quote:

JFF had a higher career comp % than Bradford or Luck.

It sounds like if the guys aren't great pro pocket passer prospects you don't think they're elite. Seems like a very flawed analysis. The object of a QB isn't to sit in the pocket and throw with good mechanics. The object is to move his team down the field. Johnny did that through running and passing. Like you mentioned he was able to do that by buying time with his legs when needed and getting the ball to his receivers. Do you think Kevin Martin is a poor shooter because his shot looks ugly? Of course not, he's had a handful of years shooting over 40% from 3.

Sigh. This is why I find some people in college sports to be difficult to talk to. I never said the QBs in question weren't elite overall. I went to considerable pains to specify that I was talking about elite "passers" as a distinct function of the position, as well as considerable pains to acknowledge Manziel's quality in toto was significant enough to have earned his Heisman. I offered specific arguments about Manziel's actual methodology when it came to the success of his passing game, and gave specific reasons for his success. I wasn't being subtle or ambiguous when I brought these up.

If you want to talk about his ability as a quarterback as an inclusive job in all aspects of the game, we can do that. But that wasn't the discussion we were having. When you change the subject, it just makes the discussion pointless, so I will no longer hold a conversation on the issue because you clearly want to hold a new and different conversation, one apparently predicated upon a perceived threat to Manziel's reputation, a threat that I never made. He simply was not an "elite" passer in that sense, and the number of times he needed to be bailed out by a receiver muscling his way through traffic to grab the ball was ample evidence of that. I was clear on what I was talking about there. That didn't mean he wasn't a great QB. He clearly was. But that doesn't mean he was elite at every single aspect, or that he didn't require certain parts of his game to compensate for other parts of his game. He wasn't a guy you could stick in the pocket and expect him to perform brilliantly without using his legs to spread out the defense. That just wasn't a way he could shine. And (it's very important that you read this part carefully) that's perfectly okay. If I had been a coach in 1996 and needed a QB that could undermine a traditional pass rush and keep the defense honest, I wouldn't have picked Wuerffel despite the fact that he was an incredibly good college passer. He would have made my offense look bad and I would have looked inept in making that choice. If I had been a coach in 2012 and needed a mobile QB that could create plays where none appeared to exist but couldn't necessarily throw balls that landed directly in the hands of receivers while taking the DBs out of the equation, I wouldn't have chosen Manziel as my primary playmaker. And that isn't a knock on Manziel's quality as a QB in the slightest.