Finding ‘it factor’ in QBs one of toughest tasks for coaches
Sam Howell has been a quarterback since first grade.
His father told him then that to play the position, he needed to be the leader of the team and that more would be expected of him than other players, both on the field and off.
Howell, coming off a recordbreaking freshman season at North Carolina, has come to think of quarterback as a lifestyle.
“I know everyone’s looking at me,” Howell said.
Evaluating and projecting quarterbacks at any level is probably the most challenging part of building a football team. More so than any other position, what makes a quarterback successful is almost impossible to measure or quantify. That mysterious and ill-defined “it factor.”
“I don’t think there is a science to it,” said Ohio State coach Ryan Day, who spent two seasons as a quarterback coach in the NFL under Chip Kelly before landing in Columbus. “If there was, I think it would be a lot easier for everybody. I think in 2020 they wouldn’t still be asking what it means.”
Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa and Justin Herbert lead the next batch of quarterbacks set to enter the NFL. They are the consensus top three QBs available in this week’s draft, all with a chance to be selected tonight within the first 10 picks.
Their prodigious skills, prolific production and impressive athleticism are obvious. As are their few physical shortcomings. The rest? Well, there is a reason why they are called intangibles.
In the era of personal quarterback coaches, 7-on-7 summer leagues and scholarship “offers” to eighth graders, the holistic development of quarterbacks begins early.
David Morris is the founder of QB Country and best-known for a college career spent as Eli Manning’s backup at Mississippi. He works with all ages and talent levels of quarterbacks, from tweens aspiring to start for the JV team to Daniel Jones, who was selected No. 6 overall by the New York Giants last season.
For Morris, there are two aspects to the so-called intangibles.
One is mental capacity: The ability to learn and process football. That can show itself on the whiteboard or film room, breaking down plays and defenses. The hope is that transfers to the field, but not always.
Then there are the players whose mastery of the subject matter doesn’t really shine through until they get between the lines.
For Morris, it’s the difference between book smart and street smart. Both can be successful and most good players have at least some of each. There are readily available ways to identify and develop a player’s mental capacity, though projecting its growth potential can be trickier.
The second intangible is more about personality and how it relates to leadership. One way or another, a quarterback has to be a team leader, whether he is gregarious or reticent, laid back or intense. Some quarterbacks will pick a teammate up with an optimistic ‘atta boy.’ Others get a point across more sternly.
“I’ve seen that many different personalities can get it done,”
Morris said. “And so whether he is vocal or dynamic or alpha or more reserved, is he a leader? How does he lead? And then is he confident in his leadership style?”
Confidence is a word that comes up a lot when it comes to elite athletes of all kinds. With quarterbacks, it is especially important because the position comes with such a harsh and unrelenting spotlight.
“You willingly chose to play the most scrutinized position in all of organized athletics” is a line in the quarterback handbook Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead gives to his signal-callers.
Moorhead said quarterbacks “should teeter on the bridge of confidence and cockiness.”