Greg Cosell's Film Review: The question of the mobile quarterback in the NFL

[Playoffs]

Greg Cosell's Film Review: The question of the mobile quarterback
By Greg Cosell | Shutdown Corner

I’ve given a lot of thought to the question of mobile quarterbacks, and specifically this: Can you be a mobile, movement quarterback who makes spontaneous running plays, and also a precise quarterback who masters all of the subtleties of playing the position in the pocket?

Theoretically, there has only been one quarterback that made the transition from spontaneous, spectacular mobile quarterback to a precision pocket quarterback, and that’s Steve Young. He was coached by arguably the greatest quarterback coach we’ve seen in Bill Walsh, who understood that the position starts and ends in the pocket and anything else is ancillary.

The question is how are these mobile quarterbacks being coached? I don’t know. But if you encourage these mobile quarterbacks to showcase their running ability, that presents the flip side, is that they’re going to miss things – pre-snap, after the snap, because of their technique, because they leave the pocket too early, and so forth. If you’re willing to live with that – you’re the coach after all, I’m not – that’s OK. They will make some plays. But they’ll miss things. There is no statistic for passes that aren’t thrown but should be.

There were a few examples from last week's games:
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An offensive line gets blamed for sacks, but mobile quarterbacks will generally take more sacks...
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These quarterbacks can all make spectacular, spontaneous plays. But those teams have to live with them missing some things, as we’ve seen on these plays. It’s almost unprecedented to be a mobile quarterback and also a pocket quarterback at the same time. That’s what teams have to consider when they make decisions about what they want at the position.

Cosell thinks you choose your poison... pocket passer or mobile QB. That mobile QBs use their feet to get themselves out of situations, thereby bypassing much of the learning process of those nuances needed to succeed as a pocket passer.

If you haven't listened much to Greg and/or don't read it you're likely to make wrong assumptions. Interesting subject -- something he has been fleshing out for years -- made more interesting by today's athletic QBs.

 

[bah007]

As usual, Cosell and I are on the same page. This is something I've been saying for the last few years while most have been announcing the death of the pocket passer and anointing the dual threat as the QB of the future.

Something that wasn't mentioned in the article (unless I missed it) is that dual threat QBs tend to have a shorter shelf life as well. They take more hits and are more likely to get dinged or injured. Injuries also tend to have a bigger impact on their effectiveness.

I understand the draw of a mobile athlete who can throw the ball. But give me the cerebral pocket passer every single time.

 

[eriadoc]

Russell Wilson is the only "mobile" QB that I think has what it takes to be great. He scrambles to extend the play and always looks to pass first. He can burn you with the run, but it's not his go-to move.

 

[Playoffs]

But give me the cerebral pocket passer every single time.

Agree.

“Every battle is won before it's ever fought”

 

[Cerberus]

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[Cerberus]

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