A lot has happened since our first rookie quarterback roundup during the preseason. Ryan Tannehill is now the starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. Robert Griffin III was confirmed to be human. Let's see what the tape taught us this week, starting at the top.
Football fans were stuck with Curtis Painter seemingly every other Monday night last year. That's why we're so disappointed the Indianapolis Colts have only one game all season not scheduled to start at 1 p.m. ET. (We have them on NFL Network's "Thursday Night Football" in Week 10.) After watching Luck play two preseason games, we want to watch him every week.
The Steelers fooled Luck on an early interception returned for a touchdown. Luck responded with 17 points in the next three drives, including a number of stick throws into tight windows. He rushed for a touchdown. He recognized where the pressure was coming from. He threw receivers open. Andrew Luck does not look like a rookie.
RG3 didn't look awful in his second preseason start. But he made a lot of typical rookie mistakes. He left the pocket early, sometimes before pressure was there. He had a few poor throws that killed drives. He lost a fumble when he was somewhat careless with the ball.
Griffin's protection didn't hold up. Chalk this performance up to a learning experience.
Like Luck and Griffin, Tannehill's second start wasn't as easy as his first. It came against Carolina's starters. There were a lot of deflections at the line of scrimmage and Tannehill sometimes didn't identify the linebackers in coverage. When his first read wasn't there, he sometimes didn't know what to do. He can work on his touch on short passes.
Tannehill also did a lot right. He's avoided making big mistakes. He led a 71-yard touchdown drive with a lot of quick passing. He stands tall in the pocket. We're worried, though, that the weapons around him just aren't good enough.
Like Tannehill, Weeden doesn't have a lot of weapons. Weeden took a step forward overall in his second preseason game, although you can tell the game still is too fast for him when pressure arrives or his first read is covered.
Wilson is an absolute joy to watch. He's done everything possible to put pressure on Matt Flynn in the battle for the starting Seahawks job, but Wilson only has faced backups to this point. This touchdown pass from Wilson was one of the few plays he wasn't on the run, whether by design or not.
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