Going forward, we’ll still have pocket passers, like Tom Brady. But look for more teams to have Lamar Jackson-types taking snaps.
The NFL is a century old. And pretty much all of that time, quarterbacks were of a single mold. To be a champion, you had to be a really good pocket passer. That has been pretty good advice, too. Only champions Steve Young and Russell Wilson come to mind as dual-threat quarterbacks. But even these two understood that throwing from the pocket was a key to team success.
Michael Vick revolutionized the quarterback position two decades ago. Lamar Jackson has re-revolutionized it this year. But, again, even though two recognize that being able to throw from the pocket is a must.
But you know as well as I that there’s what I call ‘an old man mentality’ that says, “‘Those’ quarterbacks will never last, and they’ll never be great. And they certainly won’t win a Super Bowl.”
The way I see it, there’s more than a tad of racism in that type of thinking. It blinds gray-hairs from being able to see what pro football is becoming.
Whether QBs are white or black, the majority of new ones are very athletic who can run the ball for yardage. We had players like that 15-20 years ago, too, but they were small in number. I’m talking about guys like Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb and Randall Cunningham and Warren Moon. All of them were mobile, and all of them are African American. And let’s face it: despite their success, there was a stigma having black quarterbacks in the NFL.
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But take a look at the top quarterbacks in the league right now. There’s Super Bowl champion Russell Wilson, and Heisman Trophy winners, like DeShaun Watson and Lamar Jackson, who are lighting up the league.
Then there’s Wilson and Dak Prescott. And let’s not forget the guy who threw 50 touchdown passes, 5,000 yards, and earned MVP honors last year–Mr. Patrick Mahomes! There’s more, too. Another Heisman winner, Kyler Murray, seems to improve each game.
Black quarterbacks have risen in this league. It’s because they have the talent and smarts to get the job done. In a word, they PERFORM! NFL coaches realize that. It ends up to be an athletic thing, not a black thing. But it does mean something significant–we’re getting to see more and more black QBs at the helm.
The alternative is to remain ‘old school.” That means going with guys like Mitchell Trubisky and Josh Allen. Tribisky is good at keeping drives alive, and Allen can elude potential tacklers with his feet and strength. There are others, too. Aaron Rodgers, Carson Wentz, Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, and even Daniel Jones can dance around in the pocket and get outside to make a positive play. And let’s not forget Tom Brady.
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The common theme here is that almost all of the young quarterbacks have athletic ability beyond having pocket-passing ability. Yes, Andrew Luck and Peyton Manning were excellent. But, today, requirements for the position are changing. With edge rushers improving, we see more QBs with the ability to get-up-and-go–beyond being able to elude the rush.
There’s something else. Top-notch pocket passers like Brady, Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, Matt Ryan, Mathew Stafford, and Joe Flacco are getting close to retirement. Look for their replacements to be more athletic. They’ll be running and passing quarterbacks.
I’m not declaring the pocket passer as dead. But I am saying that QBs will need to be able to scramble, roll out, and extend plays with their feet. If you’re a pure pocket passer, then you’ll need to have a monstrous offensive line and the ability to get the ball out of your hands in under two seconds.
There will still be players like that.
But the new style of QB will be more like what we see in Lamar Jackson, and less like what we’ve seen from Rodgers and Brady.
