I've probably used the word "footwork" ten times in the 15 or so posts I've posted so far, and that's because it's the single most important thing that translates to accuracy as a passer. I want to be clear about what I'm talking about, so I figured I'd throw some examples together so that you can see what I'm seeing.
Much has been made of Tebow's arm motion, but what I want to know is: what are his feet doing?
Let's take the posterchild for textbook footwork, Tom Brady (Peyton Manning is just as good; I chose Brady for this example, but you can't go wrong with either).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzsKBMBBqro
0:05 - Brady takes the dropback. It's just a little three-step drop, but the feet are precisely spaced and there's no wasted motion. Two hops, locates the open receiver, then sets his feet, steps into his throw, and opens his hips. The hips are secretly important too, as having bad hips or hips that don't open will result in less accurate passes.
0:42 - The dropback looks a little weird because of the semi playaction fake, but his feet are set, hips open, steps into the throw, long completion.
1:10 - Five step drop, again no wasted motion. He's under a little bit of pressure, but still moves around in order to set up the throw (and have his toes pointed in the right direction when he needs to plant and throw), and despite guys around him, he still sets the feet, steps into the throw, open the hips.
Most NFL quarterbacks do not have the presence of mind to ensure that the mechanics are correct when under pressure. It's a panic reaction, just get the ball out however possible. We'll see examples of poor footwork later, and you'll see that it's not as easy as Brady makes it look.
Skipping ahead (past the highlight against the Broncos, we don't need to see any of that nonsense)...
2:36 - This might be my favorite throw of this highlight video. Again, you see how despite being under pressure, Brady won't have any of this "panic and throw off the back foot" stuff. He sets his feet and opens his hips - yes, he takes a hit by doing that, but it ensures the ball is accurately thrown. Touchdown.
Unfortunately, the rest of the video is mostly the same. That's because Brady's a freaking robot. He throws the same way pretty much every time (there is one throw where he throws off his back foot, but it's on a screen pass, which is pretty much the only time you can get away with that sort of thing, since the ball doesn't have to go very far and there's very little chance of it being intercepted or knocked down). Somewhere in there is another throw that isn't very good, but it shows that even the very best in the business aren't perfect every time. Good footwork takes a TON of hard work and effort.
Note I haven't even talked about his release. His release is also good, but we're ignoring that - it's about footwork today. No wasted motion with his feet, everything is very efficient, and when he throws, he sets his feet, distributes the weight to his front foot, and opens his hips.
Now let's look at the bad (Vince Young):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVcOzpAYbMw
Starting with the first dropback, you see that he doesn't really drop back cleanly. There's no precise cross step, and he just kind of hops backwards, and there's wasted motion. Okay, so maybe it was a called QB draw. Let's look at some passing plays.
0:18 - The first step in the dropback seems to be a little choppy, but otherwise it looks pretty good until you get him throwing the ball. Feet's set, but he doesn't really step into the throw or distribute the weight properly, and those hips don't move at all.
0:40 - Same thing. Choppy dropback, and he doesn't step into the throw. Hips stay closed.
0:51 - Good dropback, but he consistently doesn't distribute the weight to his front foot, doesn't step into the throw, and those hips are really stiff.
Lather, rinse, repeat. Vince Young has had five years to work on this. Hopefully you can see the contrast between Tom Brady's precise mechanics and Vince Young's sloppy mechanics.
Now...Tim Tebow.
Let's start with preseason Tebow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpS50GBFDpg
0:20 - As you can see, the dropback is very very choppy, and when he throws, his feet aren't set, his weight isn't distributed correctly, and his hips are wrong.
0:30 - Another choppy dropback, and he's throwing off his back foot. It is a short dumpoff throw, so the backfoot thing is forgivable.
0:40 - Nice work! Good dropback, steps into the throw, sets his feet, hips open.
0:52 - I think he had time to set his feet and step into the throw if he had done so. The defender wasn't so close that he didn't have time, so his weight distribution is a little wild.
1:26 - Yikes. He just kind of let his feet wander all over the place on that one. Feet weren't set, and the throw could have easily been intercepted. On the replay, look at that release. Jumping forward like that is...unorthodox, to say the least.
1:42 - Good throw, good hips, good feet.
1:50 - Throwing off the back foot like that is a great way to get intercepted.
And so on.
So that's preseason Tebow. When I saw this in the preseason, I wasn't surprised. He had major footwork issues at Florida, and everyone expected that. We knew what we were getting. These things can take years to correct, so it's going to be a process.
Now let's fast forward to the regular season, particularly his game against the Texans, since we got to see more what he could do in that game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZnmQ6tApHo
0:43 - Didn't have time to set his feet, but he did get his weight on his front foot and he opened those hips up.
1:05 - Dropback is so much less choppy than his preseason ones, hops, sets his feet, steps into the throw nicely, weight is on the front foot, opens those hips up, and sets up a 47 yard gain.
1:49 - Again, look at how much more fluid his dropback is. Not a lot of wasted motion, and the throwing mechanics (feet set, weight, hips) are spot on, which we didn't really see much of during the preseason.
1:57 - I didn't like the decision to make this throw, but the mechanics aren't to blame here. The ball could have been easily intercepted, but that's not because the pass was inaccurate; he probably shouldn't have attempted the pass in the first place.
2:20 - Look at the way he is flushed out of the pocket, then sets his feet before releasing the ball where I think preseason Tebow wouldn't have taken that extra quarter second to ensure his body and his feet were in place to make a nice, accurate throw.
2:35 - Off the back foot, but it's a screen.
3:05 - My favorite Tebow dropback of the day. Not because of his footwork (although no complaints here - doesn't it look so much better than Vince Young or preseason Tebow?), but because of the decision to correctly throw the short pass. Very very nice.
3:15 - Uggghg. I'm glad it was a completion and for a first down, but that's not a shining example of what you want to do there. Throws off his back foot on a downfield throw (or anything that's not a dumpoff or screen), which is asking for trouble.
But overall, his footwork is much, much improved over his college or preseason days, and the degree of improvement is really not something you see over such a short period of time. It's not a natural thing to relearn how to use your feet, hips, arm, and it requires a ton of work. That's why guys like Kordell Stewart and Vince Young never reached their potential, and what I think is holding Jay Cutler back from being on the same level as Brady or Manning.
Footwork is the single most important thing when it comes to accuratlely throwing the football. There are other factors like decision-making, but if you want to throw the football to X spot, you have to have good footwork. No elite NFL passer has ever had poor footwork. It doesn't happen, ever.
Tebow's footwork isn't perfect, and it still requires a lot of work. I also intentionally avoided all discussion of his arm release, because that's a different issue (and one that's not that important compared to footwork). But the fact that he's been able to come so far in such a short period of time is remarkable. He's already moved ahead of Vince Young, who's had five years to correct his issues. I've just never seen anyone improve so much in such a short period of time. This is unprecedented as far as I know.
I was skeptical of the Tebow pick because I didn't think he could make such huge strides so quickly. Seeing his play the last two weeks leaves me with little reason to believe that he won't be highly successful in the NFL. You want a reason to get excited? This is why. He's doing absolutely everything right right now in terms of giving himself the best chance to succeed.
I initially was going to have the good (Brady), the bad (Vince Young), and the ugly (JaMarcus Russell), but I can't find enough examples of Russell on youtube to put together a good example of why he was so bloody awful. so instead, we get the good, the bad, and the Tebow.