The Death of the Modern Day QB………. What?<\/p>\n
I just finished watching film of Peyton Manning break 70,000 all-time yards and win on a miraculous play on Thursday night football. For every Peyton, Tom Brady, Big Ben and Andrew Luck there are Jamarcus Russell’s, Akili Smiths, Tim Couches, Ryan Leafs, and the list goes on of highly drafted NFL \u201cbusts\u201d. Unfortunately these QB\u2019s did not have illustrious careers for a multitude of reasons, and to pinpoint accurately after the fact is still a challenge, even with the advantage of hindsight. But one reason that might have been characteristic of all of them is their being \u201csystem\u201d QB\u2019s.<\/p>\n
What does this mean and what is happening?<\/p>\n
What are some of the issues and challenges in developing NFL QB\u2019s?<\/p>\n
1. QB\u2019s do not play under center- unlike the NFL where QB\u2019s go under center frequently, high school and college spread QB\u2019s seldom take a snap from center. Why is this a concern? QB\u2019s do not learn how to play with their backs to the defense for that split second. They do not learn how to properly drop. Personally, as a former QB I hated being in the gun as I got lazy with my drop mechanics and I see the same thing now when watching high school and college spread QB\u2019S<\/p>\n
QB\u2019s and offences are about timing-drop 1 2 3 and throw- or set up and go through your progressions. Spread QBs\u2019 legs sometimes get what I call \u201ccement feet\u201d \u2013 feet that don\u2019t move because they simply don\u2019t have to<\/p>\n
2. Spread QB\u2019s don\u2019t have to think at the line of scrimmage\u2026..what\u2019s occurring is that the offence sets on the ball in a no huddle attack. Defense sets and then the offence all looks over to the coach for the proper play he has devised versus that particular defense. This has taken away the post-snap decision making of QB\u2019s that is essential to becoming an NFL QB.<\/p>\n
3. NFL defenses are way too fast for the spread- unlike college and high school \u2013 in the pros QB\u2019s are playing against the best of the best\u2026one thing NFL manager\u2019s look for is team speed.<\/p>\n
Remember a few years back when Colin Kaepernick took the league by storm running the spread and zone read\u2026.NFL Defensive coordinators have figured it out and as result Colin and the 49ers have struggled. In fact last Monday night the 49ers player with 3 TE\u2019s a majority of the time and pounded the rock with Carlos Hyde\u2026outcome- they controlled the clock\u2026managed Colin\u2019s mistakes and the 49ers were victorious.<\/p>\n
Another reason \u2013 the \u201cRobo\u201d QB<\/p>\n
As a QB coach I have fallen into this trap over the years but have changed my philosophy over the past few years. What do I mean with Robo QB? We try and make each QB have the most perfect mechanics and harp on this so much that we sometimes forget to let the kids play and react. Don\u2019t get me wrong, all great QB\u2019s have superlative mechanics to ensure the most important quality a qb must possess: ACCURACY- This is to me is the difference between good and great. Great QB\u2019s with accuracy are able to place a ball on what I call a dime!<\/p>\n
The issue is that we as QB coaches are paralyzing some of these young kids. Look at Phillip Rivers- his throwing mechanics are unorthodox but he makes it work. If it works at an age past puberty, refine their technique somewhat but don\u2019t overburden the athlete. Remember it takes 3000 perfect reps to change the hardwiring in someone\u2019s body. The problem arises with QB\u2019s and other positions in sports in that the athlete will revert back to their mechanics taught at a young age. Thus it is imperative as coaches that we stress and teach proper mechanics BEFORE PUBERTY. But once it sets in, let \u201cperfection\u201d go and now change your approach to working with what the QB has \u2013 they can still get better. Look at MLB pitchers \u2013 MANY of them have unorthodox mechanics or at least what people would say are not \u201cperfect\u201d ones, but they are in the big leagues while tens of thousands with \u201cbetter looking\u201d mechanics are on the outside looking in at being a pro. Why? They have figured out how to use what they have such that they have bridged the gap and zoomed past those with \u201cprettier\u201d deliveries. This can be done in football too, so beware of taking too much time trying to create the next Robo-QB \u2013 you may be better off working on other areas with them. I use this saying to teach\u2026before puberty there are many highway lanes and they are all open but the further we age from puberty the less lanes and more congestion there is within the nervous system of the body. Find the paved, clear highway and take it.<\/p>\n
As stated above, I myself am a spread offensive coach and one of the reasons is that it is easier for a QB to determine reads and play at a high speed. Why do I do this? We at the younger level of football do not have the ability to teach\/practice with kids 8 hours per day like we do in the pro ranks. We just don\u2019t. And fluffing it for 10-20 minutes a week in practice doesn\u2019t do too much good unless the kid is going to take it himself and work the other 1200 minutes on it on his own. If he does, great. But if not, more and more as time goes on, the chances of making them better mechanically shrinks and shrinks.<\/p>\n
Hey don\u2019t get me wrong. Mechanics can be improved later in life but progress will be slower and minimal. But what has happened with me and definitely with high school and college coaches across North America is less time is being spent on developing prototypical pro QB\u2019s and more has been put into developing them to run an incredibly successful system. The thing is, this system does not always translate to the NFL, so the question is, what is the long term outlook on developing prototypical QB\u2019s for the league? I don\u2019t know, but it will be interesting to see what develops over the next ten years or so. History tells us that the future doesn\u2019t always quite work out the way we think it will, but only time will tell.<\/p>\n
Agree or disagree- I would love to hear it as I am open to all learning experiences!<\/p>\n
Larry Jusdanis is the proud owner of Sports Specific Training (the largest sports training company in Canada) and QB Canada- Ranked as the #1 QB Academy in Canada<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Coach Mike and Will Finch will be holding a Qb mechanics class every Monday- starting in June<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Click here for Mike’s 101 Mechanics<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n www.Qbcanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n www.sst.training<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Death of the Modern Day QB………. What? I just finished watching film of Peyton Manning break 70,000 all-time yards and win on a miraculous play on Thursday night football. For every Peyton, Tom Brady, Big Ben and Andrew Luck there are Jamarcus Russell’s, Akili Smiths, Tim Couches, Ryan Leafs, and the list goes on … Continue reading “The Death of the Modern Day QB?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"