3. I think I am truly absorbed by the conversation about the quarterback position, specifically whether the ability to make off-script, improvisational plays is now a necessity in today’s NFL, or whether a quarterback can still play at a consistently high level without that trait. While Russell Wilson has been making outstanding off-script plays for years, my sense is he was considered more of the exception given his lack of size, and the fact that there were snaps in which he could not see a clean throw, even if it was there. For Wilson, movement was a necessity to function in the league. It strikes me that Patrick Mahomes has been the one to accelerate this discussion with his movement and his rare ability to make off-platform throws. (Of course, Matthew Stafford has been doing that for years, well before Mahomes came into the league, but for some reason no one seemed to notice.) Josh Allen, coming off an exceptional 2020 season, has also enhanced this debate.
I would pose the question this way: If you believe that improvisation is now essential to play NFL QB at the needed level of excellence versus the increase in sub-package defenses (5 defensive backs, 6 defensive backs, at times 7 defensive backs) and the expansion of pressure/blitz schemes, then you need to have a reason for the continued excellence of Tom Brady. (You could put Drew Brees in that category as well.) And please don’t tell me it’s because he’s great, as if that removes you from answering the question. Why is Brady great? What are the traits and attributes that have resulted in him playing at a Hall of Fame level throughout his career, and continue to do so, without the mobility to make outside of structure plays? That is what you need to study and evaluate, in great depth. You must develop a detailed and precise understanding of this before flippantly tossing out the platitude that off-script plays are now a necessity. There is not a coach in the NFL who would draft a quarterback based on his ability to extend plays if the coach felt that that quarterback could not execute the structure of the pass game with the needed efficiency and consistency on a play-by-play, game-to-game basis. Quarterback is a subtle, nuanced, disciplined craft position both before and after the snap; that is how it is taught. Coaches do not roll the ball out in practice, and then say let’s run around and make some plays. Maybe in college, but certainly not in the NFL.
It is a conversation that will no doubt continue with the influx of more athletic quarterbacks into the NFL. Many see Mac Jones as the litmus test for this debate. He was the only quarterback of the top 5 chosen in the first round who did not show second reaction improvisational movement. Some say he’s a better athlete than his tape showed; I guess we will see when he gets his opportunity in New England. What Jones did at Alabama was play the position with needed refinement and maturity from the pocket. It seems these days that we don’t place the same value on that as we do the ability to make off-script plays. As the world turns.
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