You’ve heard it before: teams are built through the trenches, the offensive and defensive lines. But through two weeks of the 2015 season it’s clear defenses have been winning that battle convincingly and with dire consequences.
Tony Romo. Drew Brees. Jay Cutler. Derek Carr. Josh McCown. That’s the list of starting quarterbacks across the league who have already missed time due to injuries this season.
It’s an alarming rate for a few of the NFL’s golden boys. But it’s a start of a new era. Defenses have adapted, caught up and finally surpassed offenses for the most part.
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First, it was the dual-threat quarterback. Then the explosion of the read-option. More recently, teams have focused on implementing zone-blocking schemes.
What have defenses done to finally combat them? They’ve simply gotten better.
There are three defensive linemen — Ndamukong Suh, J.J. Watt and Marcell Dareus — who have signed $100 million contracts. Zero offensive linemen. It’s a talent gap. Whether it starts in college or even further down in high school, offensive linemen as a whole aren’t consistently able to contain their defensive counterparts.
If five quarterbacks have already been victims through two games, who is next?
The Broncos’ next opponent, Detroit, has a quarterback with battered ribs. And although his status for Sunday has yet to be determined, I’ll bet he won’t have fun going against Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware.
There are always exceptions to rules, but for the most part you can’t win in this league without a capable quarterback. And you can’t have a capable quarterback if you can’t keep him upright.
Teams everywhere — fantasy and NFL — are sinking based on the health of their quarterback.
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Charlotte Hornets guard .
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Actor Jason Alexander turns 56 today. He’s best known for his portrayal of George Constanza on “Seinfeld,” and inspired a generation to .
Cameron Wolfe: cwolfe@denverpost.com or
Online producer Joe Nguyen contributed to this story.
