Les Snead: NFL clubs must adapt to college quarterbacks

[Mackeyser]

That's the point. It's not. And, the college game literally teaches spread QBs almost NOTHING about being about being a pro QB.

People wanted to give Jimmy Clausen grief for being a meathead, but he could read a basic defense, understand progressions and recite play diagrams as far as how to attack a particular D. For the first time anyone can recall in combine history, they got blank stares to what should have been answerable questions.

I don't think Les Snead is one to engage in hyperbole so when he says crisis, I at the very least take his word that the situation is serious. And coach after coach has said that both QBs and OL are coming out so unprepared that it is forcing teams to change how they scout. You'll see in the next few drafts that pro style offenses will be picked over ahead of spread because it's less to teach.

Yet another reason I think Mannion was a freaking steal in the third.

 

[HometownBoy]

I don't think what Snead is saying is we have to bend over backwards and adhere to what colleges do. That's never going to happen, this is the big kid club, not the other way around. The NFL does have to adapt to what it's being given though, that much has been the same since the beginning of the NFL.

The NFL is always adapting and changing, used to be if you didn't have a big bruising running back you couldn't make it in the NFL and your QB was there to throw the occasion pass when your RB couldn't gain those yards, now it's a passing league.

In my opinion much of the NFL's problems are based on this standard that change is bad, and that we have to keep everything the exact same way and giving up on any and all new that crops up.

 

[shaunpinney]

Mannion was the steal of the draft, I really do believe the guy has a long NFL future

 

[drasconis]

The problem is that it's a passing league and the league is stuck playing musical chairs with the talent.

There are currently, maybe 25 true starting caliber QBs in the NFL and the college game isn't supplying the NFL with enough talent to replace the losses it sustains to retirement/injury.

I have to wonder at the contention here that there is suddenly shortage of QB talent. Has there ever been a time when every team had a starting QB they were really happy with? If I looked at the league 10, 20, 30 years ago would I not see the same thing...a hand full of elite QBs, a group of second tier guys, and bunch of teams in the lower 1/3 that were constantly searching for a QB?

Here are the QB's from 1995
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/qb1995

I do not see more than 25 starters in that group.....

 

[shaunpinney]

I have to wonder at the contention here that there is suddenly shortage of QB talent. Has there ever been a time when every team had a starting QB they were really happy with? If I looked at the league 10, 20, 30 years ago would I not see the same thing...a hand full of elite QBs, a group of second tier guys, and bunch of teams in the lower 1/3 that were constantly searching for a QB?

Here are the QB's from 1995
http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/qb1995

I do not see more than 25 starters in that group.....

It happens in all walks of life, art, music, football, sport, business, science etc if everyone would be 'elite' you'd never have a Da Vinci, The Beatles, Montana, Carl Lewis, Guggenheim etc....

Some people are just great, others have greatness thrust up on them, and then you have the guys that do the best with what they are given, some will be remembered and some will be forgotten

 

[drasconis]

It happens in all walks of life, art, music, football, sport, business, science etc if everyone would be 'elite' you'd never have a Da Vinci, The Beatles, Montana, Carl Lewis, Guggenheim etc....
Some people are just great, others have greatness thrust up on them, and then you have the guys that do the best with what they are given, some will be remembered and some will be forgotten

Yeah there is always an ebb and flow. 7 years ago the NFL had probably 10 HOF level QBs playing (not saying they were all HOF quality at that time), currently we are near the end of this line of great QBs wondering where the replacements will come from. Look at 1995 there are maybe 6, and most are at the end of their career...looking at what was on the table the future wasn't bright at least I wouldn't say it appeared that way - the Era of Aikmen/Elway/Young was coming to end to be honest the new group of great QBs had not shown up yet -Manning shows up in 1998, but if you look at the young guys of the period none of them turned into much more than journeymen.

 

[blackbart]

I don't think the adjustment needs to the changing the NFL offense as much as it needs to be teaching and developing that guy who comes out of college without the tools to get it done in the NFL.

The NFL might need to invest in a minor league system similar to MLB. And this time REALLY invest. They want to expand the market so use those other countries to develop players, if that doesn't work there are a bazillion semi-pro leagues and teams around.

Take some of that obscene money and put it in to player development. They have been reaping the profits without putting much in to the player development in college. Time to fix the supply chain.

