The 5 and 7 step drop back are so over-rated

Egads, I never thought I would live to see the day. What dark days these are. There is a crisis in NFL Scoutting. It has has ever been poor, but never so poor as this.

A draft year is upon us where the NFL is prepared to draft a pure milk dud--high in the first--just because he does the 5 and 7 step drop back. "Yes, but nobody else does!" (?) Let's put the emphasis on the wrong factoid, shall we? Yes, lets!

Dread has come upon us all. The scouts--who are enormously fallible when evaluating QB talent--are downgrading a 100% pure stud QB because he has a long delivery. Let's put the emphasis on the wrong factoid, shall we? Yes, lets!

I've got some fucking news for you scouts, and I am going to make it short and sweet: Every last QB in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton Ohio had bad habits and mechanical flaws in his game plan. Not a single one of them was mechanically perfect. Every last one of them (still living) would confess that in a heart beat.

Mel Kiper Jr. would shit all over the incredible Slingin' Sammy Baugh if Baugh if he were a kid coming out this year. He had one of the funkyist throwing motions I've ever seen. Baugh is arguably the greatest football player ever to take the field. Unitas had a very high arch throw, and he dropped his arm down low also. He is father of the QB position. Brett Favre has all kinds of bad habits, and he may well be the most celebrated QB in the game right now. [With all due respect to Peyton Manning.] Favre has played for 19 years with bad habits and mechanical flaws, and he is going to the Hall of Fame.

Do you know what you can do with all of the mechanical flaw talk? Do you know where you can put it? Do you realize how little weight and merit your jargon about mechanical flaws really carries in true game of NFL Football?

I have some other news for you: The ability to lead men in battle, the drive to compete and win, that is 90% of greatness. The other 10% is pure athleticism. Tim Tebow has it in spades. If Bill Devaney and Steve Spagnuolo are serious about there verbal positions on character issues, Tebow has to be the automatic choice at #33, top of the 2nd round. Do not pass go. Do not entertain trade offers. Do not take the fully allotted time. Just send the card up to the commish.

So why make Tim Tebow line up behind the center?

Reports are begining to flow in from Senior Bowl practice sessions. Tim Tebow is having a rough outing with the default NFL offense. This means lining up under center, taking the snap, doing a 3, 4 or 5 step drop-back and throw. The battle does not go well. They say he is struggling.

Specifically, they say he has had a few problems with the center exchange, and he is having difficulties with accuracy when throwing from the drop back position. Throwing in the NFL is about threading the needle. It is about getting the football through a tiny window of time and space so it reaches your man, and doesn't get intercepted. Tim didn't have much problem with this in college, and against NFL caliber defensive players in the SEC. The new variable causing the problem is the drop-back. Reading whilst dropping is a skill every NFL QB needs to learn. His long throwing motion is expected to be an issue in the NFL, but so far this is not causal in his current problems.

So I have a couple of simple questions for you? Why do you want to line Touchdown Tim up under center anyway? Is it just because you are an old-fashioned West-Coast hard-ass? Let me let you in on a dirty little secret that the NFL likes to keep in the closet. The New England Patriots have been running a slightly modified spread offense since 2007. It worked great until they (a) lost Tom Brady with a serious knee injury, and (b) lost Jabbar Gaffney who was their 4th reciever. According to some sources, Tom Brady lined-up 76% of the time in the shotgun in 2009. The Patriots controlled the ball by passing.

Let me inform you of another dirty little secret that everybody seems to know about: The Wildcat, our current state of the art running system, is played from the shotgun also.

So let me ask you a question in the spirit of Air Coryell and The Greatest Show on Turf: Why don't we taylor our system to maximize the production of this dynamic player? Why are we so set on running this outdated and outmoded system known as the West-Coast offense? I have despaired of the idea that we are ever going to get this boring piece of shit offense working with the Rams. Why shouldn't we use motion and formation to exploit the playmakers we have, and the playmakers we can have? Why shouldn't we construct mismatches? Why shouldn't we overwhelm defenses by putting our strength against their weakness? Why shouldn't we taylor our offense to suite the strengths of the players we have?

I personally would love to see us fire OC Pat Shurmer and replace him with a fellow like Mike Leach. I would love to see us work out of the gun, and wing the football all over the frickin' place. I wouldn't mind seeing Tebow execute a few Wildcat plays. Certainly this approach would be vastly superior to what we did in 2009, which was to field one of the worst offensive units the NFL has ever seen.

Update:

It would appear that some of Tim Tebow's difficulties revolve around strep throat. It seems that Tim was hospitalized for this malady on Monday night. His fever has been as high as 103f. Having just gotten through a really bad cold myself {I was immuno compromised after my knee surgery} I can tell you that a fever that high walks hand-in-hand with shivers and cold sweats. I can hardly imagine doing anything that physical while suffering that kind of fever.

In short, I am willing to disregard the practice performance reports we are hearing.

In other news, it appears that Dexter McCluster has been interviewed by the Rams. I am very happy about this.