It may not be good now, but there is hope that it will be successful in the future.
That's something the three rookie quarterbacks drafted in the first round — Chicago's Caleb Williams, Washington's Jayden Daniels and Denver's Bo Nix — need to understand as they struggle as expected.
And Bryce Young, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 draft, was benched by the Panthers this week after just 18 starts and a 2-16 record in the NFL.
The league is full of quarterback roadkill who have been selected in the first round and quickly thrust into the starting lineup before they were ready, and Young is the latest casualty, perhaps passed over when he should never have been a starter in the first place.
When will NFL teams learn?
Granted, it's still early in the league, as it's only the third week of the season, but between them, Williams, Daniels and Nicks have thrown 196 passes with no touchdowns and just six interceptions.
Through two games, Young completed 55.4 percent of his passes for just 245 yards with zero touchdowns and three interceptions.
It's hard to predict what will happen to these once highly sought-after prospects: Some never recover from being thrown into the fire, while others eventually find their way and tap into at least some of their potential.
The three Jets quarterbacks are a good example of this.
After being drafted third overall in 2018 and quickly becoming a starter on a dysfunctional franchise, Sam Darnold is on his third team and finally seems to have found his home in Minnesota. After two games, he's led the Vikings to two wins and is on pace to win Comeback Player of the Year.
Geno Smith, another former Jets player, began charting his professional comeback a few years ago as Russell Wilson's replacement in Seattle. Once a grumpy underdog in the Jets' locker room, Smith has gone 2-0 this season since taking over as a starter for Seattle.
Zach Wilson, who was selected No. 2 overall by the Jets in 2021 and immediately thrust into the starter role, was a complete failure and is now clinging to a career as a third-string player in Denver.
It'll take a lot of determination for these young quarterbacks to hang in there, and they'll also need the right combination to ultimately succeed — Darnold and Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell seem like a good fit, and having star receiver Justin Jefferson to throw passes to doesn't hurt, either.
“It's great to have a coach and a staff that believes in you,” Darnold said recently about O'Connell.
“We feel like our offense can really set Sam up for great success with the guys we have around him,” O'Connell told reporters this week.
Darnold's former coach in San Francisco, Kyle Shanahan, agreed that the Vikings would be a good fit for him.
“I thought it was a really good position for him and I'm happy for him,” Shanahan told reporters. “The fact that he got this opportunity is because Sam fully deserves it. Sam is a starting quarterback in this league and he should take advantage of this opportunity.”
So far, he has done just that.
Hopefully, for the sake of the upcoming rookies and Young, they won't have to move to a fourth team to find their groove.
“It's hard being a quarterback, especially with young guys, when you don't have the guys around you and you're not giving them the opportunity to be successful,” former No. 1 overall pick and Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield told reporters this week. “A lot of times, guys may have the talent, they may have the smarts, but they don't have the right opportunity or the aptitude.”
“I'm sitting here in a better place now than where I've been. No disparaging of other teams. If the people around me, the coaches and Bryce (a guy I can relate to) can find that belief within himself again, he'll be successful.”
“His story isn't over yet.”
