NFL 2024: How quarterback desperation caused three of the worst trades in NFL history

With the NFL’s rules skewing heavily towards the offensive side of the ball, the need for a franchise quarterback is greater than ever. The result? Three of the worst trades in NFL history in one dismal 30-month period.

“He’s a franchise quarterback.”

The NFL’s draft process and scouting is littered with the phrase, just take a look at the last three Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks (Patrick Mahomes, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady) and you’ll know why.

It’s all about having “the guy” and if you don’t, why are you even trying?

As the league changes its rules to mainly protect its offensive players, it has become harder to follow the mould of the 2000 Ravens or 2002 Buccaneers, carried by all-time units on one side of the ball.

It’s why now, NFL franchises will sell their souls to acquire “the guy”, both in terms of assets given and how some moves are viewed by fans as distasteful.

More on that later.

All across America’s biggest league franchises convince themselves that the team is ready to contend, but they’re only a quarterback away from making it happen.

More times than not, it doesn’t work out.

It’s all about finding that precious quarterback in today’s NFL. Picture: David Eulitt/Getty Images

With 2023 number one pick Bryce Young being benched by the Carolina Panthers this week, the lust for “the guy” has resulted in three of the worst trades in NFL history occurring in just the last 30 months.

A year before Young was the first player taken in the 2023 draft, the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns made godfather-type offers to land Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson respectively.

Two of those players have been sent to the bench since, and the other in Watson, ask any NFL fan, they’ll say he should be too.

DESHAUN WATSON (HOUSTON TEXANS TO CLEVELAND BROWNS)

Deshaun Watson was a highly-touted and respected player, drafted by the Houston Texans in 2017, and was the NFL’s leading passer in 2020.

However, after being accused by 22 separate women of sexual misconduct and assault, Watson sat out the entire 2021 season, before he eventually asked to be traded from the team that drafted him.

With the lawsuits still hanging over his shoulders, the risk of a groundbreaking trade seemed too great for most teams.

But not for the Cleveland Browns. Even though they already had Baker Mayfield, the first pick of the 2018 draft.

No, the “Browns are gonna Browns” as the famous saying goes, and Mayfield was discarded and Watson was acquired for a staggering three first-round draft picks and much more.

Shortly after, the Browns gave him what was at the time, the biggest contract in NFL history.

Watson has also been heavily prone to injury, resulting in him missing plenty of games since he moved to “The Land.”

His most recent injury saw him miss the back-half of the 2023 season, resulting in Joe Flacco, who hadn’t played good football in a decade, leading Watson’s team to the play-offs.

Now, Watson statistically is one of the worst quarterbacks in football, and Mayfield is thriving as the main man in Tampa Bay, as tension grows in Cleveland.

What’s worse? Should the Browns decide to just cut their losses after this season, it will cost them $172 million US ($254 million AUD) against their salary cap for next year.

A dire situation, for inarguably one of the NFL’s most incompetent franchises.

Watson's deal hangs as a dark cloud over the Browns. Picture: Mike Ehrmann / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

RUSSELL WILSON (SEATTLE SEAHAWKS TO DENVER BRONCOS)

Russell Wilson two years ago was perceived as a winner, a culture-setter (unless you ask some former teammates) and one of the elite QBs in the NFL.

So much so that when he made it clear he wanted to leave Seattle, it wasn’t just the Broncos pining for his services.

In fact, he wasn’t even at the top of the Broncos’ wishlist himself, with rumours circling that Aaron Rodgers was disgruntled in Green Bay, the Broncos went out and hired Nathaniel Hackett a man we now know not good enough to run an NFL team who was Rodgers’ offensive co-ordinator in Green Bay to try and entice him to come over.

When that didn’t happen, the new owners in Denver made a splash to land the Super Bowl champion.

Two first-round picks, two second-round picks and a whole lot more headed to Seattle, and Wilson landed in Denver and immediately signed a gigantic deal like Watson.

What happened next wasn’t pretty to say the least.

Hackett was fired halfway through his first season, as Wilson’s play dramatically declined and “QB whisperer” and Super Bowl champion himself Sean Payton walked in to help save the Broncos from one of the worst deals ever.

Even Payton couldn’t and Wilson was sent to the bench before the end of the 2023 season, then was savagely cut.

It was so bad that the Broncos are now paying him $85 million USD ($125 million AUD) over the next two seasons to NOT play for them.

Now, Wilson attempts to salvage his legacy and career in Pittsburgh, while the Broncos quickly took Bo Nix with their first pick in the 2024 draft to restart the timeline.

Through two games, Nix has zero touchdowns and four interceptions.

QB desperation rearing its ugly head once more? We’ll see.

Wilson and Payton never clicked in Denver. Picture: Megan Briggs/Getty Images

BRYCE YOUNG (CAROLINA PANTHERS)

Young is a different case to the other two, given the fact he never moved from team to team. Instead the right to draft him was sold at the highest of prices.

Yes, the Chicago Bears sold the Panthers a dream, and what they actually bought was a nightmare.

Carolina owner David Tepper had put it on his franchise to win ASAP, hiring and firing coaches at will, signing mercenary quarterbacks such as Mayfield and Sam Darnold to revitalise them in the vision that his team could do what hadn’t been done.

Bryce Young was benched this week by the Panthers. Picture: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

They even brought back Cam Newton – nothing like being at a low point and calling an ex-flame after a disastrous break-up.

In 2023, it wasn’t the Panthers with the worst record in football, no it was the Bears, who subsequently traded that pick for a whole heap of draft capital and one of the best receivers in the NFL in DJ Moore.

Young was highly-touted and regarded after his time at college powerhouse Alabama, yet his height and frame concerned scouts, those concerns were cast aside however, and the Panthers chose Young over CJ Stroud.

Young’s first season resulted in Carolina having the number one pick for real this time, however due to the trade the previous year, they passed the rights for one of the best QB prospects ever in Caleb Williams, a beacon of hope in Chicago.

Young is now set to ride the pine, Williams we wait and see and Stroud is one of the best quarterbacks in the league.

That’s not to say it’s all on the Alabama product however, as franchise ineptitude rears its ugly head again.

Former NFL player and executive, now ESPN analyst Louis Riddick labelled it a “total fail” on the part of the Panthers.

It’s hard to disagree.

The Carolina Panthers have mishandled the entire QB situation from beginning to end. From the evaluation/valuation, to selection, to development, support , and utilization. A total fail over the past 24 months, when this “current” process began.

— Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) September 16, 2024

Young seems destined to be thrown onto the QB carousel, and the Panthers are once again behind the Eight ball, all in pursuit of a saviour.

We know why NFL teams make the splash move, it sells hopes to the fans

For some, it might just buy them that little bit more time in the job that they have based on that hope.

For most, the splash however is the career-killer, all thanks to the allure of one day, having “THAT” guy who can look across the field at the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson and say with conviction “I’ve got him covered.”

Originally published as NFL 2024: How quarterback desperation caused three of the worst trades in NFL history