THE NEXT GENERATION

Profiles of six young quarterbacks with dazzling skills and promising futures.

Roland’s roster includes one biracial, two white, and three Black elite young arrivals—Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and C.J. Stroud—who played for teams all over the United States. Unfortunately, he expends so little effort differentiating his chosen players that their distinctive talents or styles of play, not to mention lengthy strings of feats, statistics, and awards, all tend to blend together. Their backgrounds are dispensed with in a few lines: They were coached or loyally supported by parents, excelled in multiple sports in high school, went on to winning careers in college football while posting record-breaking statistics, and then were drafted into the NFL, where they quickly became starters and have set or challenged more records, all while leading their teams to big post-season games. Aside from Stroud, Houston’s “humble young leader,” the child of a minister who has been incarcerated for many years, their stories are told in ways that make them sound alike. Other than Mahomes and Jackson, whose NFL debuts came in 2018, none of them have played long enough to demonstrate consistent star quality. The young men’s off-field causes and activities are largely addressed in text boxes. Roland barely acknowledges significant losses and season-ending injuries and confines direct quotes to bland sound bites and platitudes. The photos are sparse and only occasionally depict game action.

May be of interest to football fans now but is superficial and certain to date quickly.