Here’s what Dolphins should be looking for in a QB
With the Miami Dolphins likely to move on from quarterback Ryan Tannehill after seven seasons, they will likely be on the hunt for a new franchise quarterback in April’s NFL draft.
Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins, Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray, who won the Heisman Trophy last year, Duke’s Daniel Jones, Missouri’s Drew Lock, and West Virginia’s Will Grier are considered the top quarterbacks in the 2019 draft.
Let’s take a look at the 10 traits that help NFL teams identity who could potentially become an elite quarterback:
Coachability: How smart is the quarterback prospect? A good QB has to be able to grasp things quickly, and learn from their mistakes, not repeat them over and over. He also should have the ability to instantly recall what he just saw on the field (coaches love that one).
Toughness: Football is physical game, and the main objective of defenses is to make the quarterback as uncomfortable as possible. A QB who gets rattled easily, can’t take a hit, or is fragile won’t last long in the NFL.
Leadership: If the players don’t believe in their quarterback, the team has already loss. That’s where the Dolphins have gone wrong the past decade because few players believed in Tannehill or his predecessor Chad Henne. Yet the franchise invested 10 years in those two, and never gave them any real competition because they didn’t want to inject doubt into the locker room.
A playmaker: This one is hard to gauge because most quarterbacks make plays from time to time and have their moments. Tannehill for instance, led the Dolphins to half a dozen fourth-quarter victories in his six seasons as a starter. However, Tannehill has been mediocre on third downs his entire career, and it held the offense back.
A great arm: It’s not always about how far
a quarterback can throw a football. Tannehill has arm strength. But every NFL quarterback needs to have the ability to throw a 15-yard out with zip on it. That’s mandatory to prevent cornerbacks from jumping your routes.
Elusiveness: We’re not talking about scrambling ability like Cam Newton or Lamar Jackson. We’re talking about the ability to evade pressure, run for a first down from time to time, and buying time in the pocket so a receiver can get open. Former Dolphins great Dan Marino wasn’t mobile, but he moved well enough in the pocket to buy his playmakers time.
Defenders absolutely love to have an athletic quarterback as their starter because those QBs can deliver on “broken plays,” which are hard to defend. What’s a broken play? It’s when a quarterback escapes the pocket and a receiver runs to the open zone on the field and the quarterback finds him.
Does he have “it”: Intangibles are hard to define. It’s that something that makes you nod your head when you see a quarterback in a game or watch him on film. I felt that way about Baker Mayfield heading into last year’s draft. Can the quarterback make something out of nothing? Does he have the ability to raise the level of play of the players or the team around him?
Chad Pennington is my best example for a QB with intangibles because he took a team that went 1-15 before he got to Miami and led them to 11 wins, and the Dolphins’ last AFC East title. There was something magical about Pennington, despite his pop-gun arm. He led that 2008 Dolphins team like a Piped Piper, and it was because of his intangibles.
Experience: A decade ago teams wanted college quarterbacks with three or more years of starting experience. However, because the demand has outpaced the supply, quarterbacks with one season of starting experience have flooded the first round of the NFL draft in recent years.
This year, Haskins and Murray, who are viewed as the top two quarterbacks in the 2019 NFL draft, each have only one season of experience as college starters. But at this point, expecting a quarterback to have served as a starter for three seasons is pushing it.
Defensive recognition: Defenses try to trick quarterbacks. New Dolphins coach Brian Flores put on a tutorial on how to disguise coverages, showing Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff one look in Super Bowl LIII and then switching it up before the snap. An elite quarterback — like New England’s Tom Brady — can see through the disguises and pick teams apart no matter what is thrown at him.
Accuracy: The ability to be accurate is the most important element a quarterback needs to have. It’s hard enough to throw a football with timing and precision when a defender isn’t running full speed at you, or when a defender is trying to knock the receiver or tight end off his route. The good quarterbacks are able to put the ball on the numbers or throw receivers open, putting the ball in places only the intended target can catch it.
And you can’t just go by completion percentages anymore because half of these college offenses run a bunch of screens, bubbles plays, pick plays, and drag routes, which means a lot of passes are being thrown horizontally and not vertically.
What matters is how on target a quarterback is when making big-time throws downfield (post, corner and rail routes, deep outs and fades). Can the quarterback make that throw with proper placement and with a tight spiral? Does he put an arch on it? Can he throw a backshoulder pass? Can he put a fade in the corner where only his intended target can get it?
When examining film of college quarterbacks those are the throws to look for because if their college coach doesn’t trust the QB to make them against inferior talent, why should an NFL coach trust it.
Big-time throws are necessary in the NFL. That is what separates the Andrew Lucks from the Tannehills.
If a quarterback has most or all of these these traits, he’s franchise quarterback material.
Happy hunting, Dolphins.