Warren Moon: NFL needs development league to improve QB play

The NFL has no shortage of star talent at the most important position on the field, but there's also a rather steep drop-off in talent beyond the game's elite quarterbacks.

A certain Hall of Fame signal-caller has an idea or two about how the league can address the issues of a top-heavy group under center, each of which relating to the way in which players are developed.

"If this is going to be a quarterback-driven league, the quarterback has to be coached better," Warren Moon told Jarrett Bell of USA TODAY Sports. "There's a lot of bad quarterbacking out there."

Moon went on to explain that while there are a number of teams with strong quarterbacks, the majority would be facing the prospect of a lost season in the event of an injury at that all-important spot.

For the NFL to have its teams better positioned to withstand any such losses, Moon says a developmental league is the way to go.

"The NFL needs a farm system, like it used to have with NFL Europe," Moon said. "It gives them those reps. Think about guys like Kurt Warner, Jon Kitna, and Brad Johnson, who all played overseas and benefited from the experience."

The league has gone without any sort of farm system since NFL Europe ceased to exist back in 2007. At a time where collective bargaining agreements have scaled back the amount of offseason and practice work teams can hold, thus limiting reps for players at all levels of a given roster, a separate system focused solely on developing talent could certainly improve the on-field product both at the quarterback position and elsewhere.