(09-16-2020, 06:19 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(09-16-2020, 02:05 PM)Bullseye Wrote: I will say this about Minshew:  He is shattering some preconceived notions about QBs.

One commonly held belief is that young QBs will suffer when they are given different schemes one year after another.  

For the most part, that seems to be true.

But Minshew has had seven different OCs's/schemes in the last seven years without much adverse impact on his performance thus far.

Now this isn't to say that I don't care about continuity.  I do, and if we were to keep Gruden around another year or two, assuming Minshew stays, I would still presume Minshew's performance would get better, whether we as fans would realize it or not.  I would think Gruden would be more pleased in post game or practice film review in regard to his reads and mechanics, etc.-something to which we as fans would not be privy.

But I'm left to wonder exactly how much of the position is intrinsic and intangible?

Do good/great QBs simply have a knack at playing the position?  Can that knack be developed, or is it that proverbial "it" factor that you either have or don't?  Do you think Minshew has the knack or "it?"

It's kinda hard for me to argue against that "it" or knack, bth as a general necessity or specifically in Minshew's instance.

I think the most important thing for a QB to have is what could be called the "it" factor.  Mainly mental skills along with a few physical skills.

Take Blake Bortles as an example.  I do think that he has the mental skill, but he lacked the accuracy and consistency.  I remember a particular "miked up" episode where he knew that the receiver was going to get a TD, he called it and it happened.  He was "football smart" but lacked the physical skill to go along with it.  His passes were often wobbly or not entirely accurate.

I think some people often mistake "arm strength" for the ability to throw a deep pass.  To me "arm strength" has more to do with how a pass is thrown.  Can a 15 or so yard pass be thrown accurately "on a wire" rather than a "rainbow" in the air with some touch?  Another example is Byron Leftwich.  He could throw those shorter-to-medium passes on a wire, but sometimes would put too much on them to where the receiver couldn't catch it.

I would call it "arm control" more so than "arm strength".

The 15-20 yard accurate passes with touch are going to win a lot more games than the deep pass.

"The it factor" is just another way of saying, "I don't know, he just seems to be getting it done."  It's a cop-out. 

This is really the thing:  

The most important attribute for a successful NFL quarterback is the ability to process data quickly.  The ball is snapped, and 21 other guys are in motion in every direction.  For a quarterback, that is all data that has to be processed almost instantly.  That is the thing.  The thing.  That is a massive amount of data that goes into a quarterback's brain and has to be processed into a decision within about 2 seconds.  

And that is why it is so hard for scouts to project a QB into the NFL.  You can't tell for sure who has that ability from watching college tape.  

There are a lot of other factors, of course, but that is the main factor.  When the ball is snapped, who has the ability to process a massive data input and make a decision in about 2 seconds total.

And I would say that Minshew might have this ability because so far in his very short career he has thrown 24 TDs and only 6 INTs.  He's making good decisions and minimizing bad decisions.

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