Grabbing a solid young quarterback in a dynasty league can solidify that position for a decade or more. We asked the staff about their favorite dynasty target.
Jason Wood
I love Will Grier's potential, and Cam Newton can't have too many good years left. But Grier's a longshot given his draft position, so he'll be my No. 2 choice behind Dwayne Haskins. I expect Haskins will win the starting job this year, and perform well enough to keep it for the majority of his rookie contract.
Daniel Simpkins
So much will change between now and then. Regimes will fall and new ones will rise. It’s doubtful that two-thirds of these quarterbacks will be playing for the same coach or general manager that drafted them. Some of these highly drafted quarterbacks will be on the career backup track by that time. There are only two rookie quarterbacks that are both likely to still be with the decision makers that drafted them and potentially be much more valuable than where they were drafted. One of those quarterbacks is Patriots’ Jarrett Stidham. There is arguably not a better landing spot for a quarterback’s development than behind Tom Brady. Stidham has areas of his game that need major improvement, but his throwing mechanics are sound and won’t need a tremendous amount of tweaking. He has more than adequate athleticism and superb arm strength as well. What he will need help developing are his processing and decision-making. That is tough to project, but if any team can help him in those areas, this is the one that can do it.
To a lesser degree, we could also add Easton Stick to this list. Though we should not be as confident in the coaching staff in Los Angeles, landing behind an all-time great in Phillip Rivers is a fantastic development for the young signal-caller. Like Stidham, Stick is very physically gifted but needs more refinement in terms of reading the field and making better decisions. Both of these quarterbacks have the potential to be more valuable than the likes of Drew Lock or Daniel Jones, who were taken much higher than Stidham and Stick were.
Andy Hicks
This is a difficult question to answer. As we have seen with Josh Rosen in the 2018 draft, Deshone Kizer in the 2017 draft, and Paxton Lynch in the 2016 draft, which covers the same timeframe as the question, a coaching change can be devastating for even a high round quarterback pick. Add in the expected rapid development and threat of injury you can have highly drafted quarterbacks go from hero to zero in an instant. Which of the first four quarterbacks drafted have a coach that is a good bet to be there in 2021? Arizona changed their last head coach after one season and Kliff Kingsbury is a massive gamble. Pat Shurmur is going to have to ride an expected difficult season in the toughest market of all. With the losses at the top of the roster, it is hard to see him having an easy situation to make it to 2020, let alone 2021. You would think that Vic Fangio has some kind of leash in Denver, but the last coach only got two years. In Washington Jay Gruden is one bad season away from the team needing to find a new direction. In summary, stability is one of the most important, if not the most important aspect for a rookie quarterback to have. I would like to think that Dwayne Haskins has the best chance from this group to be starting and playing to an elite level in 2021, but I have no confidence given the brutal situation most of these guys find themselves in.
Dan Hindery
Kyler Murray and I don’t think it will be particularly close. For my money, he is both the best pure passer and the most dynamic athlete in the class. I also buy into Arizona’s offense in general and Murray’s fit in the system. I have been buying wherever I possibly can in dynasty, even reaching for Murray in the 3rd round of a recent Superflex startup draft to make sure I landed him.
While there is some risk of confirmation bias given my optimism regarding Murray, it is impossible to ignore the glowing comments from the Arizona veterans following OTAs. Especially when the longtime radio broadcaster noted that the veteran praise felt genuine and went way beyond the typical positive reviews teammates feel like they should give about young players.
The veteran offensive linemen have been especially effusive in their praise. Justin Pugh raved: “Every throw so far, has any one not been perfectly thrown? I mean there are some things when you stop and we’re watching on film and you’re like, ‘There’s not many people on this planet who can do what he’s doing.’” D.J. Humphries described Murray as “calm, cool, collected and electric,” and said to “believe the hype.” Marcus Gilbert said Murray handles himself like a professional. “I haven’t seen many guys come in this league as a rookie and command the offense the way he’s commanding the offense and picking up the playbook as quick as he’s picked it up,” noted Gilbert. “The way he throws the ball I haven’t seen anything like that,” continued Gilbert. “I think he’s one of the prettier accurate passers I’ve seen. Not in-game settings but in a practice setting it’s pretty impressive how he can squeeze the ball in tight places and his reads are very quick. To make reads like that as a young guy, that’s really impressive.”
Sigmund Bloom
Murray and the Air Raid might lose a bit of the element of surprise when the league has an entire offseason to design and employ tactics to slow it down, but he'll also be a year more experienced - which is a ton of experience considering how little college ball he played. This is Murray in a landslide.
Chad Parsons
Kyler Murray has the makings of a long-term impact player. Being drafted 1.01 by the NFL helps, but his combination of mobility and passing acumen is a diabolical pairing to dominate in today's NFL where quarterbacks are more protected than ever and non-traditional avenues for offensive production are becoming commonplace.
