Mgoboard QBs

I did pretty dang good playing QB in my church Turkey Bowl this last Thanksgiving, so it can't be that hard...

Also, how do you define "athletic"? Do you know Tom Brady's routine? The guy is in great shape, even if he is not very fast on his feet. The guy eats right, trains hard, sleeps right, trains his mind with brain games, and of course studies the film like crazy. 

I was captain of the chess team in high school. Would this translate at all?

It is interesting seeing people play video games. I have always had difficulty focusing on the whole screen or whole field, yet others seem to be able to track multiple things at a time.

So why there is the hard work, practice, muscle memory, study I think the ability to see everything and to act on it quickly is the difference maker. The fact that Brian Greise managed to carve out a NFL career with a noodle arm says a lot. Same reason John O'Korn struggles despite decent ability.

Why do so many highly drafted QB's flame out - Vince Young for example? I think it's this ability to read and react that sets the best apart from others - along with effort, work, etc

Go throw a 10 yard out to the right sideline from the left hashmarks to a WR without anyone covering him or rushing you. That is a ~30 yard throw. Throwing it as hard as you can before your WR makes his break, you might hit 5 out of 100 throws without breaking the WRs stride. 

The worst NFL QB can do that in his sleep. Now go watch this play from Drew Brees perpective. 

Everyone around you is 6'6" or taller, runs a sub 5.0 second 40 yard dash, and half of them want to kill you. You have to get to your third read, dodge some hands, throw the ball perfectly in the x/y axes, and the perfect arc to drop it in a 12"x12"x12" cube window, while your WR has to be running the perfect route where 1 degree change of an angle might put you in the wrong spot.

Perfect execution makes this a 80 yard TD. I mean, he dropped it in a 1 cubic foot box 47 yards away from his launch point. That is incredible.

 

I was a RB, a shortstop and a point guard.  Played all three sports continuously from being a little kid thru high school.  I played QB a bit in little league and then played a few games in High School when the starter went down.  I can say without a doubt, QB is by far the most difficult position to play in all sports.  It is way harder than it looks.  Just taking a snap from under center takes quite a bit of getting used to.  

The hardest thing is trying to see what the hell is going on around you each play.  We have all heard the term, "the game slowed down".  Well, it takes a lot of live football at the position to get to that point where you are comfortable with everything going on around you.  Taking a snap and fading back to pass is not as easy as they make it look on TV.  You have several big dudes bearing down on you and it is really difficult to see over and thru that mess to find your WR's and make the right decision all within a matter of seconds.  Drew Brees impresses me more than any QB I have ever seen because of his size.  I have no idea how he sees what he sees.  

We have seen all kinds of quarterbacks be successful at the highest levels. Various heights, arm strengths, mobility, etc. The one thing they all have in common is the ability to anticipate receivers' routes and coverages. You can watch a ton of film, and it still won't make sense when you're out there on the football field. Being an NFL QB isn't a film-watching contest. It helps, but so do a lot of other things.

Some people are just able to succeed at being QBs. They're born to do it. Just like some guys are born to be contact hitters, some guys are born to be fighters, etc., but there's way more to being a QB than any other position in any other sport. It's the toughest job in all of sports, which is why those guys are the most revered players in America. We'll always love Michael Jordan and LeBron James and Kobe Bryant for the way they can fly through the air and do amazing things that way, but there's something that appeals to the Everyman about seeing a 35- or 40-year old guy who's such an expert at his craft that he can still get the job done of an NFL quarterback.

It's not all in the head, but not much of it isn't.

For example, Harbaugh brought back the play that calls for the receiver to run an eight yard route when Michigan needs nine or ten for a first down.   I thought that was a pleasant surprise this past season.  

https://www.si.com/0mmqb/2016/05/11/nfl-draft-quarterbacks-how-modern-q…

 

This article is good...the tl:dr is that if you have resources, then your kid has a better shot at being a qb. They generally go to better schools, and get better education and IMO are smarter...and we all can agree that the qb should be the one of the smartest guys on the team.  

Article also talks about Connor Cook and how his dad was a problem for him in the draft process.

• 13 of the 15 quarterbacks grew up in homes that were valued near or above the median home value in their respective state, according to public records and online real estate figures. Seven families lived in homes that were more than double the median values: Goff, Hackenberg, Carson Wentz, Connor Cook, Jeff Driskel, Kevin Hogan and Jake Rudock.
•  13 of the 15 quarterbacks in the 2016 draft spent their early childhoods in two-parent homes. (Of note, a majority of the 30 parents hold four-year college degrees.)
• On average, the 15 quarterbacks taken in the 2016 draft began playing the position at age 9, with only two having taken up the position in high school.
• At some point before high school graduation, with many paying significant fees or traveling great distances to do so, 12 of the 15 received varying degrees of individual instruction from a QB coach who was not a parent or a team-affiliated coach; 12 of the quarterbacks also participated in offseason 7-on-7 football during their high school careers.

