In the past year, a new era came into the NFL. This era has included a tidal wave of new fans and was best highlighted by the most watched Super Bowl of all time.
This era, of course, came because of the budding relationship between Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. This relationship came as an almost direct result of the Eras Tour. The Eras Tour, for those who live under a rock or a faraway Antarctic research center, was Taylor Swift’s extensive, groundbreaking global tour that had long lasting effects across industries.
In honor of the Eras Tour completing on December 8th, this piece will be devoted to comparing Taylor’s eras to NFL quarterbacks. Baby just say yes.
Jump to:
- Taylor Swift
- Fearless
- Speak Now
- Red
- 1989
- Reputation
- Lover
- Folklore
- Evermore
- Midnights
- Tortured Poets Department
Jayden Daniels is in his Taylor Swift era.
Taylor’s debut album, eponymously named Taylor Swift, showed her as a decently full-formed artist ready for the spotlight. It opened in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 chart and had staying power, reaching its peak of Number 5 on that chart almost 63 weeks after its release.
Similarly, Jayden Daniels came on the scene as a fully formed quarterback due to his mobility and perimeter throwing ability. As a result, he is the runaway favorite to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award.
The direct comparison I’d like to draw here is between Jayden Daniels and “Picture to Burn”. A popular comparable for Daniels was Lamar Jackson, however many doubted that Daniels could recreate Lamar Jackson’s success at the next level given the very singular style of ball that Jackson plays and the talent with which he plays it. Similarly, many had tried to recreate the magic of the The Chicks’ Y2K country girl angst, with little success. However, Taylor was able to capture it in a lovely way in the song “Picture to Burn”, my favorite on the album.
Josh Allen is in his Fearless era.
If Taylor was a full-fledged artist upon her first album’s release, Fearless was the ascension to superstardom. Fearless was an immense commercial success, opening at Number 1 on the Billboard 200. It spent 35 weeks atop the Top Country Albums chart, the second most for a female vocalist behind Shania Twain’s Come On Over.
Despite the ascendance of his career, Josh Allen has also constantly been looked at as the second-best quarterback in the league. However, in 2024, Allen has completely turned that narrative on its head. The past two games are a fantastic example of this, as Allen has had multiple passing, rushing, and even a receiving touchdown (by way of lateral) en route to fantastic offensive performances. As a result, Allen is now the favorite for the Most Valuable Player award. Not to be too on the nose, but Allen’s playstyle is probably best described as Fearless, anyhow.
Off the field, Allen also just added another chapter to his own “Love Story” by telling his girlfriend Hailee Steinfeld “You Belong with Me”.
Jordan Love is in his Speak Now era.
On Speak Now, Taylor Swift came into her own as a songwriter. The loose concept album was based around broken relationships and loves lost. Nonetheless, it was powerful and immensely successful, selling over a million copies in the first week.
Similarly, Jordan Love is maturing as a passer under the tutelage of Matt LaFleur. He’s led his Packers to a 9-4 record and astounds with his arm strength, unique throw angles, and creative ability.
On the surface, this comparison was just a chance for me to say that Love always likes going “Back to December”, as he has a now well-established trend of performing quite well in the last month of the year (or Toyotathon, as Twitter likes to point out).
But more deeply, Speak Now includes “Dear John”, one of the best breakup songs of all time, but also the highlight record for some of the traits that detractors like to highlight about Taylor, passive-aggressiveness. John Mayer, who the song is allegedly about, went so far as to call it “cheap songwriting”.
Similarly, the Packers are learning they will have to come to terms with Love’s propensity to try to do to much and turn the ball over. But that willingness to push it deep is exactly what makes him so tantalizing.
More generally, Speak Now is still solidly a country album, and Taylor had not yet become the supernova pop star we now know her as today. In the same manner, Love still sits just under the elite tier of quarterbacks.
Patrick Mahomes is in his Red era.
Red was the coronation of Taylor Swift as a “too big to fail” pop superstar. With smash crossover hits such as “I Knew You Were Trouble”, “22”, and the forever arena hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, Red was an absolute breakthrough for Taylor and the pop genre itself.
