The NFL postseason didn’t disappoint, filled with closely fought matchups throughout the playoffs. Super Bowl LVI was more of the same as the Los Angeles Rams pulled just ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals to secure a 23-20 victory thanks to the efforts of defensive tackle Aaron Donald on the Bengals’ last play of the game.
There is a lot to break down from this game and since the NFL is a reactionary league, some of the key elements of it could have bearing on how teams draft in the future. Here’s a look into a few things that stood out about this one that will leave GMs with something to think about ahead of the 2022 NFL Draft and the drafts that follow it.
To Draft or Not to Draft a QB in the First Round?
Perhaps this was the most unique part of this matchup -- Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford were both selected at No. 1 overall in the years they were drafted. There should hardly be a question at this point that Burrow is a generational talent -- he has consistently defied the odds since coming off the bench at Ohio State, transferring to LSU, a program that had been largely mediocre at quarterback for years and hadn’t seen its signal-callers perform particularly well in the NFL. Instead of becoming another name on that list, Burrow changed the narrative, more than serviceable in his first year there, then going on to shatter multiple records and lead his team to an undefeated season finished out with a national championship. Burrow, while surrounded with a high level of talent with players like wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Justin Jefferson on the team, was one of the Tigers’ most important players and was largely credited for the success they had during that historic 2019 season.
After he was selected by the Bengals in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, it took little time for him to become the best player on the team, on pace for Rookie Of The Year before he suffered a knee injury that required reconstructive surgery. There was doubt he’d ever bounce back to become the same player, but he did that and more after extensive recovery and rehab, with one of his best games coming against the Baltimore Ravens when he passed for 525 yards -- the fourth-highest ever by an NFL quarterback in a single game. And to think that if his offensive line had held up better he could have become the first player in history to win the Heisman Trophy, a national championship and a Super Bowl only adds more to his resume.
On the other side was Matthew Stafford, who didn’t blossom right after also becoming a No. 1 overall pick, but a lot of that had to do with the Lions’ largely subpar defense and up-and-down performance from the supporting cast while he was there. It’s important to note how Stafford was among the bright spots for the Lions in his 12 seasons there, leading to their only three postseason appearances over the past century, even though they never made it past the wild-card round due to other holes that needed addressing (and let’s face it, the Lions still have plenty of fixing to do with issues that lie way beyond quarterback after they finished out with a 3-13 overall record this season. It took Stafford just one season to run Sean McVay’s offense at the highest level, as Los Angeles averaged 27.2 points per game between the regular season and the postseason heading into the Super Bowl. And now, with the victory, Stafford’s case for Canton is that much stronger.
So, is what Stafford and Burrow have accomplished a reason to go all-in on a quarterback with the first overall pick or early in the first round? Based on trends and what’s working right now, there’s plenty of reason to see why teams should have the urge to. But it’s important to consider the busts that were chosen early like JaMarcus Russell and appreciate both ends of the spectrum when it comes to snagging QB1 in the draft. So while it could become a more popular thing to do, Burrow is a special talent in which there are very few of and that has a lot to do with mentality, high level of mental processing and playing style. It took Stafford getting some help in a successful offense for things to fully come together and for his pure talent to shine through. Moral of the story, taking a quarterback highly and starting them early always presents a risk. But when put into a situation where they’re built around properly or possess the rare ability to elevate a team nearly single-handedly out of the gate like Burrow has, it has the potential to pay dividends. Maybe even more so if they’re given the chance to sit and learn for at least a year, given how many rookie quarterbacks fall into bad situations they themselves can’t fully fix and become ruined.
To Focus on the Offensive Line or Rare Talent at a Skill Position?
There’s been no shortage of talk about the Bengals’ decision to draft Chase over an offensive lineman in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, and people are still torn over it. In his rookie season, Chase couldn’t have been any better, reeling in 81 catches for 1,455 yards with 13 touchdowns. The chemistry he and Burrow built in college has carried over to the NFL in a big way, and considering some of the inconsistencies seen in the Bengals supporting cast at times since Burrow has been there, it helps immensely to have an elite target the quarterback already has an extensive relationship. It’s certainly worth wondering if the Bengals would have still gotten this far this past season without the Burrow-Chase connection.
At the same time, though, the Bengals offensive line has not been what it needs to be on a game-to-game basis. Burrow was sacked seven times and that last time saw him go down in the hands of Donald on a 4th & 1 play that ultimately decided the end of the game. If Burrow had more time to throw, he would have been able to reach his receiver after Jalen Ramsey fell down on what appeared to be play that almost certainly would have been the game-winning touchdown. Burrow was sacked 70 times between the regular season and the postseason, the third-most in NFL history. That says plenty about how much the Bengals O-line still desperately needs improvement after its responsibility for Burrow being knocked around and eventually sustaining the critical knee injury last year.
There is a lot to look at here -- there may never be another duo quite like Burrow and Chase, other quarterbacks and receiver pairs who were both considered high-level talents in college have landed on the same NFL rosters and haven’t produced the same numbers these two have. But it’s easy to get the sense that if the Bengals don’t fix the issues with men up front fast after Burrow took a scary hit toward the end of the game and limped off the field before returning, sending flashbacks of what happened the previous year, that it might not matter how much of a connection he has with any one receiver on the field. Keeping a quarterback upright has to be on the top of the priority list, regardless of if that’s taken care of in the draft, free agency or through trades.
All in with Draft Capital?
It was a mere season ago when the Rams gave up a good bit of draft capital to acquire Stafford, sending the Lions quarterback Jared Goff, two first-round picks (2022, 2023) and a third-round pick (2021). Looking back at it, this obviously would have been a painful move if Stafford would have not performed up to standard and the Rams would have lost out on some potentially big-time picks over something that didn’t pay off. But it’s clear to see things couldn’t have paid off much better, considering that a talented quarterback who can command the offense is arguably the second-most important thing a team can have outside of a solid offensive line.
McVay told ESPN that he viewed the chance to add Stafford as a “rare opportunity” and that “those opportunities just don’t come up often. He couldn’t have put it any better than that -- there aren’t going to be a ton of other situations like this that exist for teams in a league that is already so quarterback-hungry. In the right instances, trading a large amount of draft capital can do wonders for a team, but it’s not something that should be expected to be seen happen a lot over a short period of time. The Rams got lucky, did their homework and made the right call.
