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Why Nassib is such a valuable commodity for the Giants to have


BleedinBlue

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Very good article in the Wall Street Journal called, "Why the NFL Has a Quarterback Crisis"

Here's the link if you prefer to read it from the site: http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-the-nfl-has-a-quarterback-crisis-1441819454

 

I have been saying for years, that a winning team has to have a cerebral QB, not just fast legs and a hard throwing arm. Ever since I used to watch Roger Staubach carry the Cowboys on his back, I have been saying that. Staubach soaked up every possible knowledge from Tom Landry and took it on the field with him. He wasn't particularly athletic, but he read defenses on the fly, knew precisely what to do when there was a quick defensive change in motion, etc. In short, he could out think his opponents. I think that is what Ernie saw in Eli when he was willing to trade the farm to get him.

 

Regardless, it's the same thing that sets Nassib apart from those who were drafted before him. He's like a sponge when it comes to learning the game from the coaches' perspectives. He follows Eli around and soaks up every bit of knowledge he can. He's preparing himself to be a real NFL QB someday and he's not far off.

 

Every year we see dozens of QB's drafted and many of the top names on the draft board wash out quicker than a mud dam. It seems (to me anyway) that the scouts are putting athleticism over brains when rating QB's coming out of college, when brains are critical for a QB.

 

Anyway, here's the article:

 

Why the NFL Has a Quarterback Crisis

 

Coaches see more QB prospects entering the league without the skill sets to excel; Will the classic NFL passer go extinct?

 

Since the dawn of the NFL, head coaches and general managers have been calling top college quarterback prospects into conference rooms to pepper them with rudimentary questions: how to attack a certain defense, for instance, or what to do when a play breaks down. The answers were sometimes dull and sometimes brilliant, but there were always answers.

 

This year, according to separate interviews with dozens of NFL coaches and executives, something disturbing happened in these pre-draft quiz sessions. When asked the same basic questions, many quarterback prospects responded with something NFL insiders said they have never seen before: blank stares.

 

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said the new crop of college quarterbacks were flummoxed by a simple question about an under front, one of the most common defensive alignments. Whoa, no ones ever told me front before, he remembers one prospect saying. No ones ever talked to me about reading these defenses.

 

Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley said he had the same results when he asked prospects a question about defenses shifting from a common scheme called cover 2 to an equally mundane tactic called cover 3. Hue Jackson, the offensive coordinator from the Bengals, said he had to dumb down his questions, while Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said some QBs failed to grasp things as basic as understanding a common play call. You have to teach these kids the absolute basics, he said.

 

The knowledge base was so low, Buffalos Whaley said, that it left him feeling a little nervous about the long-term future of this game.

 

As the 2015 NFL season begins, the leagues decision makers say they are daunted by what they see as a widening gulf between the college game and the pro game, one that has existed for a while but is now starting to affect the quality of the leagues most-cherished commodity: Quarterbacks. The kinds of passers the NFL thrives on are those who can survey the field before the snap to read the defense and make any necessary adjustments, then drop back and dissect the coverage again, picking through a number of passing options to find the open receiver.

 

For years, this brand of preparation has been regenerated from Joe Montana to Tom Brady to relative newcomers like Seattles Russell Wilson and Andrew Luck of the Indianapolis Colts. Spoiled by their immense talent and football intelligence, the NFL has organized itself around quarterbacks to the point where it is hard to imagine the sport without them. The five most productive individual passing seasons in history have happened since 2011.

 

But if current trends continue, NFL insiders say, quarterbacks who have the sophistication to outfox NFL defenses to deliver the ball to open receivers are going to be on the endangered species list, said Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine. "The quarterback may not be gone yet," he added, "but if you have one, protect it."

 

"Its doomsday if we dont adapt and evolve," said St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead.

 

In the last decade, many college football teams have embraced a form of offense that runs at a furious tempo with no breaks for huddles, the goal being to grind down and exhaust the defense. Teams that play this way dont bother trying to fool their opponents with complex schemes and trickery, they just bull forward as fast as they can. College defenses have been forced to adapt to this hurry-up mode by simplifying their fronts and coverage packages to help the players keep pace. The learning curve, at the NFL level, NFL people say, is so massive that its hard to overcome for all but the best college quarterbacks.

 

The trouble with this trend, NFL experts say, is that many of the players coming from the college ranks have spent their entire careers playing in this high-throttle system, which is completely different from the slower, deliberate and more complex nature of the NFL. When they come to the NFL, its as if theyre being told to stop playing speed checkers and start playing chess. And the NFL, which doesnt have a minor league of its own, has no influence over college coaches. They dont coach anything, said Rex Ryan, the head coach of the Buffalo Bills, when discussing college defenses.

