Since Kirk left in 2017, the following players were drafted, signed or traded for with the intent of them being the starter:
- Alex Smith was probably, when he arrived, the most athletically gifted QB we had since Griffin in 2012. And he knew how to win. But he was inherently boring, conservative in play style, and was even questionably as good as the QB he replaced. The overall hype for Smith was somewhere between "meh" and "mildly interesting." Also, he was clearly a Bruce signing, and that tainted things a bit for him from a hype perspective.
- Ryan Fitzpatrick was brought in to be a stop gap because Ron knew he needed a starter, couldn't draft one, and got a guy who can start games to hold the fort down. I think there was some legitimate intrigue about Fitzpatrick, not that anybody thought he was going to be great, but he had a big personality, and he has, at times, played ok. He lasted 16 snaps. Hype meter was "Let's see what this Fitzmagic thing is all about."
- Dwayne Haskins entered with almost no fanfare because immediately Jay made absolutely sure everybody knew he didn't want to take Haskins, he wasn't ready to play, and he wanted nothing to do with him. Jay tied Haskins directly to the owner, who everybody hated. The national media also helped out. Even before he took a snap, the perception of Haskins was not great. Even if Jay was right (he might have been), the fact he took to the streets to make damn sure everybody knew his opinion and Haskins was over-drafted, Haskins entered with hype of somewhere between "mildly interesting" and "did Dan luck into something by accident?" (He didn't.)
- Carson Wentz was the next "savior" brought in by Don Ron. And he entered to "what in the name of God are you thinking?" hype. And that turned out to be correct.
- Sam Howell was not drafted to be the savior by Don Ron. He was drafted as a project, and using a 5th round pick on him was a great move. But then when Wentz flamed out, and Don Ron KNEW he couldn't trot Heinicke out there again because Heinicke was the single worst starting QB in the league for 2 years, doesn't have the physical skills to be a starting QB, and probably should go back to being a backup XFL QB, which might happen now that the falcons have replaced him twice in the same off-season. (Yes, I have bee with Heinicke also. Jay and Heinicke.) But anyway, back to Sam. He was a 5th round pick project and the hype for him starting was somewhere around a raised eyebrow.
That's the last 5 players brought in to start, or in Howell's case, handed the starting job kidnof out of necessity.
Contrast that to what Daniels is doing in just his first week of training camp practices. Daniels has legitimate NFL talent. He doesn't seem to have the off the field issues Griffin did. He studies hard, he works hard, and he has all the talent in the world. ** NOTE: I was actually more of a Maye guy than a Daniels guy. But I liked both, and was perfectly fine with the pick.
The hype for Daniels is off the charts, and he's earned it. So far. There is a long way to go.
But contrasting to the other fools we've been told to get hyped about since 2017, this is just SO different. And refreshing. Now we just need to avoid really bad luck, and we might be ok...