The NFL season is now nearing the halfway mark and one interesting aspect about the league in 2013 is the fact that a ton of quarterbacks, including backups and starters, have all come from the state of Texas and some of the top names includes Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford and Andy Dalton.
That just scrapes the surface though, as ESPN.com points out, Christian Ponder, Ryan Tannehill, Colt McCoy, Greg McElroy, Matt Flynn, Ryan Mallett, Kevin Kolb, John Skelton, Nick Foles and Graham Harrell among more are ALL from Texas. Cam Newton played football in Texas, but we can leave him out for now and on top of that, according to ESPN.com, 25 percent of starters and backups in the league are from the Lone Star State.
So how did this happen? It has plenty of reasons, including the fact that Texas has some of the best football players in the world and on top of that, the large size means that there are plenty of high schools and colleges and plenty of players to pick from. This season some of those players have been off the charts, including Andre Luck, Andy Dalton, Robert Griffin and Drew Brees, while Matthew Stafford has been excellent as well.
Tannehill and Dalton will face off on Thursday night, while Brees has been fantastic this season, putting up 2,290 yards passing and 19 touchdowns, including five in his last game against the Buffalo Bills. Over his past three games, Brees has one pick and nine touchdowns and he has only tossed two picks over his past five games. Brees is one of the best from Texas, while Stafford had himself a day against the Dallas Cowboys, scoring the winning touchdown against a Texas team naturally and the Lions won in amazing fashion behind his QB sneak and 488 yards passing.
Robert Griffin and Luck have been great, while Dalton is coming into his own this season after tossing five touchdowns against the Jets last week. He passed for 325 yards and now he has 11 touchdowns and just two picks in his last three games.
What's in the water down there?