It is not accurate to say that Brady is not athletic.  Consider not just the very quick, accurate throws.  Also consider the many clutch throws that win these games against the best defenses (Seattle, 2014, this Jaguars team, and don't forget what I think is Brady's best game: the losing effort against the 2015 Broncos in the AFC championship game).  Nobody is open, he waits and waits with the rush closing in, then steps up and if he has time he extends like a pitcher with long legs and long arms and with all those limbs extending he hurls the ball throw space on a rope like a boulder hurled by a medieval contraption.  I suspect none of us realize how hard that ball is travelling, and with accuracy, but I can say no other QB extends like that.  That is an athlete.  His hard and accurate throws were apparent in his first start, the losing effort against ND in 1998.  The wife (material) and I knew that the new QB was something special during that game.  (Like others, we did not know then how far it would go).  Athleticism for a QB is not running a 40.  Brady has the ability to get the ball to a high velocity that is rare and with accuracy that is also rare.  He is not naturally talented at some things the way Aaron Rodgers is.  But what he does well he does in an unparalleled way.

two things set brady apart.

1. His passionate love of preparation.   I don't think anyone save for Manning and Belichick match his intensity for preparing.  

 

2. There are plenty of guys that can make presnap reads and make accurate throws.  But what Brady does between the snap and just until he releases the ball is unmatched save for Manning.  The amount of information he processes at high speeds is impressive. He identifies the coverage, determines which route in the pattern will be open based on that coverage, avoids pressure, all in less than 3 seconds.  Not many people can do all that at that speeds.

on my high school team; and we stunk. The only reason that I was even tought of as a quarterback was because I was a pitcher on our baseball team. I was barely 5 feet tall and couldn't see over my line.

Anyway, for our Homecoming game in my junior year, our starting quarterback was out. The backup quarterback started the game and got knocked out cold in the third quarter (did I mention that our game was against Farmington Hills Harrison?). I came in the game and remembered about all of 5 plays in the playbook.

The result? 1 of 5 passing, five sacks, two fumbles on my part and an interception. The only good thing was that the pass I did complete was a touchdown with about a minute left.  Final tally: a 52-6 loss. Needless to say, I went back to my normal role in kick coverage and in our rotation as a terrible cornerback.

It was at that point that I decided to take up golf instead of football for my senior year.

I was second string QB on my high school team.

A team that ran the ball almost all the time.  I was not a good QB.

So while I can honestly answer the first part of your question in the affirmative, I'm probably not the best person to ask for the rest of it.

Best Nerf QB on my block.

Don't know why the negs, thought this was a nice converastion, so +1 from me.

My two cents, to add to the mix:

1) I played up until middle school, so no way I can accurately answer this from experience of playing, but my answer is VERY hard. I watch and analyze way too much football now, and although I quit playing rec flag football a year or two ago (which is the closest I've ever come to HS football after quitting after middle school), I feel very comfortable giving my opinion on that despite not being qualified in any way to actually give it!

 

2) He is way more athletic than people give him credit for in terms of manuevering in the pocket, which is incredibly important in the NFL. He also is a great "student of the game" and has a great coach, and a great system tailored to his skill set.

 

3) My opinion of what makes a QB good is a combination of a number of factors, including the ability to make a throw and the ability to study, and the ability to diagnose. So if you study your ass off and know something, it doesn't mean you can get the ball there (name an inaccurate QB), or you could get the ball there but don't study enough (Cutler), or you could study and be able to get the ball there but aren't great at diagnosing (Dalton).

If you to separate them since they got compared so much, although I don't think I would say Manning "studied harder" than Brady (since both are notorious for their prep habits), I'd argue that Manning was better at the study part, while Brady was better at diagnosing. Colts offense was geared to this, and Manning would do tons pre-snap to ID defenses and find points. Brady is better "on the fly" in IDing. Probably a vast oversimplification, but hey.

 

 

4) The job is a very mental job, so that is probably part of it. But Brady, Manning, and plenty of others are also "fiery" - You just don't see it as much because it might not get caught. I also think QBs are a bit of the CEO on the field, and that part of what makes them a good leader is calmness, so you don't want someone who is overreacting to everything. You want a steady hand guiding your ship. So this quality in manner ways helps.

 

Keep in mind that all of the QBs work occurs in about a 7 second window at most. In that time period they are usually reading defenses, avoiding the rush/manuevering in the pocket, while also having to go through progressions or key reads. Personally, I think one of the main forgotten things about QBs is that there is literally chaos going on around them. The QBs job is to analyze and decipher chaos and make quick decisions, while avoiding that chaos from brining you down. You want cool-headed people in that role. Or as one notorious UM alumn put it, "cool-headed logicians."

 

5) Completely hypotehtical, but I don't see any reason we couldn't. Also, Brady doesn't get enough credit for being solid at UM, but it's not as if he was a world-beater at UM. Now if you're asking if the next "great QB of all time" is going to come here, well, that's a higher standard that solid college QB and pro starter for a number of years.

Played qb from 5th grade through sophomore year high school, switched to dB junior year so I could start on varsity. I don’t think that qualifies me to really give an answer. But you win your a hero you lose you are the reason. No Grey area really.
Tom Brady is unbelievable. He makes it look easier than it really is. Every one is watching something really special and it won’t happen again kind like Jordan.

Film study, prep, knowing your opponent, practice is key for every position not just qb. If wr’s rbs oline are not all on the same page problems occur.

I don’t believe any of the qbs are solely playing for money at least the starters. Every ones demeanor is different. I think Peters is just who he is. Sometimes a calm demeanor is a good thing easy to move on from mistakes and helps the offense remain steady.

Is most important. Bradshaw(everyone thought he was dumb) Montana, Manning, Staughbach, Plunkett, Aikman and Brady have the 6th or even 7th sense that is all mental.