How the hell did we get Mac Jones at 15? I am no football guru, but I watched a ton of Bama football last year , and I saw what we are seeing now. A leader, calm and decisive in the pocket, nice pocket mobility, great accuracy. A prototypical NFL QB. Played great in big games. So much emphasis on his receivers when he did not have Waddle for 3/4 of the season. Jones was the reason that offense sang, not Smith or Harris. It was all there to be seen, and a ton of NFL guys talked themselves out of it. Crazy!
A few reasons. NFL guys are often very insecure in their job. There would be a lot to explain if they pass on a superior athlete who hits for an immobile guy who bust. More so than if they take a shot on the more athletic QB and miss while the immobile guy hits. They can always justify it by saying he was the better prospect on paper. Its stupid I know.
The other argument you hear is the higher floor or higher ceiling arguement which is utter nonsense. Tom Brady came into the league with little comparative athletic ability and a very average arm besides a bit of nice touch. He had as high a ceiling as the most gifted athletic freak QBs all said and done.
There are many different ways to win. No one way is inherently superior to any other in theory if played correctly. But the one thing i do believe is this. There is no such thing as a guy who can learn to be everything. There are only so many hours in a day. Look at Lamar Jackson. No doubt he was a good athlete from the word go, but how many hours, days, years did he put into his physical skill set? It was an enormous investment in time and energy. You only have so much of it. And it aint easy to maintain either. When some brings up the tired arguement "if Jackson can learn to be a poor mmanes Peyton Manning from the pocket then..." I just roll my eyes. A guy like Peyton Manning invest absolutely everything into being a pocket passer, because that's what it takes to reach that level. You don't just put in half the work and become half as good. It doesnt work that way.
Think of it this way. The 100m run. Most gifted people can get close to a 10s 100M. The key is getting below that. Each fraction of a second improvement takes more time and energy than the last. At the top level people dedicate every waking moment to try to knock that extra .01 seconds off. That is the difference between getting in the door to even compete and being sent home with a 'good try kid'. And it cost a person everything to get those deminishing returns.
Trying to compete in someone's pro areana being half hearted about getting a skill set is a joke. You will never be the same caliber. Just lesser degrees of incompetent. And it will always bite you when the rubber hits the road.
That doesn't mean you need to absolutely specialize in the most core of the core. It is a warning to not overly divide your focus. You are always better off investing your time to learn the game that is the best fit for you. The issue with super athletic QBs IMO is they over specialized in things which are potentially parts of being a QB as opposed to core parts of being a QB. Anytime you step outside of QB core aspects you are taking time, effort and energy away from something which will always help you to invest it in something which can sometimes help you. A suboptimal approach. It is why elusisivity and escapability have served some of the greatest QBs of all time well. Where as going in with the game plan of being a runner is more hit or miss.
At least that's my thoughts.
