League history is littered with successes and failures of rookie quarterbacks who’ve been anointed as starters right away.
Whether that translates to instant gratification remains one of the mysteries to be solved this season. It’s important for those teams and their fans to understand that struggles are certain to come and to remember these past cases: Peyton Manning’s rookie year was a wild one, consisting of 26 TDs but also 28 INTs, and those 1998 Colts went 3-13. In his next 16 seasons, Manning endured just one more losing record and ended up in the Hall of Fame, regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of all time.
John Elway completed just 47.5 percent of his passes in 1983, his rookie year in Denver, throwing for seven TDs with 14 INTs and a 54.9 passer rating, but he ended up winning two Super Bowls and being voted into the Hall of Fame.