(Photo courtesy of needpix.com)
By Kelvin Butler
There’s all kinds of talk about Tom Brady and Drew Brees thinking about retirement. That might put an end to the pocket passer era, once and for all.
All of the teams that made the playoffs have quarterbacks that are mobile—not elusive in the pocket like Brady or the Manning’s, but mobile like a Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes. For those guys, if pressure comes to them they can extend the play to the point where someone will end up getting open.
Lamar Jackson is the most exciting form of pocket-pressure play; he jukes every pass rusher that gets into the pocket. The play has been going for so long that a receiver is bound to be open. If there’s no receiver, then the defense is so broken that Jackson can get off a quick 15-, 25-, even a 65-yard run.
Quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes can extend the play with their feet and make circus throws. This is a great talent when they have no name receivers, bad offensive lines or bad play calling—they can make plays to get their team in winning situations.
Then, quarterbacks like Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson are insanely tough players. Even though Wentz is injury-prone, he’s tough when he’s not tearing an ACL or getting a hairline fracture. Both Wentz and Watson make unique plays.
Watson broke two full speed defensive end tackles in a wild card game and came out running like nothing happened. If that happened to a pocket passer, they would’ve gotten hurt or received a “roughing the passer” penalty for committing that tackle.
The mobile quarterback is the new way to win football games, simple as that. Brees is the only elite level pocket passer quarterback and even then, he’s dependent on Michael Thomas. If the defense takes Thomas away then it’s left to Tayson Hill to make impact plays.
Mobile quarterbacks who can make necessary and timely plans will win playoffs—and who knows what next.
If things go your way, you can ride a quarterback—like Cam Newton or Colin Kaepernick—to the Super Bowl.
Looking at the young quarterbacks coming in who can run and seeing all the pocket passers getting old and retiring, it seems like that type of quarterback is a dying breed. The college type play design fits better for a mobile quarterback than a pocket passer one, anyway.
The newer, younger, quarterbacks are simply more athletic and talented.
The older ones and the league are succumbing—or conforming—to the realization that this is how the NFL will be from here on out.
