The Fall of the Quarterback

(This article was originally published in the October 29th issue of the QC Knight News)

Defense wins championships. That's the old adage that has been preached in all of sports for many years. But one only had to look at Peyton Manning leading the Indianapolis Colts right past the vaunted Chicago Bears defense last January to question that assumption. In fact, the Super Bowls of recent years have been littered with highlights of Manning, Tom Brady, and Ben Roethlisberger firing pinpoint passes for touchdowns. But the number of teams with quarterbacks of that caliber is dwindling. In 1995, 14 quarterbacks had a passer rating of over 85, including greats like Brett Favre, Troy Aikman, Steve Young, Dan Marino, John Elway, Warren Moon and Jim Harbaugh. Last season, only 10 quarterbacks achieved the same rating. Among those 10, two have been replaced as their team's starter and others, such as Marc Bulger, Donovan McNabb and Philip Rivers, are languishing in the bottom tier of NFL quarterbacks when it comes to passer rating. In today's NFL, one can only find five or six consistently good quarterbacks on the 32 teams.What is the reason behind this change? In most sports, the athletic ability of players is improving, as new training methods and techniques are leading to records being constantly broken in all sports. Why then, is this most glamorous position in America's top-rated sport on a steady decline? The answer lies with the teaching these athletes receive. High school quarterbacks are recruited by college football powerhouses and taught to play their position in a manner very different than they would in the NFL. College coaches take advantage of these players' superior athletic skills, either by making them into hybrid-type players whose job is a mix of passing and running, or by putting them in a passing offense with quick short passes on almost 90 percent of the plays. This year Florida University's Tim Tebow became the first college player to run and throw for 20 touchdowns. Patrick White, of West Virginia, has run for 1144 yards this season, or 100 more than his team's star running back, Steve Slaton. On the other side of the spectrum Hawaii's Colt Brennan and Boston College's Matt Ryan have combined to attempt over 1,000 passes this season. All these players are prime NFL prospects and they all face a huge difficulty. The system they'll be forced to run in the pros is nothing like they're used to. In the NFL, defenses are much better at containing a quarterback who runs a lot. Michael Vick is a perfect example of a running NFL quarterback. His team never made it past the conference championship game, and in Vick's last two years before he went to jail, they missed the playoffs altogether. Over Vick's career he only completed a well-below-average 53 percent of his passes. Quarterbacks who run an exclusively passing offense in college are even worse off. Texas Tech has been renowned for their passing system in recent years. Their former quarterbacks, B.J. Symons and Sonny Cumbie, both own college football records for passing in the regular season and bowl games. Neither has played a snap in the NFL. Nowadays, quarterbacks are being mined from unlikely sources. Smaller schools, unable to recruit fantastic athletes, are compelled to play students who are pure passers in a balanced system. These players end up more NFL-ready than any others. Among the top five quarterbacks this season in passer rating, statistically speaking, are Roethlisberger (from Miami of Ohio), Tony Romo (Eastern Illinois) David Garrard (East Carolina) and Brett Favre (Southern Mississippi). Another is Tom Brady, who in college was a backup to former New York Yankee prospect Drew Henson. This trend will continue. Top prospects in the upcoming draft include Andre Woodson (Kentucky), Brian Brohm (Louisville) and Joe Flacco (Delaware). As college coaches adjust to the more athletic style of play, more teams may switch back to traditional systems. Until then, unless you're a lucky fan, you'll be agonizing over shoddy quarterback play for years to come.