That is what it felt like when Patrick Mahomes hit the scene in 2018. Since then, Patrick Mahomes has become a leviathan. He is virtually undefeatable down the stretch. He has totally redefined the quarterback position, to the point that the Number 1 pick in the draft, Caleb Williams, was built in his image, and a top quarterback recruit from last year actively mimics him.
Red laid out the playbook for modern pop, and Patrick Mahomes laid out the playbook for the modern quarterback.
Lamar Jackson is in his 1989 era.
If Red was the “oh wow” moment, 1989 was the moment we realized that super megastar Taylor Swift was going to be in our lives for a long, long time. It was the biggest commercial smash in its time out of all the albums in Taylor’s career.
And to be completely honest, it is my favorite Taylor album, if not one of my favorite albums of all time (“Welcome to New York” has a not insubstantial impact on my decision to move to New York as an adult).
Similar to this album, Lamar Jackson now feels like he is a certified hall-of-famer after his play this year, even if he doesn’t get a title anytime soon. In 2024, he has partnered with Todd Monken to turn into a next-level passer, something that he wasn’t by the numbers despite winning 2 MVPs. He currently sits at third in the odds to win MVP this year and will likely be one of the favorites going into future seasons for most of the years remaining in his career.
Joe Burrow is in his Reputation era.
“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. / Why? / Oh, ’cause she’s dead!”
They say heavy is the head that wears the crown. In 2017, Taylor certainly wore the crown, and there were lots of people coming for it. She found herself the center of several media backlashes at once, most notably with career provocateur Kanye West and his then-wife Kim Kardashian. The result of this time was a radically different sounding album which embraced EDM, emo, punk, and hip-hop—styles previously unexplored by Taylor. It also marked the true beginning of her immensely successful partnership with super producer Jack Antonoff. The “zag” on theme and tone led to some more mixed reviews than previous albums.
Of all the Era selections, this was the one I was most confident in. Joe Burrow, who since taking a massive hit in a bowl game against UCF has turned into one of the most effective and trustworthy quarterbacks in all of football, is in a decidedly tough spot right now.
His Bengals sit at 5-8 as of December 10th, 2024, with little to no shot of making the playoffs. Much like Taylor in her Reputation era, little of this is his fault. He is having an MVP type year. Coming into Week 14, he was solidly in the Top 5 in both expected points added per play and success rate, alongside shining in the tracking metrics which aim to assign more credit to him where it is due. Despite this, it seems as if this will be the last season we see the beautiful trio of Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins all on the field together due to cap and cash restraints going into next season. Times have certainly changed for Joey B on the field.
Off the field, Burrow is also zagging like Taylor did. In 2024, he has donned more line-crossing outfits pregame, not even to mention the bleached hair or backless suit he wore at Vogue World.
Burrow is definitely in his Reputation era, and I’m enjoying every moment of it.
Matthew Stafford is in his Lover era.
After Reputation, Taylor zagged once again with Lover. Retreating into cloud pop melodies, pastel colors, and her singer-songwriter roots, Lover was the rebirth of the Taylor we once knew, or thought we knew. It also contains my favorite Taylor Swift song of all, the title track “Lover”.
Matthew Stafford saw the depths of the NFL during his time with the Lions, but upon his trade to Sean McVay and the Rams in 2021, he’s seen bright days and hope. This paid off for both teams with a Super Bowl victory. I’d argue that, even still, Stafford is in his Lover era, particularly due to the addition of Puka Nacua to the team and a Week 14 offensive explosion which kept the Rams in contention in the NFC West.
Jared Goff is in his Folklore era.
Tying back to the Stafford-Lover through lines, Jared Goff came to Detroit at a time where Detroit was ripping everything down to its most basic components. Similarly, Folklore, which came out after the cancellation of Taylor’s Lover tour due to the COVID-19 outbreak, was Taylor stripping everything away and breaking it down to the fundamentals.
The vibes on the album are wistful, romantic, and even a bit longing. It enlists superstars of the indie genre such as Aaron Dessner of The National and Justin Vernon of Bon Iver to help construct a perfect image of the cottagecore movement that was burgeoning due to everyone being stuck inside. As a result, it was one of Taylor Swift’s most critically acclaimed albums.
