup spot behind Gabriel after serving as the third-string, emergency quarterback to start the year. However, Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski told reporters he’ll let the week play out before making that determination, with elevating practice squad quarterback Bailey Zappe to the active roster also a possibility.
Projected by some draft analysts as a first-round pick, Sanders slid to Day 3 of the draft but now finds himself a play away from seeing time as a rookie.
“I saw Shedeur play in the preseason and he looked good off-schedule and throwing the ball,” a senior personnel executive told me. “I don’t know for sure how he did pre-snap or with progressions, but he has the physical talent.”
READ MORE: Shedeur Sanders Moves Closer to Becoming a Starting QB After Joe Flacco Trade
Much of the chatter around the league on Sanders has been focused on his unique, charismatic personality. Last week, the Colorado product mimed his answers in an interview with reporters. However, the personal executive I spoke with didn’t see Sanders’ personality as an issue.
“We didn’t interview him formally, but our scouts were fine with him,” the personal executive told me.
Added a national scout: “Sanders has most of the physical traits but just needs to grow up mentally and emotionally.”
Cam Ward
Ben Arthur: In Week 5, Cam Ward showed the Titans, and the rest of the NFL, that he can deliver in the clutch.
The No. 1 overall pick completed 72.2% of his passes for 193 yards with an interception (which was recovered by Tennessee for a touchdown) in the fourth quarter of the Titans’ wild comeback victory over the Cardinals, leading his first career game-winning drive.
After a second-down conversion to tight end Chig Okonkwo with 52 seconds left, Ward delivered a beautiful deep ball to receiver Calvin Ridley down the right sideline to set up the go-ahead field goal as time expired.
“Like I told him, ‘That’s why we drafted you with the No. 1 overall pick,’” Titans star defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons said. “His calmness, his poise in the pocket like that. I don’t know how many rookie quarterbacks can have that type of poise when the game [is on the line]. It came down to him, and he knew it. The ball was in his hand and he did a helluva job of controlling that offense and getting us down to be able to hit that field goal at the end.”
Titans head coach Brian Callahan and his offensive staff are now looking for more consistent play from Ward. Before the final quarter, particularly in the first half, Ward’s play was representative of the struggles that have defined most of his rookie season to this point. He missed some throws because of poor accuracy. Other times, he appeared to put too much mustard on the ball. He also needs to shore up his footwork.
But Callahan sees the end of the Arizona game as a “great step” forward.
“I think it shows what he’s capable of,” Callahan said. “That’s a big moment, I think, for his development as a young player. And now, the key is … how do we do that from the start of the game? How do we play with that sort of efficiency and that sort of precision from the first quarter to the fourth quarter and see what we look like then?
“There’s still things that were corrected in coaching,” he added, “but I think it clicked for him a little bit the second half. … Hopefully, that leads to starting off the game with that sort of same mentality and being able to find those things and move the team down the field a little more consistently than we have over the first month of the season. So, hopefully the improvement is rapid.”
Jaxson Dart
Ralph Vacchiano: In the aftermath of the Giants’ inexcusable loss to the Saints last Sunday, rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart went around the locker room and personally apologized to his teammates. He took the blame and promised he’d do better — exactly what a good leader should do.
The Giants are going to need more out of their franchise quarterback than that, though. He’s putting on a brave face in the face of his first adversity, but Dart’s play needs to quickly improve. And it won’t be easy, with No. 1 receiver Malik Nabers out for the season and No. 3 receiver Darius Slayton battling injuries.
“[Nabers] was everything to that offense,” an NFC scout told me. “He doesn’t have a lot of dangerous weapons without him. Dart really has to carry them now.”
Jaxson Dart dealt with his first setback as the Giants’ starting quarterback last week. (Logan Bowles/Getty Images)
Clearly, that won’t be easy. In his first game without Nabers, Dart was 26-of-40 for 202 yards and two touchdowns against the Saints, but he also threw two interceptions and fumbled once. The Giants blew that game against a previously winless team by turning the ball over five times.
Dart wasn’t solely responsible, but he was right to take the blame for a lot of it. It took some of the luster off his successful first start — an upset win over the Chargers.
Still, two starts in, and heading into a Thursday night home game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Giants seem thrilled with what they’ve gotten from the 22-year-old quarterback. From the outside, it might be too soon to tell.
“They didn’t ask him to do a lot in his first game (11-of-20, 111 yards), and then he tried to do too much in his second game,” the scout said. “Look, clearly he thinks he can make things happen. He’s not afraid to run right into the defense (19 carries, 109 yards). He’s not afraid to throw into coverage. He’s not afraid to change things on the fly and direct his receivers if he thinks he can make a play.
“All that is good, but the downside is the turnovers you saw in New Orleans. When young quarterbacks start feeling themselves and gain their confidence, they can get reckless. That’s not unusual. But the key for the Giants is to balance that: How do they rein him in without completely reining him in, you know?”
Now, of course, there could be even more pressure on Dart to “do too much” with his No. 1 receiver out for the season.
“It’s a heck of a challenge for [Giants coach Brian Daboll],” the scout said. “[Nabers] is a tough guy for a young quarterback to lose.”
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