There has been plenty of chatter regarding Michael McCorkle "Mac" Jones; his floor and also his ceiling. Apparently, as I can best understand it, Mac Jones is a very short man living in a tiny house.
So, what does make an NFL quarterback elite? What are the characteristics and how important are they? NFL talent evaluators have recently fallen in love with quarterbacks who can "make plays with their legs" but how much of a differentiator is that really? Is Lamar Jackson a fad or a trend? Is Mac Jones just the right guy in the right place; a dinker and a dunker who benefits from the system he plays in, more than the system benefits from him?
That last part sounds familiar somehow. Hm. It's almost like the Patriots had another quarterback that pigskin pundits and bobbleheads described in a similar fashion...
But I digress.
I thought it would be interesting to jump into the Google Machine to ask the question: What are the characteristics of an elite NFL quarterback?
The results, unsurprisingly, were mixed and if I may say, more subjective than objective.
In a 2012 assessment of Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, and Aaron Rodgers, Bleacher Report used the following criteria:
Arm Strength
Pocket Presence
Footwork
Accuracy
Killer Instinct [I feel like there's a less "implied homicide" way to say this… Will to Win?]
A 2020 piece on HowTheyPlay.com had the following list of 12 characteristics (which I'm paraphrasing as they were far more verbose and I was too lazy to copy them word for word thought apparently not so lazy as to write this quite verbose parenthetical comment):
Arm Strength + Accuracy [seems like two different things but okay]
Chemistry with Receivers
Expertise/Poise in Offensive System
Studious [would seem to be essential to and thus redundant with "Expertise/Poise"]
Decision-Making [also seems like a synonym for "Expertise/Poise"]
Post-Snap Reads [when Decision-Making occurs?]
Mastery of 2-minute Offense [when "Clutch" decisions are made?]
Leadership
Shares Success/Credit [a sign of great Leadership]
4th Quarter Comebacks [in the "2-minute Offense"?]
Clutch [you could've just said "Killer Instinct"]
Wins Championships [like Nick Foles, Joe Flacco, Brad Johnson, and Trent Dilfer?]
Then there was this piece from 2013, also on Bleacher Report, listing how NFL scouts break down NFL quarterback prospects:
Accuracy
Vision [see "Post-Snap Reads" in above list]
Leadership and Poise [seems like two different things or perhaps one is evidence of the other?]
Arm Strength (Velocity)
Pocket Presence and Escapability [seems like two different things but again, okay]
Anticipation [see "Chemistry with Receivers" in above list]
Mechanics [essential to Accuracy and Velocity]
Size [Drew Brees, anyone? Russell Wilson? Kyler Murray?]
I could've kept looking but honestly, it seemed like a huge waste of time. The wisdom of crowds (and self-appointed experts) is, generally speaking, obvious and boring (or cynically perverse). And while the idea that there is a quantifiable definition of an elite NFL quarterback was looking like an exercise in futility, a consensus was emerging:
Accuracy (Mechanics)
Arm Strength
Leadership (Poise, Pocket Presence, 2-minute Offense, Clutch, Killer Instinct)
Expertise (Chemistry w/Receivers, Studious, Decision-Making, Post-Snap Reads, Anticipation)
Athleticism (Footwork, Escapability, Size)
I like lists of 5 so I'm stopping right there. It's a fine list, mostly because it's a list made from other lists. This is what passes for knowledge in the year 2021. Facts are so 2015.
Quarterback has been described, so often as to become accepted wisdom, as the most difficult position in all of sports. (I personally would not want to be a race car driver because, you know, fiery death in a twisted metal coffin, but maybe that's just me.) Given the premise, it's no surprise that a lot goes into being an elite quarterback. But it's also evident in the fossil record that many different types of quarterbacks have won championships. (Not to pick on that "the Patriots aren't good anymore" guy again but I don't think Super Bowl winning QB Trent Dilfer qualifies as elite. Then again, I don't think he's had to buy a beer in Baltimore since 2001. So there's that.). What then really matters when it comes to elite quarterback play?
I'm so glad I asked.
Leadership - The Ineffable. (Or is it "uneffable"?) It's an emotional game and belief is one of the most basic, foundational elements to winning. Difficult to measure but you know it when you see it. And when you don't. And you're usually looking at your quarterback when you come to that realization. Is he lying face-down on the turf after throwing a back-breaking interception on a panic throw off his back foot? That guy is not a leader.
Expertise - Does anything after a bad decision matter? If your quarterback hasn't internalized the game plan, isn't in synch with his receivers, lacks anticipation, can't check to a better play at the line of scrimmage, can't "see" the field and is making a bad post-snap read, will anything good come of it? Can any amount of arm strength or athleticism overcome a football IQ of 60? No. Hard no.
Accuracy - I'll take accuracy over Arm Strength because no matter how hard you throw the ball, if it isn't on target it likely becomes one of those bad things that happen when you pass the football (incompletion, interception). Consistent mechanics make it happen. You live by the running, sidearm, across the body throw off the back foot; you die by the running, sidearm, across the body throw off the wrong foot. Sometimes on national television.
Athleticism - Footwork is important when you're throwing a football out of a pocket that's shrunk to the size whatever the 21st century corollary to the phone booth is, with large, sweaty, unsympathetic men banging on the door because they have an important call to make. Legs are important, too - to throwing a football. (See: do not throw off the wrong foot, above). Running quarterbacks are essentially running backs and the pigskin actuarial charts are not kind to running backs. Still, you want a quarterback who can occasionally run a bootleg (which is predicated on the assumption the defense will be shocked and confused at the sight of your slow, unathletic, pea-shooting quarterback running with the football like real men do, ignoring him until he has already stumbled into the end zone).
Arm Strength - Yeah, there will be times when your quarterback will need to throw the four-seamer with cheese. Probably because the team is in trouble (3rd and long, down by two scores in the 4th quarter); trouble that likely came about because your quarterback isn't very smart or fundamentally sound. The ash bin of NFL history is littered with men who had a cannon on their right shoulder (and a pea in their cranium where most of us have brains).
What does any of this mean? I should know. I've just written close to 900 words on the topic, a topic of my own choice and well, I'm not really sure if I do know what it means. But here's my best guess…
Mac Jones may not look the part of an elite NFL quarterback, but that depends more on your definition of what makes an elite NFL quarterback than it does on what Mac Jones can do on a football field.
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