OF QUARTERBACKS, GOOD ONES AND HEALTHY ONES

By STEVE KING

This is a little story about quarterbacks.

Got your attention, didn’t I?

Of course. Hey, everybody likes to talk about quarterbacks. Quarterback is not just the most popular position in team sports, but it’s also the most important one. If a team has a good quarterback, then it also has a chance to be good. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t.

The Browns have a good quarterback in Baker Mayfield. The Pittsburgh Steelers, the team they visit on Sunday at Heinz Field, don’t – at least not one in uniform.

So, the edge goes heavily in favor of the Browns in this rematch. That they also had a dominating 21-7 win over Pittsburgh in the first meeting two weeks ago, makes the Browns’ edge just that much bigger.

When’s the last time you could say that heading into a Browns-Steelers game, especially one at Pittsburgh?

Probably back in the mid- to late 1980s when the Browns had Bernie Kosar at quarterback while the Steelers had the likes of Mark Malone and Bubby Brister.

Again, I’m not going to feel sorry – not one bit – for the Steelers that their normal starter, Ben Roethlisberger, has missed most of the season with an injury. How many times have the Browns gone to Pittsburgh at the end of the season with all kinds of injury problems at quarterback? A lot. So there.

Here’s something else in the form of a history lesson: Pittsburgh has had trouble getting consistent quarterback play over the yards. That is, there were a big gap of poor quarterback play after Terry Bradshaw retired in 1983 until Roethlisberger came along 21 years later. So we’ll see if, once Roethlisberger retires, whether the Steelers can find a good one to replace him. It may take two-plus decades again, which the Browns and the rest of the AFC North wouldn’t mind at all.