Fall 2024

The Next Generation: NFL Star Quarterbacks 

From the Set Current Topics by ReferencePoint Press

Patrick Mahomes, Brock Purdy, and C.J. Stroud are among the NFL's top young quarterbacks who are already breaking records and changing the game. And while their on-field achievements are remarkable, their off-field stories are just as inspiring. Read about these superstars, and others, like Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow to understand how they reached the top of the football world.

Format List Price Your Price Qty
$45.26 $33.95
Interest Level Grade 6 - Grade 12
Reading Level Grade 6
Dewey Number 796.33
Lexile
ATOS Reading Level
Guided Reading Level
Language English
Publisher ReferencePoint Press
Format Reinforced book
ISBN 9781678208127
Copyright 2025
Number of Pages 64
Dimensions 6.5 x 9.25
Graphics Full-color photographs

Kirkus Review of The Next Generation: NFL Star Quarterbacks

Profiles of six young quarterbacks with dazzling skills and promising futures. Roland’s roster includes one biracial, two white, and three Black elite young arrivals—Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Brock Purdy, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, and C.J.Stroud—who played for teams all over the United States. Unfortunately, he spends so little effort differentiating his chosen players that their distinctive talents or styles of play, not to mention lengthy strings of feats, statistics, and rewards, all tend to blend together. Their backgrounds are dispensed with in a few lines: They were coached or loyally supported by parents, excelled in multiple sports in high school, went on to winning careers in college football while posting record-breaking statistics, and then were drafted into the NFL, where they quickly became starters and have set or challenged more records, all while leading their teams to big post-season games. Aside from Stroud, Houston’s “humble young leader,” the child of a minister who has been incarcerated for many years, their stories are told in ways that make them sound alike. Other than Mahomes and Jackson, whose NFL debuts came in 2018, none of them have played long enough to demonstrate consistent star quality. The young men’s off-field causes and activities are largely addressed in text boxes. Roland barely acknowledges significant losses and season-ending injuries and confines direct quotes to bland sound bites and platitudes. The photos are sparse and only occasionally depict game action.

Author: James Roland