Ever since 2001 the American Football Conference (AFC) has been dominated by two quarterbacks. These two cornerstones were not just the best of their generation but two of the best to ever play, their names being Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.
In reality there were three quarterbacks that stood above the rest in the AFC, the third being Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, but Roethlisberger always seemed to take a back seat to the other two. It is odd though because although Roethlisberger wasn’t as great as these two during the regular season, come playoff time Roethlisberger rose to the occasion and led his team to three super bowl appearances.
Excluding this most recent season that saw Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs make the Super Bowl, one of these three players has represented the AFC in the Super Bowl in 16 of the last 18 appearances from the 2001 season until the 2018 season. Out of these 16 appearances Tom Brady leads all three players with 9 appearances then Manning has 4 and Roethlisberger has 3, the other two appearances from the AFC came from Rich Gannon of the Oakland Raiders and Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens.
Although these three players controlled the AFC for years it was evident that Roethlisberger was the third wheel between Brady and Manning. Manning and Brady had some of the best matchups whenever they would meet and play each other and the question almost every single season was whether the Brady led team, or the Manning led team would go to the Super Bowl.
There is no denying these players greatness but like all things great, it must come to an end. After Manning retired following the 2015 season it felt like Brady had a “free ride” and made three of his nine appearances from 2016-2018, now with Brady’s future up in question we will have to see if Brady will ever make another Super Bowl or if this era of the NFL is officially over.
We will have to wait and see if the Brady era is officially over, but it seems like we may have the next trio that could rule the AFC for years to come. Although it looks like there could be more than three quarterbacks who could potentially rule the conference the new generation resembles the last with two quarterbacks being the top dogs and the third being up for debate.
One of these quarterbacks seems obvious and it is the quarterback who most recently made the Super Bowl for the AFC, Patrick Mahomes. In three seasons (two as a starter) Mahomes looks as though he could be the greatest quarterback who ever played the game, both talent wise and the most decorative. Mahomes already has one of the best seasons of all-time under his belt to go along with an MVP (same season) and a Super Bowl ring, Mahomes is currently on track to be the next best thing. For a comparison purpose only Mahomes is closer to Brady than Manning because of his success in both the regular season and the postseason.
However, if Mahomes wants to control the AFC every season it looks like he will have to go through his “Manning” in Lamar Jackson. Jackson is arguably one of the best athletes the game has ever seen and is within the top two athletes to ever play the quarterback position. Jackson just came off one of the best quarterback seasons in NFL history in his second season (1½ as a starter) where he utilized his legs and his arm to the fullest extent. The biggest critique of Jackson coming into the league was that his arm wasn’t there, and he should look to make it at another position.
Jackson has proven all of this wrong so far in his young career due to his incredible work ethic and ability to never be contempt. Jackson knew the critiques of him coming into the league and after his first season, in the offseason Jackson worked on his game and took it to another level. If history has proven anything it will say that Jackson will take the same approach this offseason because he knows there is still room for improvement.
Due to his increasing work on the passing game Jackson will be a true dual threat and not just a running quarterback like it was once thought. Running quarterbacks don’t last in the league people always say, Jackson is looking to dispel this myth and the way to do that is by becoming a top-level passer as well as a threat on the ground.
Although many may disagree that Jackson will be the “Manning” to Mahomes it appears that all the evidence is pointing to just that, Jackson is great in the regular season and has shown to underperform thus far in the playoffs like Manning. It is still early in his career and he will only get better but so will Mahomes, we are in store for battles between these two for a long time.
The third player or the “Roethlisberger” in this case could go to multiple people but as of right now it is between Baker Mayfield and Deshaun Watson. If I had to choose someone right now, I would go with Watson because he is the more proven player up to this point in his career. Watson has been consistently good since he entered the league but has failed to make a deep playoff run because of team issues. Watson finally has a team and could make a severe impact over the next couple of seasons to become that third guy.
The other option we have is Baker Mayfield, after a fantastic rookie season we saw a severe dip in production in Mayfield’s second season. Mayfield has a great supporting cast but still underperformed. Although he underperformed the head coach caught most of the heat for his play oppose to Mayfield himself, this is not a good look if you want to be one of the best in the league.
Mayfield looks like he knows that and has said that he needs to be better which put the blame on himself, with a great supporting cast Mayfield should be able to bounce back and turn the Browns into the team that we thought they were going to be. If Mayfield can’t turn it around next season, then the choice for the third wheel will be much clearer but as of right now there is still a strong battle.
The AFC has a large number of great young quarterbacks that could all run the league in the upcoming seasons. As of right now all of these players will be attempting to chase the Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes, but with the talent of all of these players there will be battles for years to come and one of the best periods in NFL history in the AFC.