 

[fearsomefour]

College coaches have one job, win at their level. Most are recruiters and not great coaches. The goal is to bring in as much talent as possible and let the best athletes run onto the field. Not true everywhere of course.
I have seen this first hand with college baseball many times. Bring in as much talent as possible, way over recruit, then do next to nothing to develop players.

 

[fearsomefour]

would warner and delhomme have had nfl careers without nfl europe? probably not. they need a developmental league more now than they did back then imo. Or expand practice squads and ps eligibility to have more time to develop more prospects. if college ball is not preparing players for the pros those are alternatives. the nfl can afford it

I loved NFL Europe for that reason.
But, in my opinion, it has to make money for the NFL to be interested. No idea if NFL Europe even approached break even as a league.

 

[DaveFan'51]

If a kid coming out of college will take too much work to get him Pro ready, just don't draft him! If the entire Draft class is like that, Don't Draft them, Trade for more picks the following year!!
Crazy!?! Maybe!! But why waist time and money Building a Car that will never run. So to speak!!

 

[Akrasian]

Maybe they are thinking about it wrong - colleges aren't going to go away from spread offenses - they work at that talent level and the amount of time they have players. So colleges have no financial or competitive reason to stop going toward less and less preparation for the pros.

But if the multi-billion dollar NFL wants to do something about it without straight out bribes, maybe they can use some resources to develop quarterback simulator equipment - where players on room size screens see a variety of defenses and have to read and react to them. The cost is plummeting on such - they could then donate equipment to every school to train the QBs, and maybe use similar equipment at the combine.

Just thinking off the top of my head - but if the colleges don't want to prepare QBs for the pros (it's not actually their job, after all) then maybe the pros can help prepare the college players in some such way.

 

[FrantikRam]

I think he means in terms of the QBs we have in the league now and their ages.

All of the elite/upper echelon is 1-5 years away from retirement.

The only young-ish guys that have ascended to elite recently are Rodgers and Luck.

We are witnessing the greatest age of QB play ever, and when Manning/Brady/Brees, then Berger/Rivers/E Manning all retire, we'll be left with Rodgers, Luck, and a slew of 2nd tier guys that probably won't make it to the truly "elite" category.

The QBs coming into the game today just aren't on the same level as the one's playing the game now...that could change with one draft class, but really, aside from Luck, we haven't had one truly elite QB come in to the league since Rodgers...and before that, I think Roethlisberger might have been the last one. That's 3 top tier QBs in 11 years. Scary.

 

[LACHAMP46]

Yet another reason I think Mannion was a freaking steal in the third.

Mannion was the steal of the draft, I really do believe the guy has a long NFL future

Interesting....I liked Mannion in the year he had Cooks (2012/2013)...And really Wheaton(2012), although he didn't play with Wheaton a lot...But his play was steady and deadly...Dude was throwing for 300 yard games every week. His last year he seemed to see the rush...Sorta like D. Carr when Fresno faced SC in the bowl game...I kinda shied away from QB's like that...Probably too soon. I've always though the game is going towards a more mobile type QB...I truly hope Mannion is the steal of the draft, but I gotta see what he does when the bullets are flying to believe he's not the guy I saw in the 2014 season....

Has there ever been a time when every team had a starting QB they were really happy with?

It seemed in the 70's all the QB's were decent to good...All threw for 50% completion...all were pretty tough...The 80's started seeing super QB's...that separated from the pack....I also noticed good college QB's would come in the pros, look promising then become....gun shy & ruined. Many QB's could change teams and have marginal success. I attributed it to the QB's were good still, but the original teams were so bad they were actually making young QB's look terrible....I think a lot of QB's now that people assume are bad would succeed in the right program...Just like I believe a Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning could have been destroyed on a team like Cleveland...or under a Spags/Linnehan...Hell, Martz fucked Bulger & Warner up....Probably changed Greens career as well.

 

[Yamahopper]

The game always changes to fit the players.

The spread is here to stay till something better comes along. A spread doesn't have to be 5 wide and 2 point stances. Its basics is about being in a window at the right time.
KISS principal.
That's why it works so well in college.

I don't think a developmental league will fly unless it can make a profit.

Teams should be allowed to keep a developmental QB as an exempt member of the roster. For 2 seasons max. After that he goes on the 53 or is a fa.
When he's placed on exempt status he cannot play that season. He can practice, meetings be coached up etc.

I heard this on the combine coverage this year and it kinda makes sense.

But then it gets back to how it's always been. Just cause a guy can play in college is not a indicator he can play in the pros.