The explosion of young black quarterbacks with phenomenal athletic ability and passing acumen has become the rage of the N.F.L. As defenses in the league have become more athletic, offenses have made an adjustment at the sport’s most important position.

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award last season. This year, Lamar Jackson, the second-year quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, is the N.F.L.’s hottest star. Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks, Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans and Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys are named among the elite.

If he were alive today, Fritz Pollard, one of the new league’s first black players and its first black head coach, would be proud. As the N.F.L. celebrates 100 years, a league that barred black players for many years is now largely dependent on them.

Yet even as black players at every position have become the foundation of this multibillion dollar enterprise, their relationship with the N.F.L., from the league’s perspective, has largely been a marriage of convenience, with progress only being brought about by pressure.