 

At Baylor, quarterback Bryce Petty was one of the most prolific passers in the country. He led the Bears to two conference championships in his last two seasons on campus and holds 31 Baylor passing records and has the lowest percentage of interceptions per pass in NCAA history.

 

But NFL teams were wary of Petty. Because Baylor played a spread offense that forced defenses to fan out across the field, making them unable to disguise anything, many scouts worried he would struggle to master the NFL game. He had to wait until the 103rd pick before the New York Jets scooped him up. Petty said he was upset and frustrated that I was thrown away like I couldnt learn it, he said. Im like youve got to give me a chance a little bit.

 

Petty admits to grappling with tasks such as hearing and calling the play, identifying defensive backs in coverage and identifying which player in the defensive backfield was the mike linebacker, the central part of the defense whose location teams base their offensive line protections on. As crazy as it sounds, at Baylor, we did not point out the mike linebacker, Petty said.

 

Petty was unfamiliar with making adjustments to the play or the formation before the snap.

 

Honestly, I wish Id done a little bit more as far as being proactive to get into a pro style [offense], he said, singling out the need to decipher fronts or coverages. It was things I have never seen before.

 

Exactly 101 picks earlier, another quarterback from a spread offense was selected. Marcus Mariota, who won the Heisman Trophy while leading the Oregon Ducks to the national championship game last season, was taken with the second overall pick by the Tennessee Titans. Mariota can run as well as pass, but NFL teams worried about his ability to translate to the pro game. Titans general manager Ruston Webster defended Mariota and the Oregon offense and said they used NFL principleslike the quarterback reading multiple receivers on a play or him staying in the pocketthe area behind the offensive linemore than what people realized. It gave us confidence.

 

A parade of general managers, like Pittsburgh’s Kevin Colbert, think that if the current model holds, the notion of drafting a quarterback to start right away will need to be scrapped.

 

NFL officials agree that the new wave of quarterbacks will need more time than previous generations, but some fret that today’s roster limits and time constraints may prevent them from getting the time they need to learn or develop. “It might become like major league baseball now, where you take a guy that you think will be able to play in three, four, five years,” said Pettine.

 

Even that can be hard. One general manager admitted that he’s having trouble finding a young quarterback to keep on the roster whose lack of knowledge of the pro game won’t frustrate his team’s established starter.

 

In NFL facilities across the country, the race to figure out what works is on. “It’s on us to adapt, I don’t think any of us want this thing to crash,” said the Rams’ Snead.

 

Cleveland’s Farmer has one idea: What if you could design an offense to minimize the passing deficiencies of modern quarterback prospects? Farmer used the example of Auburn’s Nick Marshall, who threw 20 touchdowns last season but was projected to transition to defensive back in the NFL. What if, Farmer said, you devoted resources to designing an offense where Marshall could thrive? He would cost you almost nothing—Marshall went undrafted—and “you might get your franchise quarterback in the later rounds, and that’s unheard of these days.”

 

“Whoever cracks this code the soonest is going to have a huge, huge advantage,” Farmer said, adding he and his coach, Pettine, have had broad discussions on the topic.

 

Indeed, Snead has similar thoughts. He recalled the brilliance behind the “Cover 2” or “Tampa 2” defenses, popularized first by the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s then refined by multiple teams in the 1990s, which minimized the importance of “cover” cornerbacks, who could lock up wide receivers in man-to-man coverage and are expensive and hard to find. Snead said the race is on to find a similar strategy that minimizes the importance of the quarterback. “The person who makes the quarterback like they made the cornerback will be a name that will be remembered forever,” Snead said. “But it will take courage to do it.”

 

NFL coaches are still trying to figure out which elements of the college innovations can be used in the NFL. One issue is that NFL rules prohibit teams from snapping the ball as quickly after plays, meaning they cannot run a pure uptempo offense. Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase singled out Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly, a former Oregon coach, as bringing positive elements of the spread to the pros. “They do a good job and they haven’t sold out to the scheme and most importantly their quarterbacks don’t take huge hits,” Gase said. “The quarterback position is so valuable you want to adapt to their strengths, they do that.”

 

For his part, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley sees an altogether bleaker future for teams searching for a quarterback. “You do not want to be in the top five pickers in the draft, you really don’t,” Haley said. “Guys are going to get fired. General managers, coaches, they’re going to go because it’s just guessing. It’s harder than ever to find a quarterback.”

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Did you didn't just mention Staubach and Nassib in the same topic?

 

Better check your medicine cabinet, dude.

I didn't compare them, I simply said I admired Staubach and always believed that having a QB that takes the knowledge of his coach onto the field is incredibly important.

 

I believe that Nassib is cerebral. He spends hours in the film room with Eli. He is picking everything he can from Eli's brain and the coach's brain. He is preparing himself to be NFL ready.

 

If I was to make any comparison, I'd say that Nassib is ahead of Mariotti to play in the NFL. Although, Mariotti might surprise the way Luck and Wilson surprised.

