I forgot about Quinn Ewers. It is hard not to. I mean the dude was on the cover of NCAA and all, but all signs point to him being there because Manning wouldn’t take the deal. Look, he was a placeholder. It wasn’t his fault. The hype train is just built like that. Is he a good player? Bad player? I have no idea. Like I said, I forgot about him. Then NFL.com decided to make me remember.
All of this comes down to narrative. There is a story about everyone in this draft “worth knowing” and the ones who aren’t getting talked about are following the narrative of the unknown who surprises everyone to become a breakout star… or they are the nobody who is filling space on a roster. We will see a little bit of all of it–more on Hard Knocks show once they figure out who’ll let them shoot their team. Football at this part of the year is all about storylines. Unfortunately most of those stories are bluster and not based in anyones actual talent. Take Shedur Sanders for example. He’s Prime’s son. That is the story. Had he not been. Had his name been Ewers or Everson or anything else the narrative would be the same one it was last season when you had two childhood friends coming up as competing QBs. We have that here with Ward and Sanders. Heck, they train together. It is all over youtube. But that isn’t the chosen story.
I hate this part of the year, because it has little to do with football and everything to do with optics and politics. It’s the game outside the game as everyone tries to disguise who they are going to pick while also trying to decide who they are going to pick. Makes for interesting TV after the fact. However, right now it is all bluster. I try my best to ignore it.