If you’re reading these words, you’ve had something to say about a quarterback.

They’re the center of attention on a football field with 21 others. Everything runs through that guy, so it’s natural they’re going to be more scrutinized than a right guard.

From talk radio callers to keyboard cowboys and everyone at Waffle House, there’s a critique for everything.

But what do we get wrong?

What do the uninitiated not understand about playing quarterback in the SEC. We spoke with a few current and one former league passer last week at SEC Media Days to gain understanding.

The question was simple: What do we not understand about playing quarterback? The answers varied.

“That we’re soft,” said South Carolina’s Jake Bentley, a graduate of Opelika High School. “Seriously, though. People think we’re a pencil-necked quarterback. You know, you take a lot of shots back there. Joe Burrow took a nasty shot in the bowl game and got up and fought back like something was lit up in him and he just started dominating after that. That edifies the quarterback position. Take a shot, get up and keep rolling. I think that’s the main thing. There are a lot of tough guys out there.”

Burrow, the LSU quarterback, earned respect from the quarterback club for returning to the Fiesta Bowl after taking a nasty shot early in the win over UCF last season.

His answer looked at another side effect of the position.

“I would say people just think it’s glamour and glitz,” Burrow said. “But there’s a lot of down moments like when you throw a Pick 6 at Florida to lose the game, you’re pretty low and everybody is pretty low on you. So, you definitely have to be the kind of person that is mentally tough and willing to take the credit and the blame.”

Burrow is entering his second season as a starter after transferring from Ohio State. He wasn’t an immediate contributor like Bentley who graduated early from high school to enroll at South Carolina. Since the midpoint of his freshman season, Bentley was the Gamecocks’ starter.

Greg McElroy took a different path to starting his final two seasons at Alabama. He watched his first three seasons from the sideline wearing a headset instead of a helmet.

“I think the biggest misconception is if you’re not ready to play as a freshman,” said McElroy, now an analyst and commentator on the SEC Network and ESPN, “you’re never going to be any good.”

He points to Alabama’s third-year sophomore Mac Jones as an example. He arrived the same spring as Tua Tagovailoa but has thrown three total passes in a game but stands in line to compete for the top job next season should Tagovailoa to his talents to the NFL after his junior season.

“There’s plenty of guys that develop behind closed doors that are learning and getting bigger and getting stronger that aren’t ready to play Day 1 that end up being exceptional players,” McElroy said. “And I think sometimes, we as fans because we like the new shiny toy, we have a tendency to gravitate towards the younger players when there are plenty of guys who are fourth-year juniors who are just begging for an opportunity and when they get that opportunity, they take advantage of it.”

Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond is another who won the starting job as a freshman after arriving as a highly-ranked recruit.

He explained some of the on-field dynamic that can be overlooked from the seats.

“I think a lot of people think it’s easy,” said Mond, now a junior. “I see a lot of people get mad or yell when somebody misses a throw or misses a read but when you have 300-pound guys rushing you and you have to know the coverage. You have to know your play. And you have to know your reads. There is so much going on as a quarterback, especially in Coach (Jimbo) Fisher’s offense. But it’s kinda something you don’t control but it’s my job to work hard and be as consistent as possible.”

Florida’s Filipe Franks has heard about as much criticism as any quarterback in the SEC recently. Peaks and valleys filled his first two seasons on the field from game-winning throws to being benched several times.

“It’s hard but it’s fun,” Franks said. “It has its ups and downs and for me specifically it’s built my character. I keep on saying that but it’s built me as a man the way approach people now, the way I go through my daily routine. I have my priorities in line now because of that. Put God first, my family, teammates and people that I care about. I try to approach everybody with a good attitude no matter what I do or what they said. It’s changed me as a person completely. It’s hard to do but it’s fun to do. I love playing in the stadiums with 110,000 and stadiums packed and everyone’s rooting for you or against you. It doesn’t matter. Those games are awesome.”

His rival at Tennessee, Jarrett Guarantano, has taken a beating from critics at times in Knoxville.

“I think quarterbacks get too much blame and too much praise,” Guarantano. “They get too much blame if a team loses and they get too much praise if their team wins. I think the game has become to quarterbacks, that’s a big misperception. You have to look deep down for different things that actually applies.”

Guarantano said he doesn’t listen much to the social media commentary. It just isn’t worth it.

South Carolina’s Bentley explained his approach to dealing with that avenue of communication.

“I think the hardest thing is not looking at it completely,” Bentley said, “but not looking at it when you’re winning either. You can think differently about yourself then, then you go back after a loss and it pisses you off. Then you start to believe stuff from people that know nothing about quarterbacks are saying about you. But for me, I pretty much just delete Twitter. I have it deleted right now. I really never got back on it after the season except to tweet the video. It’s just not important. It’s not important. The only thing that’s important is our teammates and our coaches and winning football games.”

The negativity is too prevalent online. Some players -- former Alabama cornerback Cyrus Jones, for example -- would thrive turning the hate into motivation. For most of the quarterbacks interviewed, there was little interest in turning what outsiders have to say into fuel.

“It’s sad to see it,” Bentley said. “It’s sad to see people tear people down for no reason.”

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.