DETROIT – For the second time in as many years, two Black quarterbacks are expected to be selected among the top three picks in the three-day NFL draft that begins here Thursday, and three could go in the first round.
In the last two NFL seasons, African American signal-callers were selected as the first- and second-team Associated Press All-Pro quarterbacks, and Black passers won both the AP league MVP and the Super Bowl MVP awards. The league’s best player is a Black quarterback. The league’s best newcomer is a Black quarterback. After being sidelined because of discrimination for most of NFL history, Black quarterbacks now dominate pro sports’ most successful league, and Caleb Williams of USC, Jayden Daniels of LSU and Michael Penix Jr. of the University of Washington are eager to join the accomplished group.
Williams, Daniels and Penix, stars in college, are coveted by teams seeking to improve at the most important position in sports. That’s a far cry from what most Black quarterbacks have faced in the draft, and no one can speak to that better than Warren Moon.
As a senior at Washington during the 1977-78 season, Moon led the team to a conference championship, he helped it win the Rose Bowl and he was selected as the conference’s co-player of the year. However, Moon went undrafted by the NFL, and he only received an opportunity to play quarterback in the league after he obliterated passing records and won multiple championships in the Canadian Football League.
The NFL was founded in 1920, “so when you stop and think about … how long the NFL has been around, what happened to me and a lot of other very capable guys wasn’t all that long ago,” Moon, the only Black quarterback enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, told Andscape in a phone interview recently.
“Really, for the longest time, that’s the way it was for all of us. And everyone now knows the reason: It was just racism and stereotypes. What we’ve been seeing recently, especially with so many guys being picked over the last 10 years, is now we’re coveted in the draft. And the reason for that is also obvious: our success.”
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In the previous 87 versions of the process (the NFL held its first draft in 1936), only 28 African American quarterbacks were selected in the first round, and none were until Doug Williams finally broke down the door in 1978. But 16 have been chosen since 2011, including one in every draft except 2016 and 2022. During the 1999 draft, in which as many as three Black passers were selected for the first time, Donovan McNabb and Akili Smith were the second and third overall picks, respectively. During the 2023 draft, the second to include as many as three African American quarterbacks chosen in the opening round, Bryce Young was selected first overall, C.J. Stroud was picked second and Anthony Richardson was the fourth overall pick.
On Thursday night, it would be a shocker if the Chicago Bears, who hold the draft’s first overall pick, did not select Caleb Williams, who was the 2022 Heisman Trophy winner while at USC. Daniels, who produced eye-opening statistics both as a passer and runner at LSU, won the 2023 Heisman Trophy. He’s widely regarded as a top-three pick. Last season, Penix, who throws a picturesque deep ball, led Washington to the College Football Playoff National Championship game, in which it lost to Michigan and finished 14-1. Despite his history of injuries, Penix, largely on the strength of his outstanding pro day (he displayed elite arm talent as well as impressive athleticism), is now widely viewed as a high-round pick, three NFL player-personnel officials told Andscape.
Williams, Daniels and Penix will enter the NFL during a season in which Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl winner and a three-time Super Bowl MVP, is the league’s best player. At Mahomes’ direction, the two-time defending Super Bowl-champion Chiefs became the first team since the New England Patriots in 2004 and 2005 to win back-to-back Super Bowl championships.
In September, Mahomes will turn 29.
For the second time in five seasons, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is the reigning AP league MVP. He’s 27. Stroud of the Houston Texans, a landslide winner in voting for last season’s AP Offensive Rookie of the Year award, is the league’s fastest-rising superstar. In October, he’ll turn 23.
Fact is, Black quarterbacks have become the face of the NFL.
With enormous pressure on football executives and coaches to win, green truly is the primary color that drives decision-making in today’s draft, according to team officials, coaches, and current and former players interviewed by Andscape. That established, based on their longtime standing at the bottom of the league, the rise of Black quarterbacks in the last 10 years is as surprising as it is noteworthy, though not to Doug Williams.
“We [Black quarterback pioneers] always knew this would happen. It was just a matter of opportunity,” Williams, the first Black quarterback to start in the Super Bowl and win the game’s MVP award, told Andscape recently. “You always had guys who had the ability to do what you’re seeing these young guys doing now, but they didn’t get the chance to do it.
“You look at the draft now, and no team can afford to pass on a guy who has the potential to do what you see so many of these guys doing. And it’s not just [starters]. When you look at so many of these teams now, you’re starting to see more guys getting opportunities as backups. That’s a big difference. For a long time, guys who could be stars would get chances. But you wouldn’t see us in those backup jobs. Now, you do. That’s a big sign of change.”
Just look at the AFC North.
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Jackson, Deshaun Watson of the Cleveland Browns and Russell Wilson of the Pittsburgh Steelers are the projected starters for their teams. The other two quarterbacks on the Ravens’ roster are also Black. In Cleveland, Jameis Winston is expected to play behind Watson. Justin Fields, a first-round pick of the Bears in the 2021 draft, is Wilson’s backup in Pittsburgh.
For years, quarterback guru Quincy Avery saw this coming.
The foundation for change began at the grassroots level, the renowned coach said.
“We’re finally seeing Black quarterbacks who have gotten the opportunity at every single age of development,” Avery told Andscape. “We’re now seeing guys who had the opportunity, no matter what part of the country they’re from, to play quarterback from the time they were [very young]. That’s something we didn’t see before.
“Then as they kept moving up [through high school and college], younger guys suddenly saw older guys who look like them getting opportunities all the way up the line. So then they just expected to get the same opportunities. It’s not surprising to them. Right now, we’re seeing the future. Very soon, we’ll see a league full of Black quarterbacks.”
As the saying goes, the die is cast. Once prevented from participating in the game, Black quarterbacks are now running it. And based on NFL draft trends, don’t be surprised if they continue to for a long, long time.