Jared Goff is solidly in this era. After stripping everything away after a traumatic experience being traded from the Rams, he has emerged anew as one of the top traditional quarterbacks in the league. Aided by his constant collaborator Ben Johnson and key aerial partner Amon-Ra St. Brown, he has constructed a new aesthetic for the Lions offense, one that is amongst the most enjoyable in the NFL today.
However, the wistfulness and pain remain. Many wonder if, in the event Ben Johnson takes a head coaching job this offseason, Goff can maintain the growth and success he has attained during their period together.
Sam Darnold is in his Evermore era.
Just as Evermore is a sister album to Folklore, the Sam Darnold improvement quite similarly mirrors Jared Goff’s, just in a more proven place.
Coming off the success of Folklore, Taylor Swift doubled down on her “Woods” aesthetic by releasing Evermore shortly after. Once again collaborating heavily with Antonoff, Dessner, Vernon, and also adding rock superstars (and a Top 3 favorite band of mine) Haim, Evermore was a slightly bigger, more sonically diverse version of Folklore.
In that vein, we’ve seen Kevin O’Connell have some success with retread quarterbacks before. After Kirk Cousins got injured, O’Connell was able to make Josh Dobbs a trending topic in the football discourse. He doubled down in the offseason by adding Sam Darnold, a one-time top prospect who had worn three different jerseys in the past four years.
Part and parcel with the excellent supporting cast including Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Aaron Jones, the Vikings have seen immense success since Darnold has come in. They currently sit with an 11-2 record and are primed for a high seed in the playoffs.
Tua Tagovailoa is in his Midnights era.
Midnights was a return from the indie folk woods for Taylor back into more mainstream pop. Working primarily with Antonoff, the album has a more futuristic sound paired with Taylor’s songwriting chops on the record, building up a soundscape designed for some smash hits.
In particular, I want to highlight the Billboard Hot 100 topping song “Anti-Hero”. There are many parallels between this song and Dolphins’ fans sentiment on Tua.
The first is the undeniable success of the song itself. Since Tua has paired with play caller Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins’ offense has been one of the most futuristic in the sport. Last year the Dolphins were 4th in expected points added per play with Tua at the helm. This year, they’ve mapped in even more diverse concepts, adding Wing-T plays and using the tight end more.
Yet, many Dolphins fans think that despite Tua’s success (he once again is one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the league in 2024, mirroring his performance from 2023), he may be what is holding them back from playoff success.
Primarily, despite “getting older”, they cite Tua’s inability to protect himself from injury as a sign he will never get “wiser”. Moreover, the offense’s inability to perform in cold weather has become a nagging issue, most recently cropping up on their Thanksgiving Day loss in Green Bay. Especially given the tough terrains in Kansas City, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh, we must see improvement from Tua in these climates.
As a result, Tua has become an anti-hero in the Dolphins narrative. He is immensely productive, and they certainly cannot win if he is not on the field in the offense’s current form, but nonetheless fans still blame him for the Dolphins’ woes.
Russell Wilson is in his Tortured Poets Department era.
The Tortured Poets Department comes at an incredibly interesting time for Taylor Swift. Amongst quite literally the most successful tour of all time and a highly publicized yet generally positive relationship with Travis Kelce, she dropped her most breakup-y breakup album yet. Many speculated that the album would be solely about her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn, however it seems to also include songs referring to prime provocateur and one-time lover Matty Healy, as well. However confusing the timing, the album was nonetheless successful, despite some rumblings amongst critics.
Russell Wilson is the perfect fit for this era. Russ is currently seeing success that he hasn’t seen in years upon signing with Mike Tomlin’s Pittsburgh Steelers. No longer is he Dangeruss or Mr. Unlimited or getting yelled at and benched by Sean Payton, he’s just the deep ball throwing quarterback for a 10-3 AFC North leader. But the scars remain from his trade from Seattle and his cut from Denver.
Despite the winning record, the film watchers are still skeptical of Russ, highlighting that their offensive archetype of tough running and deep ball throwing can’t win in the playoffs.
Special thanks to my sister Maggie and my friend Eli for their lyrical deep dives for the purposes of this article and a shout out to my cousin Maya!
