Was listing to sports radio this morning and they talked about the shortage of good QB's in the NFL. Is the recent love affair with the spread option in college help causing this issue? Being in the spread option one does not really "read" the defense. The coaches do and then tell you what to run.
There are not too many pro style offenses in college that is for sure. Wisconsin is one that still is for all those talented QB's out there listening that have NFL aspirations. The RGIII type QB’s just don’t seem to work well in NFL do they.
It seems to me there has been a shortage of good QB's in the NFL for as long as I can remember. Teams have made deep runs in the playoffs and even won a superbowl in recent years with young Qb's (Luck, Wilson, Kaepernick). Bridgewater played very well towards the end of last season. But, yeah the style of offense in college could certainly be having some effect on some QB's transitioning to the NFL.
Heard a comment on The radio the other day, said something along the lines of there's over 300 million people in the United States and we can't find 32 to play quarterback Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Maybe the NFL needs to look at the smaller colleges. Some great players play at the lower level (DI DII, etc). If they have a shortage they should see what else is available. Or, maybe more are like the 26 year old that just "retired" realizing it takes too much time away from family and isn't worth the money.
A lot of it does have to do with the spread offense. Most of these guys have been running it since high school and when they hit the pros they just can't adjust. When you have been taught your entire career to pull it and run if your first 1 or 2 reads aren't there it is really making it hard for the QB to adjust to the pro game that might have 5 reads on a single play. Also we have seen that as a QB your career doesn't last to long if you have happy feet and like to take off and run. I realize there are some QB's who run a lot and do well but they are few and far between and later on in their career they eventually turn into a pocket passer.
The inability to read a defense is the biggest problem I see. Too many QBs already make up their mind who they are throwing to and then they eye them without even going through their progressions. This is the most annoying thing to see when I watch a game. It's bad enough when there's a certain lineup that's already a partial tell as to what they are going to do, but then to have a QB who eyes the receiver is just a blatant tell to confirm what the defense already knows. The athletic scampering QBs only extend plays and it rarely works. When you look at how many QBs are like this in the NFL, there's only 1-2 who make it work and that's because they still learn to read the defense and work through their progressions. If you think about it, there are about 15,000 division I college players, in the NFL there are about 2,000 players (including practice squads). That's a huge margin for crappy players who make it to the NFL.
If you are referring to Jake Locker that guy is dumb! He could have made at least 4 million just to hold a clip board. Back up QB's only take a small percentage of snaps in practice and rarely get in the game. I realize locker made 12 million on his rookie contract and is probably going to do just fine it would still be hard to turn away that money. If he stayed until 30 thats 16 million he could have made.
It certainly has something to do with it. The list of good college QBs game that doesn't translate to the NFL is endless. Coordinators will keep trying, but it will never be the formula to win in the NFL.
I really see no difference now versus say 20 years ago? At any point in time you will probably have around 10-12 good Qb'S...10-12 okay Qb's...10-12 bad Qb's. It's always been that way. It's a very difficult position to play at a high level.
The scouting departments of NFL teams are well aware of players at those lower levels obviously. There are reasons most of those players are at a lower collegiate level. Some of them do make the NFL though.
As much of a fan of Ohio State as I am, I think that is a huge part of it. I love watching OSU offense, but it really isn't preparing these kids for the league. Urban Meyer proved that this year with what he did with Cardale Jones, a kid who hadn't taken a first team snap all year... Barrett goes down, Jones comes in and hangs 50 on Wisconsin, beat the "all mighty Bama" and rolled Oregon. Urban openly admits he builds packages around his players and he had to dumb down the offense for those games. Plays are called from the sideline, and the QB usually has 2 reads. Heck, most QB's in the NCAA aren't even reading defensive sets pre snap, all of that comes from the sidelines and are usually followed by audible's which are also called from the sideline. May be great coaching in terms of winning but these guys aren't ready for the league, Tim Tebo, Troy Smith, JaMarcus Russel being the biggest examples that come to my mind. Another factor in my eyes is the recent string of greats in the NFL, every team wants to find a Payton, Tom (as much as that hurts to say!) Rodgers, etc.. With about 8 quarterbacks running away from the rest of the league it has added pressure to the other roughly 20-25 teams to find that "elite" guy.
Usually a team that drafts in the top 10 on a regular basis is pretty bad, you can't play QB very well if you are running for your life every play. Every good QB needs good recievers too.
