I agree with you, Cugel, for the most part.
One of the reasons for QB longevity is that the rules have been changed to keep them upright. Leave the pocket, especially when looking to advance the ball, and the rules stop favoring you.
That hasn’t stopped Carson Palmer and Tom Brady from suffering horrific in-pocket knee injuries, Peyton Manning needing neck fusion and Matthew Stafford from self-destructing at the first hint of pocket pressure.
There’s a thought that the way you keep people from being injured when they get hit is by hitting them enough for them to be used to it. Wouldn’t help with the knee injuries, obviously, but there’s a line to walk between wrapping the QB in bubble wrap and letting him act as your fullback.
Portions of the spread option included in the offensive game plan could be a nightmare for opposing defenses if run by the right offensive personnel. Part of it is that it can be damn hard to stop with a Tebow-type running it, and part is that it just isn’t seen much.
When the Broncos were one of just a couple max-ZBS teams, others hated preparing for the cutblocks, and even though the trend in the league was “bigger, stronger lines on both sides of the ball” our little line crushed the Green Bay massive one. They didn’t see nearly as much of that from other teams, and our guys were the best at performing it.
As more teams went ZBS, fewer bargains were there in the overlooked players needed to run an effective full-time ZBS system and teams saw it often enough that it wasn't scary-new…but there will come a time when the ZBS falls back out of favor and the few teams that do run it have perfect personnel to do so because no one else wants them for their schemes.
Nobody in a “traditional” offense wants Tebow. If we’re going to use Tebow, then certainly at first and for parts of his entire career he’ll have to be used non-traditionally. That’s not to say he can’t win that way – he’ll be hard to prepare for, especially if we get an offense based around his skillset rolling.
And we’ll have our choice of backup QB, as well, because nobody else is really using that offense at this point.
But if Tebow succeeds, and Newton succeeds (and they incorporate more of his skills in their ongoing offense) and somebody like RGIII comes out and succeeds in a run/throw hybrid offense…
Then you’re going to see a lot of articles on a new style of quarterbacking.
IMO, the NFL has managed to slow the progression of offenses by changing the QB rules to maintain the high-percentage West Coast passing ideals that Walsh came up with because they liked how it changed the game and how visually appealing (as well as scoreboard appealing) it could be.
But I don’t think they can crystallize it in this form forever, and I do wonder if putting special athletes with incredible size and strength at QB is a next step. It depends on whether there are enough NFL-caliber athletes who can play the position, obviously, but more and more of them are showing up in the farm system…er, college football.
We’ll see if the NFL allows the game to be played that way. With defenses geared to stop pocket passers and get them on the move, having moving passers is especially important, and having ones who are dangerous in the open field is even better. One way to hurt a 3-4 defense is with a mobile QB. As 3-4 teams increase (because they’re a good way to hurt the pocket passing of Brees, Manning, Brady, etc) it makes it harder for those teams to contain a runner at the position. And even 4-3 teams aren’t used to seeing a QB run like Tebow or Newton can run.
I agree, they also have to be able to perform from the pocket… but once that criteria is satisfied, how we move forward at the position will continue to shift, IMO, both to counter defensive adjustments and because nothing stays static forever.
~G