DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Upon Further Review.... First Round QB Draft Class

As we already know, four rookies were drafted this year in round 1 of the NFL draft. Each with their own set of talents, and each going into the NFL with their own set of circumstances.

All rookies have to go through a transition when entering into the NFL. The speed of the game is faster, their team mates change and they must develop timing and chemistry with their new C, TE's and WR's. The terminology is different as well as the playbook.

In most all cases they have another major transition. This is that the system they are playing in vary greatly from their college days. There aren't many major college teams running the pro style of offense these days. The Andew Lucks of the world are very far and few between where an NCAA QB runs a very similar style of offense in college that he'll be running in the pros.

Yet even with that said, I had a feeling that on some level, we would see some pro teams adjust their offenses to better utilize and build around their new QB's strengths, rather than expect some of these QB's to learn an entirely new system. I believe we saw a bit of that last year with Cam Newton.

So let's look at the #1 and #2 QB's taken in this years draft.

Andrew Luck

As I mentioned above, the Andrew Lucks of the world are few and far between.
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But when work started, the laughter quieted. Luck can already make adjustments and checks at the line, and he spent considerable time attached to Wayne's hip on both days. He's well aware he's got a ways to go. Pro-ready as he is, as much as any quarterback has been since Manning, offensive coordinator Bruce Arians speaks a different football language than Luck did at Stanford. Terminology will be key, as will learning hot reads and sight adjustments, which he and rookie receiver Griff Whalen emphasized at Stanford the past five weeks, as both finished their degrees.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82...amfirst-culture
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Luck came from a system, that at least from the aspect of having a head start on how to operate within the NFL offense, gives him somewhat of an advantage. As with all QB's, the rest is up to him and his ability, but this should make the transition in regards to systems somewhat more user friendly.

RG3

While most QB's come into the league having to contour their style of play into an existing system, to a great degree this can not be said of RG3. His attributes are wide ranging in regards to his skill set. And rather than Shanahan forcing RG3 to learn his fntire system as it was, he has decided to mold his offense around what RG3 does.
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“We’re going to adjust our system to what he feels comfortable with,” Shanahan said, “and we’ll watch him grow and we’ll do what we feel like he can do and what he does the best. . . . One thing the NFL is not used to is a quarterback with his type of speed and his type of throwing ability, so I think we can do some things that people haven’t done.”

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/05/06/shanahan-says-griffin-is-the-starting-quarterback/
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So here we see at least to some degree, that a complete transition from what RG3 has done in the past compared to what he will be doing going forward is not a complete and total change. They are not retooling a QB to work within their system. They are retooling their system to work for their QB.

Tannehil at #8 and Weeden at #22 both came from the spread offense in college. From everything I've seen, neither the Dolphins nor the Browns plan any sweeping changes to accomidate this. Both of these QB's will have to learn a completly new system.

While I'm sure the shotgun will be used on some plays as it is with most teams in the NFL, the vast majority of their snaps will be under center. When it comes down to the long term, I believe each of these four QB's will succeed or fail based on their talent and smarts.

I do not believe that long term, the sytem they played in college will have any real bearing on their careers. But I do think tht people should keep in mind that two of these QB's have a big head start in regards to the fact that one came from a pro system and has a comfort level playing in the pro style of offense right out of the gate.

The other has a system being molded around his strengths that will give him a certain comfort level from the very beginning.

The other two? They will have a much larger learning curve going from one extreme to the other. How much of a factor this will play for the short term is still unknown, but I do feel it is a point that deserves looking at and to be considered when jumping to any major conclusions when comparing these QB's very early on.

JMHO

So you think Tannehil playing in a Mike Sherman offense in college won't translate to the Dolphins offense... run by.... Mike Sherman...

I disagreed with you on that point, other than that nice post I think Weeden has the largest learning curve out of the four

It'll also be interesting to see if Wilson from Seattle gets a chance to start up there... I think they still go with Flynn (for now) because of the price tag they paid for him... but Wilson has looked pretty good. If he was taller he would have been a first round pick. I really liked the kid at Wisconsin... well actually I hated him when we played against him

I agree with ya - the competition has been way closer than I hought it would be, especially with Flynn having so much hype (which I thought was a bit much) and wilson coming in as a 3 rd QB...

Will be interesting to see how these rookies play once the real games get going.

I'm 36 now, and Joe Gibbs was one of the best coaches I ever had seen when I was younger. He won 3 Superbowls with 3 different starting qbs, that's amazing in my book.
I always wondered why if Joe Gibbs could adjust his system to his players than why the hell did we keep on getting idiots trying to force square pegs into round holes?
Why did we keep getting GMs that didn't get the players that fit our systems if our coaches were so inflexible?

But back to topic, yup, when you shape your system to what your qb/ players can do you're goig to get a lot more out of them than forcing those qbs/ players into a system that doesn't fit their skillsets.

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when you shape your system to what your qb/ players can do you're goig to get a lot more out of them

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Tuna was great at this.

So was Don Shula. He let Johnny U do his thing, then let Csonka, Kick and Morris do theirs, then let Marino do his.


Good coaches adapt to the players they get.