OT: Death of the modern QB?

[QuantumMechanic]

Interesting read.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-nfl-has-a-quarterback-crisis-1441819454

A real thing? Or just a bunch of "get off my lawn"ing from NFLers?

EDITED:

Apparently a bunch of people commenting didn't actually read the article. The article is about NFLers being worried about the future of QBing because they're seeing increasingly incompetent pocket passers coming out of college and not the NFLers declaring the mobile/option/whatever QB to be the next big thing this time for sure.

 

[rochrist]

I think a lot of it has to do with not-as-smart-as-they-think-they-are coach/gms all thinking they can buck history and go the running/option qb route and have it succeed long term. Valuing athletic ability over intellectual ability.

 

[XLIX]

They've been predicting the "end of the classic NFL pocket passer" for about 30 years now.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Only a fool thinks that they can take a rookie QB and win with him. QBs are and have to be developed. BB shows how. Brady, Cassell, Hoyer, Mallett and now Garrapolo were/are being trained for several years before they were thought to be prepared to play full time.

All are still in the League with varying degrees of success but they are still there while many one year wonders are not.

Things are really easier then before. At one time the NFL had to take single wing RBs and convert them to QBs. Sid Luckman and many others are examples.

 

[JDot]

......

 

[ctpatsfan77]

As an interesting aside, how does Garoppolo fit into this?

By all accounts, he went from a team without a playbook to arguably the NFL team with the most difficult playbook in the league, and seems to be adjusting.

 

[BradyFTW!]

The season hasn't started until someone's declared the era of the pocket passer over.

I'll still take the pocket passer everytime. While there are rare, tempting exceptions like Wilson, mobile QBs are just too much of an injury risk for the cap space they command.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

The season hasn't started until someone's declared the era of the pocket passer over.

I'll still take the pocket passer everytime. While there are rare, tempting exceptions like Wilson, mobile QBs are just too much of an injury risk for the cap space they command.

I think you're reading the article exactly backwards.

The NFLers are saying that they're worried they soon won't be able to find competent pocket passers coming out of college, not that they want to switch away from pocket passers.

 

[oldrover]

Oh.

 

[primetime]

I don't really get it. This sort of athletic quarterback has existed for decades and often been very successful. Elway and Young are perfect examples.

Frankly, the most disappointing thing is that Russell Wilson is basically Doug Flutie but with a weaker arm; Johnny Manziel is basically Doug Flutie without any brains. In today's NFL, Flutie would be a top-5 QB every year. In the NFL of 30 years ago, he rode benches and was banished first to Foxboro, a very bad place to be in those days, and then to Canada.

The big worry, as the article is saying, is that the pocket passer in college is a dying breed. There's a reason that Chase Rettig has ended up on NFL practice squads and training camp rosters despite being the worst BC quarterback in 30 years. And even BC, one of the most reliable farms for pro-style QBs over the last few decades, moved away from the pocket passer last season (though, funnily enough, that QB then ended up making the Steelers as an undrafted free agent WR).

 

[fxkane]

I think you're reading the article exactly backwards.

The NFLers are saying that they're worried they soon won't be able to find competent pocket passers coming out of college, not that they want to switch away from pocket passers.

Yes...yes. I'm wondering if the article was actually read or guessed at.

Anyway, I'm not surprised that the NFL has concluded in favor of the traditional pocket qb. But I am surprised that with all those renowned millionaire college coaches out there, that very few are running anything resembling a pro-style offense. I guess it must be a matter of WINNING NOW no matter the price to the players' futures.

BTW, some of the coaches quoted comments in this piece are a riot. Ryan is always a beauty when he's not stamping on the Pats. And then the coach who has to "dumb down" his questions to potential draftee qbs... and the stone silence even at the softened questions.

 

[venecol]

A little off topic but I don't think this is limited to football. I've had to train young engineers from college to the real world for decades. I have noticed that the young engineers have no idea how to research, document, etc. and they don't want to read. It's almost like the more they get exposed to computers the less they want to think.