The modern day NFL quarterback has become a scapegoat for fans to concentrate all of their frustration toward the lack of performance from the whole team into one man.

The criticism dealt to these players has become so consistent and predictable that it is laughable.

Most hecklers are belligerent fans who believe their team should win it all every single year while seemingly forgetting that there are other teams striving for the same goal.

Quarterbacks are just too easy of a target for people to ignore.

They run the offense and are most likely the face of the organization, so when something is going wrong people who don’t care to come to a logical solution will automatically ask for the signal callers head on a stake.

There are plenty of instances where it is the quarterbacks play that is negatively effecting the team, but fans of all teams need to take a step back and appreciate the true value of the quarterback.

Throughout this NFL season, more specifically the final six weeks and the wildcard round of the playoffs, has showed how valuable the position is.

The Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders all had drastic changes in the teams performance due to a change in their quarterback’s play.

The Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins both lost their franchise quarterback in the final six games of the season.

While oblivious fans stood there and proclaimed how their team was talented enough to continue without them, fans of the team who know the game simply wished for the best because there is nothing else to do.

Both the Raiders and the Dolphins lost in the wildcard round of the NFL playoffs to teams they had previously beat in the regular season, with their franchise quarterbacks of course.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr suffered a broken leg in week 16 of the regular season that immediately deflated any chance of the team winning their division let alone securing a playoff win.

An injury to Ryan Tannehill late in the Dolphins season didn’t appear to be as detrimental to the teams potential as Carr’s was to the Raiders, yet the team was still unable to recover from losing Tannehill.

When a team has endured a season ending loss like the Dolphins or Raiders, all fans can do is sit and ask “what if,” and kick themselves for ever disrespecting their beloved quarterback.

On the other side of the spectrum you have the Green Bay Packers, who during the first half of the season looked horrible.

But with six games left during the regular season, their fearless leader Aaron Rodgers stood up and said the team would win six in a row, and they did.

Rodgers was nearly perfect.

He went for 18 touchdowns and zero interceptions, leading his teams mediocre defense and a non-existent running attack to the playoffs.

Not only that, Rodgers went on to defeat the New York Giants during the wildcard round securing his team a playoff win.

Now Rodgers is a bit of an isolated incident because he is the most talented quarterback in the league, but the value of Rodgers cannot be measured after accomplishing such a feat.

Neither can the value of Carr or Tannehill, or Marcus Mariota the quarterback of the Tennessee Titans who was also lost to injury in the final weeks of the regular season, and possibly cost the team a playoff berth.

Now, are there quarterbacks who are just bad, of course. The Raiders went without a decent quarterback for nearly 14 years while the Cleveland Browns have failed to acquire one capable of winning any games this millennium.

But fans must realize that football is a team sports, and that includes members of the coaching staff, the front office, scouts and of course ownership.

Instead of fans blaming the man who passes the ball, they should be more readily criticizing the men who put him in that situation, who at times seem to only care about fattening their own wallets.

In the modern era of football, the quarterback has been and will continue to be the most important player on the field.

Fans of the sport must stop and appreciate their quarterback for who he is and support him for the sake of the team.

All we as fans can do is observe and support our respective team, and that includes the players all the way up to the owners.

We need to stop criticizing one man as if he is responsible for all of the teams successes and misfortunes, and instead begin to appreciate him.