Christian Watson would step up to be the Packers’ number one wide receiver. After all, he is tall, he is fast, and he has all of the talent in the world to be a wide receiver one anywhere.
The Packers didn’t import some rando to mentor a rookie. They started all-time greats (Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers) who had no interest in relinquishing their jobs, let alone mentoring their replacements. Green Bay didn’t move on from either guy until both were practically 40. There is no “Packers model” – they started two Hall of Famers in 30 effing years!
The Patriots lack that luxury. Whomever they draft is going to succeed Mac Jones, and I suspect McCorkle will only worsen in our eyes as the years pass. The Patriots aren’t the Packers. They’re just one of the desperate masses hoping to luck into a quarterback while praying they don’t get Zach Wilson, JaMarcus Russell, or Mitch Trubisky instead.
The other irrelevant example everyone cites is Patrick Mahomes, who backed up Alex Smith in Kansas City after being drafted 10th overall in 2017. Did the Chiefs or Mahomes really gain anything by sitting?
Kansas City won 12 games and then lost in the wild card round to the Titans. Who’s to say Mahomes wouldn’t have given them a better chance that afternoon? As it is, he not only won the starting job a year later, he was named NFL MVP. I wouldn’t be so quick to file his gap year under the heading of “necessary.”
If the rookie is the real deal, he should take the stopgap’s job immediately. The list of young QBs to start Game 1 in recent years includes C.J. Stroud, Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray, Jameis Winston, Andrew Luck, Cam Newton, and Matthew Stafford, who all went on to become Pro Bowlers, for whatever that’s worth.
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