Open Rants by JohnnyFire

Listen in to any radio show around this time of year for a team that's in need of a new QB, and inevitably, you're going to hear the same caller with the same message:

"WELL GEE, LOOMIS AND THE CLAW IN THE AFTERNOONS ON 93.4 THE FUZZ, WE NEED TO DRAFT A PRO STYLE GUY."

Of course, the idea of what a "pro style QB" is alone has been completely shifted, which is what makes this kind of statement absolutely absurd to me. Sure, the importance of the quarterback in today's NFL is something that hasn't been overstated for the sake of a narrative; it's pretty much gospel. You can't win without a top level QB in the NFL today, and you could very, very rarely do it even before 2017.

However, 2017 is a much different beast than even 2007, or 1997 before it. The loose concept of what a pro-style QB is has been put on a pedestal that can't actually be reached. It's an idealism that has gone beyond just being fan theory and even started to dive into front offices and war-rooms. You can trace it all back to Andrew Luck.

Most people don't realize that Andrew Luck was a goddamned unicorn. A guy with perfect size, the perfect arm, working in that ever-elusive "pro style offense" who not only lived up to the hype of the era of the 24 hour sports news cycle, but maintained his draft stock through an additional year of scrutiny and has (for the most part) delivered on what most believed they would receive out of such a QB. That's not a player you find every year; hell, it's not even a player you find every ten years.

What Andrew Luck did, however, was create this terrible double standard, and it's because of the other guy from that draft class; Russell Wilson. Spoiler alert; Russell Wilson is not the perfect size, he doesn't have a perfect arm, he did not come with a ton of work out of the pocket, and was mostly hurt by the 24 hour news cycle, yet in the terms of the 2012 class, the "Greatest QB Class of All Time", little Russell Wilson is the only one who has been to two Super Bowls, and he's the only one to win one (Brock Osweiler's run behind Peyton Manning notwithstanding).

The presence of these two QB's has delivered this new need, a need to find the next unicorn, only now the unicorn is also equal parts dragon, mermaid, and monster truck.

It's silly really, when you think about it. No child in pee-wee football is brought up in the ideals of a pro-style offense, let alone at the middle school level where half the kids drop out, let alone at the high school level where it's not worth the time investment when athleticism wins out, let alone at the collegiate level where coaches have no incentives to actually build up a quarterback with big money contracts on the line. Even with a fundamental system which has diverted, hard, in the past decade and a half towards letting whatever works, work, on every single level of football from inception to the League (or, the growth of spread and gimmicky offenses), here's what seems to be the expectations of the modern QB:

• They not only can run a pro-style offense, and work out of the pocket, but also have experience in spread, West-Coast, or gimmicky offenses, and can handle all with absolute perfection.
• They are at least 6'4", at least 245 lbs (with hands that are so big, the biggest hands, the best hands) but have the strength of a man double their size and the speed and mobility of a man half their size.
• They have no character flaws, or are so insanely talented (to the point of being a generational talent) that their issues are not only outweighed, but actually make them "charming"
• They are incredible athletes, to the point that their athleticism outshines skill players; but they are also plodding and large enough that they don't NEED to use that athleticism
• They're simultaneously accurate, willing to take risks, capable of breaking out to run with the football, smart and able to stay in the pocket, understanding of both the rush and coverage patterns, and can throw perfect short, mid, and long passes.

...out of freaking college. And no, this is not indicative of all scouts, fans, or evaluators, but there damn sure are some folks prepping their scouting reports on how Deshaun Watson can't succeed in the NFL because of his hand size right about now.

The result is a complete skewing of the evaluation process, and not just for the fans.

It's created an NFL where "fit" no longer matters, nor does development, nor does actually evaluating players for what they are. It's why Jacksonville will invest high and rush to the field Blake Bortles, or why the Browns will take a Johnny Manziel and try to fit a square peg into a round hole, or why the Vikings will trade up for Teddy Bridgewater, panic when he gets hurt, and take a QB in Sam Bradford who has been so damaged at this point in this career that he could never live up to playoff expectations. Or, most importantly, why Oakland can stand pat and take a patient approach with Derek Carr.

Derek Carr was not a "perfect QB"; he was part of a system at Fresno State that would make most teams in the NFL want to scratch their eyes out, which caused mechanical problems. He also faced the major problem of having a famous brother who had failed in the NFL prior, and became the 4th QB taken out of the group in 2014. Yet, he's been the objective best as of this point. Why? Because Oakland was willing to consider the fit of Carr to what they were trying to do, looking at him for what he actually was as opposed to trying to make him fit some mold of being "The Next Aaron Rodgers" or "The Next Peyton Manning", or "The Next Drew Brees".

Or, worse yet, "The Next Tom Brady"; that some 6th round QB is the true anomaly here, not attributing anything to the Patriots organization, or the coaching, or the development of the defending Super Bowl champion. They're just going to happen, based on vague ideas of what that incredible QB should be.

It's this thinking which drives Jared Goff to the top of draft boards because he "looks the part", and drives Dak Prescott to Day 3 because of conceptual differences on what kind of QB he can become. Teams are no longer happy just finding someone who can play their part and building around him, no, they need something divine in the abstract, a hall-of-fame franchise guy, all other factors be damned; that is, until their guy goes out and gets murdered behind a terrible O-Line and actually regresses on a professional level; or is wildly helped by an amazing cast of supporting players and becomes the next household name. Yeah, Goff and Prescott, respectively.

The point to all of this is, drafting a quarterback has never been an exact science, and is even less so now, to the point that teams have begun scaring themselves off of viable, decent prospects. We're left with a skewed view of what we "think" a perfect QB is, not realizing that nearly every quarterback worth a damn had or has flaws that were overcome through development and a lot of work from the organization. It's the organizations that miss these points (see Browns, Cleveland) that fail, forgetting that you never see a finished product in Week 1, Year 1.

I'm not saying you have to like everything about a QB, or even like a QB at all. Just stop waiting for the miracle to come. Andrew Luck doesn't happen every year, and neither does Russell Wilson, and, hell, neither does Ryan freaking Tannehill. And that's not going to change any time soon.

3/16/2018 - Open Rant - Who Can Move Up for a QB?
3/6/2018 - Open Rant - The Browns' Draft Catch-22
2/12/2018 - Johnny Manziel, Mental Health, and Forgiveness
7/25/2017 - Open Rant - LeBron is Going Nowhere, Pt. 2
7/19/2017 - Open Rant - LeBron Is Going Nowhere
6/21/2017 - Open Rant: Andrew Luck's Prime is Being Wasted
6/20/2017 - Open Rant: Dissecting the Cavs Post-Griffin
3/30/2017 - Open Rant: 2013 Re-Mock Draft, or, a Glutton for Punishment
2/21/2017 - Open Rant: Your Perfect QB Doesn't Exist
2/6/2017 - Open Rant: Brady Should Retire On Top