Pocket guide for NFL: Don't go changing running QBs
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| Vince Young's college brilliance was based largely on his ability to make plays outside the pocket. (Getty Images) |
Here's what I don't understand about the Carolina Panthers. They scouted Cam Newton, drafted Cam Newton, then signed Cam Newton.
And now they want him to be Jake Delhomme.
Huh?
The same thing happened last year in Denver. The Broncos scouted Tim Tebow. Studied him, drafted him, signed him. Then asked him to be a better version of Kyle Orton.
It happens all over the place. This isn't really a question for the Panthers or the Broncos so much as it's a question for the NFL at large. The Tennessee Titans, for example, spent months studying Vince Young after he entered the 2006 draft as a Texas junior. He wasn't the Heisman Trophy winner that season -- that would be Reggie Bush -- but Vince Young was pretty clearly the best college football player in the country in 2005. The Titans drafted Young third overall because he was an unstoppable force of nature outside the pocket ... then tried to turn him into a pocket passer.
Huh?
The Raiders spent a third-round pick last week in the supplemental draft on Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor, who was one of the better college quarterbacks in 2010 because he could run and throw, and in that order. Only now the Raiders will ask Pryor to throw and run, in that order, and preferably without that whole "running" nonsense.
It's nonsense, I tell you. Nonsense. If a running quarterback can't survive in the NFL, then don't draft one. Would you spend more than a few seconds trying to shove a square peg into a round hole? Of course you wouldn't. That's a basic IQ-test question given to kids, who are handed a handful of objects and timed as they fit those objects into the corresponding hole.
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Even a 7-year-old wouldn't try to fit Tim Tebow into a typical NFL offense. Because Tim Tebow isn't a typical quarterback. All of these guys are unique little snowflakes, bigger or smaller or faster or slower than this guy or that guy, but Tebow is one of the most unique snowflakes in the history of NFL quarterbacks. (Michael Vick also comes to mind.) He's a little bit Bart Starr, and a lot Bronko Nagurski.
And the Broncos want to wedge him into their Kyle Orton-sized slot at quarterback? It's not going to happen. Brady Quinn has a better chance of succeeding in that role than Tim Tebow, and what do you know -- Quinn appears to be ahead of Tebow on the depth chart.
This isn't Tebow's fault. It's Denver's fault. It's the NFL's fault, too, this unimaginative league taking some of the best, most unique talents the college football feeder system has to offer -- and then ruining those talents. Instead of nurturing Tebow in a system where he can bull-rush here and throw the ball on the run there and improvise everywhere, the Broncos want Tebow to take snaps under center (which he's never done), do a three- or five- or seven-step drop (which he's never done), then step into the pocket and deliver a classic NFL strike (which he's never done).
Sounds perfectly reasonable, doesn't it?
No. It does not. It sounds stupid, even if NFL teams are smartly trying to protect their investment at the most expensive position in the league -- reasoning that a "running" quarterback will soon be an "injured" quarterback. On paper it sounds like a solid theory, but in real life? Not so much.
Some of the best quarterbacks in NFL history ran, and ran a lot. And never paid the ultimate price. Roger Staubach. Fran Tarkenton. Steve Young. Steve McNair. Michael Vick. Those guys could throw the ball, yes, but they could run and their teams maximized those unique gifts.
The Titans weren't smart enough to maximize Vince Young's incredible size, speed and power. Imagine an offense with two great running backs -- Vince Young and Chris Johnson -- and a quarterback who doesn't throw the ball like Marino, no, but is good enough to find openings against a spread-out, freaked-out defense worried to distraction by the ground game. What would such an offense look like? That's not my problem. That was the Titans' problem, their duty, after they drafted Vince Young and invested all that money and draft equity into him.
Instead, they tried to turn him into Dan Pastorini.
This has happened for decades. Kordell Stewart was never a great passer in college at Colorado. He gave us one of the great NCAA highlights of all-time, that 64-yard Hail Mary against Michigan in 1994, but that didn't make him a great passer. He wasn't. He was a sensational athlete who could outrun pursuit and throw the ball 70 yards. That's a unique skill set, but the Steelers ignored it and even ignored his stat line from Colorado -- where he never passed for more than 2,300 yards in a season, never threw more than 12 touchdown passes in a season and only once completed more than 60 percent of his passes in a season. But in college, Stewart did run for more than 1,000 yards over his final two seasons, and he did gain nearly 6 yards a carry.
It took the Steelers seven years, but in 2001 they figured a way to let Stewart use his massive skills. He threw for a career-best 3,109 yards. He ran for a career-best 537 yards. He survived. The Steelers won 13 games, then reached the AFC title game.
Sometimes it works out. Kordell Stewart was allowed to be Kordell Stewart. Maybe it would work out in Carolina if the Panthers allowed Cam Newton to be Cam Newton. But that's not what they're doing. The other day the Panthers were in Cincinnati, and it looked to me like they wanted Cam Newton to be Jake Delhomme. That won't work.
Let's remember this, though, whenever Tebow and Newton and Pryor meet their ultimate demise. The word "bust" will be thrown around, but make sure you throw it in the right direction. Don't throw it at the running quarterback who couldn't make the transition to passing quarterback.
Throw it at the people who drafted that square peg and spent years trying to shove him into a round hole. Even a 7-year-old knows that won't work.
