I heard something on the NFL station on Sirius XM Radio the other day that absolutely stunned me.

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One of the talking heads said that while quarterback is the most important position in football, edge rusher is No. 2 and there’s not a lot of space between the two spots.

Wow!

The people on that station are supposed to know football, which they do, but that statement is just plain wrong on several different fronts.

First of all, quarterback is the most important not just in football, but also in all of team sports. And it isn’t even close. If a team has a good quarterback, then it has a chance. But if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. It’s no more complicated than that. It really isn’t.

I would argue, too, — and it would be right — that the second-most important position in team sports is bsckup quarterback. Football is a rough game, and players get hurt. And when it’s the starting quarterback going down, which happens to just about every team
in just about every season, a club has to have a capable quarterback to put in there it or else it is out of luck.

Edge rusher is right up there, to be sure, because you have to put heat on the quarterback, lest he just stand back there and pick a defense apart. But left tackle is actually ahead of it at No. 3 in importance because he protects the quarterback’s blind side while working against the defense’s best pass rusher.

Edge rusher is only No. 4 on the list.

I say all this because it directly pertains — in a very important, franchise-defining way — to where the Browns are right now as they try to decide which way to go with their No. 2 overall pick in the NFL Draft in just over two weeks.

Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter says he’s the best player in the draft, and he may well be. He would look great playing on the opposite side of Myles Garrett. The offense has only so many blockers. How many can it afford to put on those two difference-makers? Just two? Hardly. Or three? Even four, doubling both rushers? Whatever the number, it freed up other defenders to make plays and wreak havoc.

But the Browns, of course, have that gaping hole at the all-important position of quarterback — still, and seemingly always. Is Carter so good, and so much better at his position than Colorado’s Shadeur Sanders, who will be the best quarterback available after the Tennessee Titans take Miami’s Cam Ward at No. 1, is at his position, than it makes more sense to take Carter?

Remember, no relatively big rebuild, like the one the Browns are facing now, begins in earnest until the quarterback is secured. And Sanders greatly impressed at his school’s pro day recently, both with his ability as a passer and as a leader with a lot of confidence, moxie and charisma, all of which are greatly needed from any quarterback, especially one on the Browns, who have not had consistently good play at that position in any season since 2020.

And what about the unicorn, and Sanders’ college teammate, Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who is outstanding at two spots, wide receiver, where the Browns desperately need more impact players, and cornerback, the second-most important position on any defense? Indeed, you can never have enough cover corners. With that, then, Hunter would, at least in theory at a base level, be worth “twice” as much as any other player in the draft. When’s the last time, if ever in the modern era, that the NFL has seen a player like this? Never. And when’s the next time that a player such as this will come along? Who knows? There has not been a two-way starter in the NFL in 65 years, since Pro Football Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik played center and middle linebacker for the 1960 NFL champion Philadelphia Eagles. Where does Hunter figure into all of this? And can the Browns, with so many holes, afford to pass on such a special talent?

It’s all a lot to figure out in a relatively short period of time, as the clock is quickly ticking down toward the first night of the draft on April 24.

Steve King