One last ride for Old Man Quarterbacks?

New season, new questions! Welcome back to the Yahoo Sports NFL Mailbag, where we’re taking your questions via Twitter, Facebook, email, and screaming into the void. Got a question? Hit us up by email at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or see below. Today, our teams discussed include the Jaguars, Saints, Patriots, Bears and Cowboys. Let’s roll!

Could this be the year of the Old Man Quarterback, like Tom Brady and Drew Brees, mounting one last charge? If any d-lineman touches them, they get 15 extra yards.
-Lee, via Facebook

This is the year of the quarterback, period. We’re already in an unprecedented offensive explosion, and we’ve had more passing touchdowns – 228 – than any season, ever. There are plenty of reasons for that, from the new protections for quarterbacks – complaining about penalties? That’s a penalty – to new offensive schemes that are keeping defenses on their heels to increasing downfield illegal-contact penalties to the brief yet inexplicable rise of Ryan Fitzpatrick.

But yeah, codgers like Brees and Brady are well-positioned to take advantage of this new world order, carving their way through this landscape like a gray old Wolverine in “Logan.” Playing a decade with a certain set of rules and suddenly getting more freedom from contact has to feel like taking off ankle weights you forgot you were wearing. Brees, one of the all-time greats, is only 201 yards from passing Peyton Manning’s all-time yardage record, and it’s little surprise that five of the top eight career yardage leaders are currently playing (Brees, Brady, Eli Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers, with Peyton, Brett Favre and Dan Marino also in the mix). So, yeah, Brees and Brady will absolutely torch the league this year, and they’ll set career passing marks that’ll take Patrick Mahomes a good three seasons to catch.

What’s the over/under on how many games it takes Jalen Ramsey to get fined for trash-talking another receiver?
-Brad, via Facebook

I love trash talk. Love it more than I love most of my family members. Whether it’s Josh Norman and Odell Beckham Jr. yapping it up in the secondary or, for you old-schoolers, Gary Payton absolutely destroying the souls of poor rookies on the hardwood, I’m all in on anything you can do to get your opponent on tilt. And right now, Ramsey’s the best, bar none, trashing QBs and receivers and anyone that gets in his orbit.

So who’s in his orbit now? Let’s look at the schedule. He’s got Tyreek Hill and the Chiefs this weekend, which is trouble because Hill’s fast enough to be 20 yards past you before you even begin discussing his mother. (Hill’s already laying the groundwork for a Ramsey throwdown.) Two weeks after that, DeAndre Hopkins. Also a tough out. But the matchup we’re watching? Week 11, baby. That’s when the Steelers play KC. And if Ramsey doesn’t get himself fined discussing all the madness around that franchise, we’ll know he’s phoning it in.

Over/under? We’ll go 6.5 games. Take the under.

Commercial break!

Best part about these old commercials is how ridiculously dated they are. Dennis Hopper doesn’t have to go far afield to play a frazzled, psychotic ref, of course. But that play showing Troy Aikman “taking it like a man”? Yeah, 15-yard body-weight penalty. Stop drooling and throw the flag, Dennis.

The 2018 Cowboys and the Ditka Bears are in the Super Bowl. Everyone on the Bears except Ditka is injured. Who wins?
-David, via Facebook

Well, putting aside the fact that Ditka wins, Ditka ALWAYS wins, this is an interesting question. How would one of the greatest teams in NFL history, the 1985 Chicago Bears, fare against a decidedly mediocre 2018 team? (Knock it off, Dallas fans, you know it’s true.) It’s the cross-time variant of that “could Alabama beat the Browns?” argument.

On a purely physical level, the 2018 Cowboys would absolutely demolish Chicago. William “Refrigerator” Perry was 335 pounds during that magical year; that’d put him in the middle of the pack of NFL beef now. (“The Fridge” would be “The Dorm Fridge.”) Walter Payton was 5’10” and 200 pounds; Saquon Barkley’s got him by 30 pounds, and Todd Gurley by three inches and 25 pounds. Mike Singletary was six feet tall and 230 pounds; Von Miller and Jadeveon Clowney wear shoes bigger than that.

Plus, the Bears would be stymied by the current slate of NFL rules; Buddy Ryan’s methods of tackling and defense would be war crimes now. And Jim McMahon would be a walking Twitter meme. But … if that Bears D could get to Dak Prescott, if Ditka could adjust his thinking to take advantage of the NFL’s offensive-minded environment … who knows? If nothing else, Ditka would get a chance to make up for not getting Sweetness that Super Bowl touchdown.

I get that refs make mistakes like mistaking a strong shoulder grab for a horse-collar tackle. We replay every other flipping call, why not flagrant officiating error?
–@diverJonC, via Twitter

Well, a couple of reasons. First and foremost, it’d make games seven hours long. Reviews for key moments already kill the pace of the game; add in a couple more for drive-stalling holding calls, and you’re looking at an absolute crawl.

And hey, speaking of holding – you know how it could be called on every single play? (Watch any play and focus your eyes away from the quarterback; you’ll always see a defensive lineman getting held, and the only reason he’s not getting the call is that he’s not flopping like a European soccer player.) Now imagine a coach on defense throwing a challenge flag to try to get a holding penalty on a play where his team just gave up a big gain.

Plus, there’s no guarantee that replay would get the correct call. You know the feeling – the ref goes under the hood, the replay gets shown on TV, and the ref comes out with the exact OPPOSITE impression as you.

The sad truth is, we’ve got to live with a certain amount of ref error. It’s part of the humanity of the game. Sometimes it breaks our team’s way, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes Dez catches it, and sometimes he doesn’t. If you want fair, unbiased, computer-backed football, you’re better off with Madden.

Mitchell Trubisky: great quarterback or GREATEST QUARTERBACK?
–Maggie, via Facebook

Greatest football player ever. Greatest sportsman ever. Greatest human ever.

Seriously, we’re in a golden age of quarterback play right now, friends. Enjoy the ride. This is what makes football great.

That’ll do it for this week. We want your questions! Hit us up via email at jay.busbee@yahoo.com, on Twitter using the hashtag #AskYahooNFL, on Facebook here, or in the comments below. See you next week!

____
Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.