By Franklin Zessis
There has been a massive shift in the NFL in recent years. The game has moved from a stationary quarterback with a big arm who could easily navigate the pocket to a quarterback with more athleticism.
On Thursday night, The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism hosted a panel to discuss the recent emergence of the Black quarterback. Joining the panel were John Eisenberg, Michael Locksley, Jason Reid, David Steele and Doug Williams. The senior writer for ESPN’s Andscape, Jerry Bembry, moderated the panel as they discussed the recent emergence of Black quarterbacks in the NFL.
At the start of this NFL season, 14 of the 32 quarterbacks that started for their teams were Black.
One player who helped spearhead the change was Williams, who became one of the first Black quarterbacks to be drafted in the first round by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1978. Williams played five seasons for the Buccaneers but could not agree on a new contract with Tampa Bay ownership, resulting in Williams sitting out the 1983 season and going to the United States Football League in 1984. Williams returned to the NFL in 1986 to play for the Washington Redskins and later became the first Black quarterback to play in the Super Bowl and win Superbowl MVP in 1988. Williams’ nine NFL seasons were crucial to the growth of the Black quarterback.
“Doug’s success has led to others,” said Locksley. Locksley compared Doug’s success to breaking the four-minute mile because more people were willing to do it once it happened.
Williams helped pave the way for future Black quarterbacks like Warren Moon. Moon was in the same draft class as Williams but went undrafted and played in the Canadian Football League. However, he became the only Black starting quarterback by 1984.
Despite Williams’ head waves, the next Black quarterback to win a Super Bowl was roughly 25 years later when Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl XLVIII. However, there has undoubtedly been a change in the NFL, as at the start of this season, 14 Black quarterbacks started for their teams.
According to Eisenberg, journalist and author of “Rocket Men: The Black Quarterbacks Who Revolutionized Pro Football,” the change occurred in 2011 when Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick were drafted.
“Kaepernick was the best second-year [NFL] quarterback I had ever seen,” said Eisenberg.
Eisenberg credited Newton and Kaepernick as starting the change because instead of forcing them to change their style of play, their coaches allowed them to play freely and use their elite athletic abilities to their advantage, as they showed when they were in college.
Steele, a sports journalist and UMD alumnus, said that Lamar Jackson helped further break the pocket passer stereotype by refusing to switch to a different position. The traditional quarterback in the NFL had been someone who stayed behind their offensive line and found holes in the defense to get his receivers the ball. Quarterbacks like Jackson have helped break this stereotype by using his elite athleticism to find running lanes when no holes open in the defense, forcing defenses to account for Jackson’s threat as a passer and speed as a runner.
According to Steele, “[Lamar] refused to run the [40-yard dash] because he didn’t want to put it in other teams’ heads to have him play a different position.”
In the past, teams would label mobile quarterbacks as “too athletic” because they did not fit the mold of the stereotypical dropback quarterback with which teams had been successful for decades. Additionally, mobile quarterbacks scared NFL teams because an injury to their lower body was often career-ending, as even if they could recover from the injury, they usually weren’t the same.
However, Jackson broke this fear and criticism by being drafted by the Ravens with the 32nd overall pick. He won MVP in 2019 and broke Michael Vick’s all-time single-season rushing record for a quarterback.
“There’s no question that a corner has been turned … but there is still progress to be made,” said Eisenberg. “I see more white backup quarterbacks than Black backup quarterbacks.”
Eisenberg explained that the next step is to have more Black backup quarterbacks because backup quarterbacks often serve as leaders on and off the field and sometimes become coaches later on.
However, this may also change in the next few years because Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback Patrick Mahomes recently said he plans to own an NFL team one day.
Williams predicts that in three or four years, half of the quarterbacks in the league or more will be Black quarterbacks.
Featured Image: Moderator Jerry Bembry and panelists John Eisenberg, Michael Locksley, Jason Reid, David Steele and Doug Williams discuss the rise of Black quarterbacks in the NFL on Oct. 19, 2023. Photo by Franklin Zessis.