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The Forgotten Part of Playing NFL Quarterback: Playmaking, Processing and Bad QBs

What is "upside?" What's really important? What makes a quarterback good? It seems we've lost our way.
Max Toscano|
Dec 22, 2024; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws a pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first half at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Dec 22, 2024; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws a pass against the Cleveland Browns in the first half at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

In this story:

Cincinnati Bengals

Answer a question for me, honestly. When you're playing Madden, how do you play quarterback?

If you're anything like me, or most people, you're picking something, either a route or one simple read, before the play and if it's not there, you're outta there. Anytime you try to do otherwise and work off your spot through the options, it feels like an accelerating blur and that rush is on you before you know what's happening.

Finding receivers can become a challenge, let alone from there adjusting your placement, deciding to put touch or heat on the ball, and throwing guys open. While it's a video game, that is the best peek the civilian has into the challenges of the quarterback position. Life for real quarterbacks isn't so different, certainly for the bad ones. The idea is the same, but the hits are real, and If you (I sure do) think Madden is happening kinda fast, you can't even conceive of the real thing. 

A bizarre theory has taken root in the discourse-driving, ostensibly film-evaluating community of our sport. While thoughtful people (who would know) like Tom Brady, Troy Aikman, and Kurt Warner have consistently emphasized and cautioned otherwise, foundational elements of the QB position are being forgotten.

We like to pretend that the QB position has changed, and in many ways it has like every other position, but it hasn't changed as much as you think. Scrambling, athletic QBs who create out of structure are FAR from new. Josh Allen isn't new, John Elway did that a long time ago. Guys like Steve Young, Fran Tarkenton, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, and beyond would be thought to be "redefining" the position if they played today.

There's this idea, and I'm sure you've encountered it (especially as it pertains to a certain Bengals QB), whether discussing NFL QBs or QBs in the Draft, that in the "modern game," boring things like processing and accuracy set your floor, but physical tools, out of structure "creation," and athleticism set your ceiling. Well it's simple then, we have our framework, right?

Best ever
Jan 24, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) and Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) shake hands and speak after the game in the AFC Championship football game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Yeah hold on, one issue...that's not reflected in reality at all. Have we ever sat back to critically examine that idea? It's time to realize that it isn't so clean. The reality is that floor is determined by your ability to function and avoid disaster, taking what the defense and system easily give you. Your ceiling is determined by the ability to take more. Both physical and operational attributes play roles in each end of that. The fundamental assumption behind this current floor-ceiling conception is that pure athleticism and raw arm strength are the best, sometimes even the only, way to take more and make plays. 

It makes sense in theory right? A stronger arm can access more throws and athleticism opens up a lot that less mobile players can't do. The problem though is that we are ignoring a ton of other facets that are just less plainly visible. Yes, a baseline of physical tools is required to play QB at a high level in the NFL. That baseline is not low either, it's above what even most good college QBs can reach. Once that bar is cleared though, your ceiling becomes determined in huge part by your ability to operate at a complex level and be accurate. 

Just as there are varying degrees of physical tools, there are varying degrees of that. Tom Brady's "ceiling" was no less high than Aaron Rodgers' ceiling. Cam Newton didn't have a "higher ceiling" than Drew Brees.

Maybe in theory, but only there, and only if you take a lot of very difficult, also near-unteachable things for granted. Elite QBs have always come in different shapes and sizes, but the one thing they all have in common is their ability to see the field at an elite level, operate at speed, be accurate, and consistently find answers in structure.

People harp on the physical throws themselves, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. In the end, it's about being able to drop straight back and produce in the passing game consistently. In baseball terms, every elite pitcher needs to be able to miss bats and strike guys out, but we're mistaking guys who throw 94 and miss bats at an elite level, like Clayton Kershaw or Corey Kluber, for guys who pitch to soft contact and don't miss bats. Sure, if someone did everything else at the exact same level as Kershaw but threw 100, they'd be better, but it's purely theoretical. What he lacked in velocity, he made up for by being better in other areas. We understate those other areas. 

There are plenty of guys, recent examples being Sam Darnold, Jalen Hurts, Russell Wilson, and Kyler Murray, who have their floors raised by their raw arm talent and/or ability to create out of structure, but find their (in Hurts' case, personal rather than team) ceilings capped by limitations in structure that create an unavoidable inconsistency.

For Wilson and Murray, those issues are height and field of vision related rather than driven by poor processing, but the result is still the same. Whether you can't see physically or you can't see because it's too fast for your brain to clarify, you can't see all the same.

People have always wondered when these QBs will give "more" but ultimately it will only come if they can get into situations that mask their weaknesses. This is why Wilson needed a dominant run game and could never "cook," this is why he, Kyler Murray, and Darnold (last year) fade often down the stretch. Defenses figure it out. If you can't consistently win in structure with a hand behind your back, the emperor, at the end of the day, has no clothes.

The playmaking carries them to a certain level of functionality but ultimately these guys are the football equivalent of Joey Gallo or Kyle Schwarber. QBs aren't good because of their tools, they're good because they can play QB. As it turns out, the idea that these things are rare and hard to execute and the more "academic" elements are findable and easy comes closer to inverting the truth than telling it. 

