It's the new type of offense in college football and even has infiltrated the NFL to a certain degree, but its pervasive through out the college game. Thanks to Chip Kelly and others the spread offense with its use of the up tempo pace has created quarterbacks that run all over the place and try to squeeze out as many plays as possible. Watching all this offense occur I have asked myself this question: Does the spread offense help or hurt the maturation of a quarterback?
There have been many spread quarterbacks drafted that have not done that well at the next level. One of those reasons is the difference in playbooks that these guys are asked to absorb in college and in the pros. For example, when I went to the National Championship game in 2006 and saw Texas beat USC in one of the most epic football games ever, many people thought that Vince Young was going to be a great NFL quarterback. He had size and speed that intrigued many GM's, coaches, and fans around the country. I looked at him as average at best because with his speed, he liked to get out and run around. In the NFL you do not want to do that to much because you are putting yourself at great risk and your teams investment at great risk. The NFL is full of the best players on the planet, every week you are playing the best of the best. That doesn't happen in college.
The playbook. many of these college playbooks are pretty thin. The coaches are making the play call and asking these kids to make just a couple of reads and if it's not there, take off running and get the yards you can. Spread offenses are not ones where quarterbacks are under center so much. They are usually in the shotgun, not taking 3 step, 5 step, or 7 step drops. By not taking these different types of drops and working on getting the ball out in rhythm and on their footwork to get these types of passes out, they are stunting their growth and readiness for the next level. Their coaches at the college level are not helping these young athletes out and getting them ready for the NFL. However, the college coaches are like any other coach in their position. They are interested in winning and keeping their jobs, and if this type of offense keeps them employed with big contracts, then that is what the coach will do. When these players get to the professional level, the playbooks are huge novels with a whole new level of language that can be very confusing to a player that comes from a program where they were not asked to remember much in terms of calling the play.
R.G. III is another example of how these running, spread quarterbacks make it tough to invest in a guy that will run around a lot. When he came out of Baylor he excited many fans with his arm strength, speed, and the ability to make plays with his feet. I just was not sold on him. For one, he exposed himself to much to big hits, he had already torn ligaments in a knee, and I was not sure he could dissect a professional level defense. He proved me right in terms of exposing himself to huge hits. He got hit many times running around and was injured with another blown knee ligament. Griffin does not know how to "slide" properly to help avoid hits. He needs to learn how to do this or he will be out of the NFL sooner than he thinks. Are you listening Johnny Football?
Spread offenses do not help these great athletes out because it is not a complicated type of offense to run and by not taking snaps under center these quarterbacks are missing out on basic type of fundamentals that are essential at the NFL level. Until these guys figure out that they need a better skill set upon entering the "league", then we won't see any spread offensive quarterbacks flourish in the NFL.
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