Turf Show Times
Tom Brady is an outlier, not a role model, and we’re seeing that in Stafford, Rodgers, and Wilson
The modern game of football was supposed to be “easier than ever” for quarterbacks because of more rules that favor them, fewer hits, and easier passing concepts. Just a year ago, Troy Aikman said 40 would be “the new norm” for quarterbacks. Tom Brady won two Super Bowls in his 40s, Peyton Manning won one just before his 40th birthday, Drew Brees was still competing over 70% of his passes after 40, and Aaron Rodgers was destined to be the next, right?
Wrong.
Just a few years after Brady’s retirement, the premise that “quarterbacks are aging gracefully” and that “all of the good ones will be able to play until they are 40” is fading away faster than Russell Wilson’s career. Just have a look at 2025’s probable Week 1 starters:
By these marks, it may not be long before the oldest starters in the NFL are Stafford, who is 37, and Geno Smith, who turns 35 in October. Not so coincidentally, the Las Vegas Raiders tried to trade for the former and when that failed they ended up trading for the latter.
Now here we sit not even a week into training camp and the second-oldest starter in the league is being rested on a “week to week” basis per Sean McVay because of a sore back. Not exactly the ringing endorsement of mid-30s quarterbacks that Aikman was talking about last year when he was referring to the overtly-safe nature of the position.
35 is not 40. It’s as far from 40 as it is from 30. And there aren’t even that many quarterbacks who are 30!
So 2023 was the first year without Brady and the passing of the 40+ torch to Aaron Rodgers was an immediate failure. Look at how quickly all the over-30 quarterbacks started to drop like flies once Brady retired:
