5 times NFL teams regretted trading their starting QB
NFL teams tend to avoid trading away their starting quarterback for a multitude of reasons. However, we’ve seen it becoming an ever-increasing trend in the league of late with both Matthew Stafford and Russell Wilson traded in the last two offseason periods.
Yet, there is a reason why this isn’t an ideal move for a team that is losing a signal caller, and that is because if you get it wrong it will more than likely cost you. Teams have fallen foul of this over the years, although there have been a number of instances in the NFL where it has been more memorable than others.
Here are five occasions when NFL teams have regretted trading their starting quarterback.
#5 - San Francisco 49ers traded Y.A. Tittle
Y.A. Tittle had a reasonably successful career with the San Francisco 49ers, spending 10 seasons with the storied NFL franchise. It was at that point that they decided to trade him.
He never managed to deliver a title to the 49ers, yet he would prove to them that he wasn’t finished at the top level once he adapted to life with the New York Giants. After being traded from the 49ers to the Giants, Tittle had his four most prolific seasons in professional football.
He barely missed a game with the Giants and led the league in touchdowns in two of the four seasons he was there.
The 1963 season saw him with the MVP award for his performances, and the 49ers failed to make the playoffs in any of those four years since they traded Tittle.
#4 - San Francisco 49ers traded Alex Smith
The San Francisco 49ers made this list again due to their trigger-happy approach to dispensing with starting quarterbacks. This may explain their current reluctance to part with Jimmy Garoppolo.
Alex Smith was a surprise arrival in the Bay Area, having been selected with the first-overall selection of the 2005 NFL Draft. It was supposed to be Aaron Rodgers, the boyhood 49ers fan who adored Joe Montana, but it wasn’t to be.
Smith had a fair start with the Niners, but by 2013 the team had moved onto Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick had just taken the Niners to the Super Bowl, but ironically the two quarterbacks were now on totally opposite trajectories in the NFL.
Kaepernick started to struggle on the field, and his exceptional work in bringing attention to social justice in the USA saw him essentially lose his NFL career.
As the 49ers struggled without clarity at the quarterback position, Smith had turned into a machine with Andy Reid in Kansas City.
Say what you want, but Alex helped to resurrect this franchise in its darkest era. Brought us back to winning football, and then selflessly groomed his replacement that led us back to the Super Bowl. Alex Smith will forever be a legend in Kansas City.
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His career with the Chiefs ended after throwing for 17,608 yards and 102 touchdowns in his five years at Arrowhead Stadium.
Kaepernick would lose his job as a starter and only had one winning season after the Smith trade. Smith would not register anything other than winning records in all the NFL seasons he played for the Chiefs, proving to the Niners that they had made an almighty mistake.