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Colts'
Peyton Manning |
Playing quarterback in the NFL is not for the faint of heart, as the latest
wunderkinds, Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf, have discovered this year. Manning and Leaf,
the first two picks in the draft, have been thrust into starting roles immediately, which
is probably the worst thing that could have happened to them.
"The best position for a rookie quarterback is ‘clipboard,’ "
insists 49er head coach Steve Mariucci, who was the QB coach for Brett Favre when Favre
first came to the Packers and now coaches Steve Young with the 49ers.
"The only quarterback I can think of who came in and starred as a rookie was Dan
Marino," Mariucci said. "Everybody else needs time to learn. Favre got a
‘redshirt year.’ Steve Young took awhile to learn this offense. A rookie
quarterback comes in and sees things he’s never seen before, and it takes him time to
adjust. In the meantime, he’s getting knocked around. He’s always been the star,
but now he’s being humbled. Sometimes, these quarterbacks get to thinking
they’re just no good, and they never really recover."
Leaf had an incredibly bad day against the Kansas City Chiefs in Week Three, completing
just 1-of-15 passes and having two intercepted. The next day he blew up at the media, and
his image became so bad in San Diego that Charger fans booed when he appeared on the giant
video screen promoting a charity.
Nobody has ever been better-prepared than Manning to play quarterback in the NFL. He
played four years in a high-level collegiate program at Tennessee, and his father, Archie,
was a star NFL quarterback who was able to advise him on the pressure he would face.
And yet, even with that background, Manning struggles. He played somewhat better than
Leaf but still ranked near the bottom of the AFC passer ratings in the early weeks. (Leaf
was right at the bottom.) One magazine writer quipped that Manning’s favorite
receiver was the left cornerback, as he averaged nearly three interceptions a game.
"There are probably only about 12 quarterbacks in the league who are really
secure," said Mariucci. "The rest are just struggling to hold on to their jobs
from week to week. And, if you look at the league statistics and draw a line between the
haves and the have-nots, you’ll see that the difference is experience."
The offense du jour in the NFL is the Bill Walsh offense, usually mislabeled the
"West Coast offense." Though that offense is considered quarterback-friendly, it
also creates some problems for young quarterbacks, because it requires more
decision-making. When he coached, Walsh was very adept at giving his quarterbacks only as
much as they could handle, but the coaches who are running his offense now don’t have
his deft touch. Their quarterbacks are usually confused.
"I watched the Arizona-Philadelphia game (in Week Three), and both teams were
running that offense," said Mariucci. "I thought for a while I was going to be
able to say that I saw four quarters of a scoreless NFL game. (Both teams finally scored
in the fourth quarter.) The quarterbacks (Jake Plummer and Bobby Hoying) were obviously
having trouble making decisions. Last year Plummer was just told to run around back there
and make something happen. Now, he has to learn a whole new system. It’s possible his
first year will turn out to be better than his second."
There’s another problem for young quarterbacks: The best ones go to the worst
teams. Sometimes, a quarterback gets lucky because his team picks up some other quality
players quickly; that happened to Troy Aikman after he was drafted by the Cowboys. More
often, though, the team remains bad, and the quarterback just takes a beating.
One reason for Marino’s early success was that he was drafted by a very good team.
Because he had fallen off in his senior year, Marino was not as highly regarded as other
quarterbacks in what was probably the best year —1983 — in history for QB
prospects, with six going in the first round. Miami had lost Super Bowl XVII because the
Dolphins had inadequate quarterbacking. Marino was the answer for them, and he had a
strong supporting cast in place.
Another member of that great ’83 class, John Elway, forced a trade from the Colts
to the Denver Broncos, and, of course, he has thrived, though it wasn’t until last
season that his supporting cast was strong enough to give him a Super Bowl win. Jim Kelly
chose to play first in the USFL, getting experience against lesser competition, and he
also did well when he came to Buffalo. The others in that group — Tony Eason, Ken
O’Brien and Todd Blackledge — didn’t come close to the Marino-Elway-Kelly
level.
Picking quarterbacks is obviously not an exact science. Even for the most talented,
their success is dependent on their supporting cast, how quickly they learn and their
ability to bounce back from the mental and physical pounding they take early. Mariucci is
right: The best position for a rookie quarterback is "clipboard."
Glenn Dickey is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He can be reached via
e-mail at dickey@sfgate.com |
