Clay Travis Blasts FS1’s Nick Wright for Claiming ‘Double Standard’ in Evaluation of Black QB’s

With the combine in the rear-view mirror, the topic on most sports talk shows continues to be the quarterback debate surrounding the top 4 or 5 signal-callers who are expected to go in the first half of the first round.

However, on Thursday morning’s edition of First Things First on FS1, host Nick Wright drew attention not just to the quarterbacks in general. But black quarterbacks in particular, and why the intelligence of black QB’s is challenged, while the intelligence of white QB’s is not.

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Outkick the Coverage’s Clay Travis took exception to Wright’s assertion of a “double standard.” By pointing out that several white QB’s have had their intelligence challenged by the media and/or scouts.

It’s also important to note, that the two quarterbacks projected to go highest in this year’s draft (Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins) are both black. If NFL evaluators were overly concerned with the IQ of black quarterbacks, then why would black quarterbacks be ahead of all the white quarterbacks in most draft projections? Such a situation suggests — as Travis suggests in his Vince Young example — that the league has IQ concerns over a few quarterbacks who happen to be blacks. As opposed to having concerns about all black quarterbacks.

There are also eight teams that currently have either black, or minority starting quarterbacks. A considerable achievement when judged against historical numbers, and a number that will only increase with the additions of Murray and Haskins. Nor are most of these quarterbacks late round picks who just happened to “luck” their way into a starting job.

On the contrary, nearly all were very high picks.

Cam Newton was the #1 overall pick in the draft, Pat Mahomes was the 1oth overall selection, Deshaun Watson was 12th overall, Lamar Jackson was 32nd, Jameis Winston was #1 overall,  and Marcus Mariota was 2nd. Only Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott were drafted after the first round and, at least in the case of Wilson, one could attribute the primary reason for that to size, not race. In the case of Prescott, the Cowboys were looking for a backup quarterback, not a starter.

In fact, when looking at the overall number of minority quarterbacks that come out in the draft, one might be able to make the case that they’re drafted disproportionately higher than white quarterbacks.

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn