{"id":480,"date":"2016-08-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webinology.website\/nation2021\/what-we-can-learn-from-dual-threat-quarterbacks\/"},"modified":"2021-11-03T12:47:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T16:47:29","slug":"duel-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coachup.com\/nation\/articles\/duel-threat","title":{"rendered":"What We Can Learn From Dual Threat Quarterbacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Michael Vick in the early 2000\u2019s, the idea of a running quarterback was a mostly dormant, inconclusive notion. Sure, there were fast, tricky scramblers like Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, and Bobby Douglass, who first featured for the Chicago Bears over thirty-five years ago, but the thought of calling a running play for the quarterback was unheralded. For many teams, the quarterback is their most expensive and fragile asset — a season-ending injury at the position would, inevitably, end that team\u2019s season as well. And so it was, for roughly eighty years, that the quarterback threw and handed the ball off, fleeing the pocket only when pressured and sliding down whenever a defender got within five yards of them. To call Vick an absolute revelation would be an immense understatement, but he fizzled out after legal trouble and so did the idea of a sustainable, running QB. That is, until 2011 when the Carolina Panthers selected Cam Newton and flipped the entire script on its head.<\/p>\n

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Newton\u2019s emergence as an agile, able, and consistent runner led him to an incredible 14 rushing touchdowns and a nearly unanimous Rookie of the Year award. In fact, Newton scored just three less rushing touchdowns than the league leader, LeSean McCoy. The new-found success, of course, led to copycats in the form of Colin Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, and the 2012 Rookie of the Year, Robert Griffin III. In 2015, Oregon\u2019s Marcus Mariota was picked second in the 2015 NFL Draft after carving up the NCAA for 770 yards, 15 touchdowns and a National Championship appearance.<\/p>\n

Simply put, the mobile quarterback is here to stay — but why is it so effective? For starters, it\u2019s another weapon the defense must worry about. If a quarterback has an effective runner behind him, like Wilson has with Marshawn Lynch, the defense must consider all options: the pass, rush, or a designed run for the quarterback. Typically, teams will run misdirections in order to create space in the open field. Check out this gif of Kaepernick torching the Packers\u2019 poor run defense in the 2013 Playoffs:<\/p>\n

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At first, pay attention to the Packers\u2019 defensive backs, once they see the assumed handoff to Frank Gore, they all collapse on him. Nearly every player on the defensive unit is sucked back towards the middle and away from the sidelines, a very deliberate design from San Francisco. Kaepernick takes off towards the right sideline and takes most of the Green Bay unit a few seconds to react to the misdirection, but by then it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

The Renaissance All in all, Kaepernick rushed for 181 yards and 2 touchdowns on 16 carries in that game. Thanks to his effectiveness on the ground, was able to punish the Packers as he piled up an additional 263 yards and 2 touchdowns through the air. Clinical, purposeful, and directed, a mobile quarterback can create so many problems for defenses as they can\u2019t always prepare for every possibility on every play. In this video, the NFL on Fox crew discusses how the intentionally scrambling quarterback has changed the league forever.<\/p>\n