With the combine in the rear-view mirror, the topic on most sports talk shows continues to be the quarterback debate surrounding the top 4 or 5 signal-callers who are expected to go in the first half of the first round.
However, on Thursday morning’s edition of First Things First on FS1, host Nick Wright drew attention not just to the quarterbacks in general. But black quarterbacks in particular, and why the intelligence of black QB’s is challenged, while the intelligence of white QB’s is not.
"I'm so sick and tired of this obvious double standard when it comes to QBs intelligence. I can think of ONE white QB where, in his draft evaluation, there was a question of 'How smart is he?' But I can think of half a dozen black QBs in the last 5 years."
— @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/ZWm5mo1VRP
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) March 7, 2019
Outkick the Coverage’s Clay Travis took exception to Wright’s assertion of a “double standard.” By pointing out that several white QB’s have had their intelligence challenged by the media and/or scouts.
Woke Wednesday (on Thursday)! I told y’all this was coming. Jake Locker, Tim Tebow, & Baker Mayfield all had their intelligence questioned, just to name three recent first rounders. Also love that no media focused on McSorley & Fitzgerald being asked to work as DB & TE this year. pic.twitter.com/Hfkvr659EP
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 7, 2019
Last year Lamar Jackson was asked to switch positions and it was racism. This year two white quarterbacks are asked to switch and no one blinks. Also, if you post a 6 on the Wonderlic like Vince Young did are you not supposed to mention it because he’s black? Dumb argument.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 7, 2019
The truth of the matter is this, every single thing gets questioned about every single quarterback during the draft. Arguing those questions are based on race is just lazy race baiting by lazy woke media members with nothing else interesting to say.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 7, 2019
It’s also important to note, that the two quarterbacks projected to go highest in this year’s draft (Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins) are both black. If NFL evaluators were overly concerned with the IQ of black quarterbacks, then why would black quarterbacks be ahead of all the white quarterbacks in most draft projections? Such a situation suggests — as Travis suggests in his Vince Young example — that the league has IQ concerns over a few quarterbacks who happen to be blacks. As opposed to having concerns about all black quarterbacks.
There are also eight teams that currently have either black, or minority starting quarterbacks. A considerable achievement when judged against historical numbers, and a number that will only increase with the additions of Murray and Haskins. Nor are most of these quarterbacks late round picks who just happened to “luck” their way into a starting job.
On the contrary, nearly all were very high picks.
Cam Newton was the #1 overall pick in the draft, Pat Mahomes was the 1oth overall selection, Deshaun Watson was 12th overall, Lamar Jackson was 32nd, Jameis Winston was #1 overall, and Marcus Mariota was 2nd. Only Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott were drafted after the first round and, at least in the case of Wilson, one could attribute the primary reason for that to size, not race. In the case of Prescott, the Cowboys were looking for a backup quarterback, not a starter.
In fact, when looking at the overall number of minority quarterbacks that come out in the draft, one might be able to make the case that they’re drafted disproportionately higher than white quarterbacks.
Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn
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