 

What I see is a lot of QB's picked early flame out. I don't think Nassib will flame out.

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I didn't compare them, I simply said I admired Staubach and always believed that having a QB that takes the knowledge of his coach onto the field is incredibly important.

 

I believe that Nassib is cerebral. He spends hours in the film room with Eli. He is picking everything he can from Eli's brain and the coach's brain. He is preparing himself to be NFL ready.

 

If I was to make any comparison, I'd say that Nassib is ahead of Mariotti to play in the NFL. Although, Mariotti might surprise the way Luck and Wilson surprised.

 

What I see is a lot of QB's picked early flame out. I don't think Nassib will flame out.

 

 

I suppose we'll see. My guess is that if/when Nassib starts, it will be on another roster. That's been my biggest complaint about the pick from Day 1.

 

Really, this was a the year to take a QB to replace Eli. He's 35, and all signs point to him having the same longevity as his brother. By then, Nassib will be on his second contract, and if he's as good and well-groomed as you hope, he'll be picked up by another team once he's an unrestricted free agent.

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I don't think Nassib is the future starter for the Giants or any team. He hasn't had any actually game time and most teams will try to groom their own guy. College QB's are not translating to the NFL because a lot of teams run a spread. Like the article states most spread QB's have trouble with the terminology more than anything. Teams that do run a pro style system don't need a good QB. There might be potential in the 2016 QB class if week one was indication it don't look promising though. Hackenberg looked awful...most was attributed to Penn St oline. Connor Cook from Michigan St may be the top QB. Jacoby Brissett from NC St is probably my top ranked QB

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I think the NFL would gain in popularity if it went more more college. As it is the NFL is slow as dirt. I think how successful Kelley is will either keep the current status or change the NFL. To be honest I think Kelley will be successful. The NFL is far too complicated for it's own good.

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I don't understand the Nassib love either. Dude has started zero games and looked very hot-and-cold in the preseason so far in his career.

 

I think he'd be a very servicable backup for Eli and maybe even take over for him after Eli is done (provided Nassib is still on the roster). If he got the practice reps, I think he could be successful.

 

My point was more along the lines of the fact that when Nassib's rookie deal is up...I wouldn't think that there'd be a large number of teams lining up to try to sign him.

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Nassib has little value to another team until he gets some serious playing time during the regular season. Ultimately it is up to Nassib in a couple of years if he wants to wait for Eli to retire or start elsewhere.

 

I have no idea what kind of QB Nassib is. Seen plenty of backup Qbs carrying clipboards who last as long as their rookie contract, Nassib could be in that boat too.

 

Doesn't make a difference when you draft a QB, it is when you decide to start him.

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I don't think Nassib is the future starter for the Giants or any team. He hasn't had any actually game time and most teams will try to groom their own guy. College QB's are not translating to the NFL because a lot of teams run a spread. Like the article states most spread QB's have trouble with the terminology more than anything. Teams that do run a pro style system don't need a good QB. There might be potential in the 2016 QB class if week one was indication it don't look promising though. Hackenberg looked awful...most was attributed to Penn St oline. Connor Cook from Michigan St may be the top QB. Jacoby Brissett from NC St is probably my top ranked QB

 

It's been forever since a team has won the Super Bowl without a "good" QB. Pro style offense or not, teams with good quarterbacks have proven to do more than run an offense, they succeed in the postseason.

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It's been forever since a team has won the Super Bowl without a "good" QB. Pro style offense or not, teams with good quarterbacks have proven to do more than run an offense, they succeed in the postseason.

I'm talking college offenses i.e Alabama. They are so good everywhere that having a good QB doesn't matter

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I think he'd be a very servicable backup for Eli and maybe even take over for him after Eli is done (provided Nassib is still on the roster). If he got the practice reps, I think he could be successful.

 

My point was more along the lines of the fact that when Nassib's rookie deal is up...I wouldn't think that there'd be a large number of teams lining up to try to sign him.

 

Oh yeah I'm with you. I think right now he's got "Jason Garrett" value in that he can come in and maybe win a game or two in a pinch and be a serviceable backup, but I don't think he's got "Matt Schaub" value where you can get something decent for him in a trade and/or he can be a starter for your team. Maybe those latter things will happen at some point but to listen to some of the people talk on this board you'd think JR is sitting around fielding requests for a trade all day.

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Oh yeah I'm with you. I think right now he's got "Jason Garrett" value in that he can come in and maybe win a game or two in a pinch and be a serviceable backup, but I don't think he's got "Matt Schaub" value where you can get something decent for him in a trade and/or he can be a starter for your team. Maybe those latter things will happen at some point but to listen to some of the people talk on this board you'd think JR is sitting around fielding requests for a trade all day.

 

I would agree, and the only way we'd know otherwise is if Eli misses any time.

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