Should have clarified - Rookie scale era

4 year deal with 5th year option - reasonable pay scale, even for top picks. It has also forced teams to dump older players and trade in younger players at a much higher rate. Roster turnover has accelerated. No more can you build a team over several years and keep guys together. Guys need to be ready to play and play right away. Once the QB gets to payday time you wind up shelling out huge money for a guy you're not sure about - aka Tannehil, or someone else's guy you're not sure about - Osweiler. We also no longer have NFL europe to develop players, and so few colleges are running pro systems so you have an even bigger shortage of quality QB's.

I don't think comparing sitting QB's from 10 + years ago is all that relevant. Also, Eli only sat half a season, i hope that's how it is with Goff too. Rivers sat because they had Brees in front of him. I'm not sure why Palmer sat - I imagine it wouldn't have made much difference if they had played him - the Bengals were not a good team when the drafted him