Jarv
Loud pipes saves lives.
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I think we are in a great position this year to draft a couple of QB's in training to groom and mentor behind Romo, who we hopefully have a couple of years left in the tank with. What a great advantage it is to be able to find the traits we are looking for and use use those variables to select a QB and not just use college success as the only benchmark. Let's face it, the college and pro games are different.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story on what some NFL coaches and executives consider a “crisis” over the future of the quarterback position: an increasing number of prospects, nurtured within the uptempo and spread offenses that are sweeping college football, who enter the league wholly unprepared for even the basics of running an NFL offense. Most quarterbacks have spent their entire high school and college careers running wide-open offenses. They are used to making one-read throws, not huddling, taking only three-step drops and working exclusively out of the shotgun. In some cases, their only snaps under center were in "victory formation," where they are running out the clock at the end of the game. It makes for a tough transition to a pro offense.
So when drafting a QB, people look at their stats including winning percentage. This isn't wasted information, but a QB can have great stats because they are on great teams. Of course you would also have to have the skills to win the starting job on a good team. Of course the idea here is too find a sleeper QB in later rounds to groom since we have seen sooo many first round QB bust. This concept is based upon something similar to what the Skins did drafting Cousins and RGIII the same year (4 and 1 respectively). I'm thinking rounds 2 or 3 and 5 through undrafted FA for our two QBs.
What are the traits of a successful pro QB? I'll list a few I think are important, not in order of importance because I think you need all of them to be real good.
1) The ability to learn. As mentioned above, for the most part, successful college QBs are playing a different system than they will utilize once they hit the pro level. Heck, different pro team use different systems.
2) Football IQ, very similar to above and actually can be used as a measuring stick for the trait above. Gruden does a nice job of this if you watch his QB camp and I think he even has his own QB Wonderlic exam. If you are a smart player already, it kinda proves you can learn.
3) Mechanics and quick release. This is where we can really make hay. Now I'm no expert on this at all, being an old dumb LB from my football days, but the Brady's, Marino's and Romo's of the world have burned many with their quick release. Of course, how can you actually test someone to see if their mechanics can be changed or have the "quick twitch" that is needed for this? I wish I had an answer, maybe I should just an old cliche and say "it's all in the wrist". In my softball days, a skinny little buddy of mine had a cannon at SS and hit more HR's than anyone else on the team. He used to laugh and say "it's all in the wrist". He worked in the family business all of his life, well drilling (water). He spent half of his life twisting threaded pipes together, strongest wrist I had ever seen.
4) Athletic ability with awareness. Now they don't have to be an Olympic sprinter, but quick twitch and awareness are invaluable. Look at Romo, he won't win any speed contest. Being able to slide, feel the pressure and move away from it is enough, running ability like Rogers and Cam are a plus. Look at Elway, big time runner and cannon for an arm, but didn't win the big game until later in his career, experience and TD helped him a lot. It would be interesting to see what kind of training a bull fighter gets, they have to be aware and able too move in tight situations.
So that's what I would look for when grooming a QB and I'd be looking for a good QB on an OK team. A great QB on a great team will obviously be taken very high in the draft and might not have the traits listed to be able to be a great QB on the next level. Romo got a few years to learn, as did Rogers and a few others, let's take advantage of this time.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story on what some NFL coaches and executives consider a “crisis” over the future of the quarterback position: an increasing number of prospects, nurtured within the uptempo and spread offenses that are sweeping college football, who enter the league wholly unprepared for even the basics of running an NFL offense. Most quarterbacks have spent their entire high school and college careers running wide-open offenses. They are used to making one-read throws, not huddling, taking only three-step drops and working exclusively out of the shotgun. In some cases, their only snaps under center were in "victory formation," where they are running out the clock at the end of the game. It makes for a tough transition to a pro offense.
So when drafting a QB, people look at their stats including winning percentage. This isn't wasted information, but a QB can have great stats because they are on great teams. Of course you would also have to have the skills to win the starting job on a good team. Of course the idea here is too find a sleeper QB in later rounds to groom since we have seen sooo many first round QB bust. This concept is based upon something similar to what the Skins did drafting Cousins and RGIII the same year (4 and 1 respectively). I'm thinking rounds 2 or 3 and 5 through undrafted FA for our two QBs.
What are the traits of a successful pro QB? I'll list a few I think are important, not in order of importance because I think you need all of them to be real good.
1) The ability to learn. As mentioned above, for the most part, successful college QBs are playing a different system than they will utilize once they hit the pro level. Heck, different pro team use different systems.
2) Football IQ, very similar to above and actually can be used as a measuring stick for the trait above. Gruden does a nice job of this if you watch his QB camp and I think he even has his own QB Wonderlic exam. If you are a smart player already, it kinda proves you can learn.
3) Mechanics and quick release. This is where we can really make hay. Now I'm no expert on this at all, being an old dumb LB from my football days, but the Brady's, Marino's and Romo's of the world have burned many with their quick release. Of course, how can you actually test someone to see if their mechanics can be changed or have the "quick twitch" that is needed for this? I wish I had an answer, maybe I should just an old cliche and say "it's all in the wrist". In my softball days, a skinny little buddy of mine had a cannon at SS and hit more HR's than anyone else on the team. He used to laugh and say "it's all in the wrist". He worked in the family business all of his life, well drilling (water). He spent half of his life twisting threaded pipes together, strongest wrist I had ever seen.
4) Athletic ability with awareness. Now they don't have to be an Olympic sprinter, but quick twitch and awareness are invaluable. Look at Romo, he won't win any speed contest. Being able to slide, feel the pressure and move away from it is enough, running ability like Rogers and Cam are a plus. Look at Elway, big time runner and cannon for an arm, but didn't win the big game until later in his career, experience and TD helped him a lot. It would be interesting to see what kind of training a bull fighter gets, they have to be aware and able too move in tight situations.
So that's what I would look for when grooming a QB and I'd be looking for a good QB on an OK team. A great QB on a great team will obviously be taken very high in the draft and might not have the traits listed to be able to be a great QB on the next level. Romo got a few years to learn, as did Rogers and a few others, let's take advantage of this time.
