Falling in Love with Running Quarterbacks

Count former NFL general manager Bill Polian among those impressed, in fact “shockingly surprised” in the early going with the improvement shown by Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

After Oakland’s Monday night loss to Denver in Week 3, Polian said, “If you saw him at Ohio State as a passer, you would say he would never, ever make it in the National Football League. That’s why he was drafted in the third round by Al Davis in the supplemental draft. I’ve never run across anybody that thought he would be a top-flight NFL quarterback because the passing mechanics were poor, the field vision was poor and the accuracy was poor. And there was no touch whatsoever.”

So, what changed? Said Polian, “Jim Tressel (former Ohio State coach) proves once again what an outstanding coach and outstanding judge of talent he was because he told me, ‘He will get better, all he needs is more work. He needs more work in a pure passing offense. He needs more work in the pocket. This is a work in progress but he has the capacity to get better.’ And Jim was absolutely right. He has gotten a whole heck-of-a-lot better and he made some throws in the pocket (against Denver) that were big time, National Football League throws. So kudos to (Raiders coach) Dennis Allen and kudos to the offensive coordinator (Greg Olson) and kudos to the quarterbacks coach (John DeFilippo) for getting him as far as they have.”

Comparing Pryor favorably to Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III, Polian concluded, “He and RGIII are the two best running quarterbacks in the National Football League in terms of pure talent. They can run away from you in a heartbeat. Once RGIII heals up, of course, that will be the case. In Terrelle’s case, he is unbelievably gifted. His stride is so long. I don’t care what he runs the 40 in, it’s the equivalent of about 4.4 with that long stride. He’s got running skills. He can get out there and make people miss, he has vision in the field, he can do all those things.

“The bottom line is this is an incredibly gifted athlete and he has gotten a whole heck-of-a-lot better as a passer. So if I’m an Oakland Raider fan, or even Reggie McKenzie, I’m saying to myself, ‘Wow.’ For this guy to make the progress he’s made in a very short time is amazing. And you’d have to say that the arrow’s (pointing) up there.”

Bit is it really? Pryor suffered a concussion against Denver, although he was cleared for this past Sunday’s game against Washington. Can he stay healthy? That is obviously the question with Griffin, who has adjusted his game this season to try and stay out of harm’s way.

Polian talks about when Griffin “heals up.” He’s probably right in saying they are the best running quarterbacks in the league. But does it matter? Probably not in a league that will never change from being mostly about having the best pocket passer. After all, that great running quarterback does no one any good standing on the sideline.

 

Lack of Leadership

Would former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis have us all believe that during his long tenure with the team, there was never, ever an embarrassing off-field incident involving someone on the team?

So a party on a bus gets a tad out of hand and wide receiver Jacoby Jones gets bonked with a bottle by a stripper named Sweet Pea. Where was Popeye when he was needed?

Lewis, so self-servingly said, “We talk about the transition of losing so many guys, a guy like myself and Ed Reed and other guys that are based off leadership, I’ve said it earlier: ‘Where would the leadership come from?’ Because the leadership being strong in the locker room and winning games, listen talent sometimes can win you games. But when you talk about what’s going on off the field, that’s the most important place where leadership steps up.

“When you think about the Baltimore Ravens and the transition that they went through, they’re missing leadership right now. When you have an incident like that, the first thing a leader is going to do is find some way to dissolve everything that’s going on and actually dissolve it before it comes to that type of head or even gets to that point. When you talk about the Baltimore Ravens they’re going to have to refocus and find some quick leaders in that locker room very quickly.”

So, is Lewis saying he would have been omnipresent, even being on the party bus so he could have prevented it? Please.

Said Ravens quarterback, “Ray knows better than that. Things happen. I think we’re usually a pretty good team with stuff like that. If you look around the league, there are probably a lot of leadership problems then. Like I said, Ray knows better.”

The day after the incident, from a Habitat for Humanity construction project, Ravens wide receiver Torrey Smith said, “It’s only bad because someone went and ran to TMZ. If no one knew, it wouldn’t be an issue. We would resolve it in the locker room. It’s resolved anyways. We just have to deal with the questions from the media. I think it’s funny that we’re doing this, building a home, one day after everybody found out about the other thing. We all know it comes with the territory.  Everybody is doing a great job.”

As for Lewis’ comments, Smith said, “We have great leadership, so to say because of one incident, that it’s a leadership issue, to me, is a joke because everyone is not going to always be around and incidents happen. Stuff happens in the locker room, stuff happens in the spur of the moment. Now, if it happens every week, all the time, then that’s a problem. For one incident to happen and say it’s a leadership issue when most of the team wasn’t there, it’s an overreaction.”

 

The Quotes

Jeff Saturday, a former teammate of Peyton Manning with the Colts, on whether Manning is currently playing the best football of his career: “It pains me to say this, but I think he is. You just can’t quantify how good, but he has this entire offense in mid-to-late season form. He’s making checks. He’s making audibles. He’s putting when they’re in a six-man box on defense in a nickel look. He’s running the ball down the middle. He’s allowing every playmaker he has on the field to make the plays they’re called to make. I just think that’s an impressive feat from a guy who’s got mostly third-year receivers. It’s just an incredible rapport that he has with this team. He has the line playing well so I’m very impressed with the start they’ve had.”

Tim Hasselbeck on the same subject: “I don’t know that I would say it’s ‘the best’. You go back to when you (Saturday) were playing with him, and you guys were scheme-blocking all the play-action, it destroyed the NFL. In a lot of ways, it’s exactly the way he’s destroying the NFL now. I think now we’re seeing a smarter player. I don’t know that we’re necessarily seeing a better player. Physically, even though he’s better than he was a year ago, he was much better if you go back seven years ago, in terms of how he could throw on the move and things like that. Listen, this is the difference between ‘awesome’ and ‘really awesome.’ I think there were points in his career where he was even better.”