The "Playmaking" Fallacy

In the discussion of what does and does not constitute high-end playmaking, a lot of people inadvertently betray a poor understanding of what is truly difficult about this position. In many ways, it illuminates a methodology wherein they analytically frame what is fundamentally just highlight-watching. We've all seen the clips of QBs running around or launching bombs put forth as analysis.

There's this schema where guys like Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, even to some, guys like Jordan Love or Trevor Lawrence, have more "upside" than guys like Joe Burrow and if they broke out today, Drew Brees, Kurt Warner, and even Tom Brady because they can just "make more plays." Make no mistake, those guys are great football players, even superstars in the case of Allen and Jackson.

Their velocity and power opens some windows and their athleticism creates some hero plays out of nothing. We are missing with other guys though, another side of that same idea. Again, it's all about taking more than is easy, and there are ways to do that we're forgetting that just don't *look* as hard. You don't need people like JT O'Sullivan, who is doing the Lord's work with "The QB School," to tell you that launching a ball 60 yards into the bucket is hard, but it's important to examine the less visible, even more difficult things that elite QBs do that give them their "upside." 

Part I:  What is Processing

Playing quarterback at an elite level, I'm talking real dropback stuff with no assistance from play action. Not the dressed-up designer stuff, but real, sustainable adult-ball, is like seeing into the matrix.

You have, if you're lucky, a 2.5 second timer to sort through 4-5 options, negotiate the space around you, understand where every defender is, react, and throw to a shifting spot. Hitting a baseball is extolled as nearly impossible for the human mind, but this may be even harder.

Neo can't dodge bullets just because he can physically move fast, he can dodge bullets because he can see and react to them, it's all about how slowly everything moves to him. If he didn't know where they were and where to dodge, it wouldn't matter how fast he could flail around them. Just like physical tools, there are varying degrees of processing ability. It's not a simple "pass/fail" threshold. 

Why Bad Quarterbacks are Bad

Again, you have to deal with 11 moving parts on the defense, you have to see what is and is not going to be open quickly enough to move through your reads *without* blindly skipping things, and you have to coordinate with your brain where the receiver/window is going to end up so you can place the ball.

If it's all happening too fast for you, it spins out of control. To me, the above clip is the best representation of what is happening to bad quarterbacks. Drake and Josh don't have the time to identify what sushi needs to go in what box, grab it, and put it in, so they have to panic. Quarterbacks are no different.

This is why guys leave pockets too early or in the inverse hang in and freeze, it's why they lock onto primaries or skip to checkdowns, it's why you see accurate college QBs forget how to place a football when moving up a level (Justin Fields, Zach Wilson). When it unravels, it ALL unravels. Like a driver spinning out of control, it's just going too fast to manage without sitting there and waiting until the route distribution clarifies itself with a "kick me" sign for pass rushers. QBs will lock onto things or bail to ease that burden and protect themselves, but it renders them unable to survey their options and drastically reduces the chance of finding an opening.

It gives the DC a margin for error and the OC none. If you've ever wondered why a guy can't just stop being late on things, stop missing open receivers, or get rid of the ball on time, that's why. These are the symptoms of the disease, not separate flaws. So often in QB evals you'll hear things like "he needs to get better pocket presence" or "he needs to get the ball out quicker." It may be true but they're missing the point, the underlying cause. Either the game will slow down for him with time and he can start doing those things or he doesn't have the raw processing and there's nothing you can do. Almost always, that's why bad QBs are bad, especially the highly drafted ones who will all have tools. 

Andy Reid, whose offense is as demanding as they get for the QB, does the best job framing what the QB has to digest on every pass. Sometimes these things are harder than other times, but his "wide" and "narrow vision" concepts lay out everything in a QB's head before and after the ball is snapped. Given the speed  at which the play happens, these things are not easy to properly tie together. 

We see what the above idea looks like on a football field. While this is college, this is a great example of everything, on a true dropback, grown up, serious read, that a QB has to make sense of and react to on the fly. The bullets have to slow down enough for you to see them all moving independently in time to dodge them (or find a window).  

All visualized well from QB view here, remember that the Pitt GoPro footage is from a college practice. Game speed is considerably different and NFL game speed even more. If you can't stay ahead and react to all this, it doesn't matter how well you can move, you're going to take too long and get hit if you stay in and try. This is how Burrow can function behind the Bengals' offensive line. Despite superior athleticism, guys like Justin Fields don't have the ability to get through enough options in time to function. His athleticism stops mattering. With pressure, the bullets become a bit closer to literal. It's the same as what's happening downfield but on a spatial level rather than a purely visual one. You can't react to where guys end up, you have to digest it in time to anticipate and evade.

Tom Brady wasn't athletic, but he reacted so early to everything that he was always able to find space before rushers got to him. While in the specific case of Burrow, he will often have nowhere to move due to crushed interiors (the real source of his high sack rate at this point in his career) that Brady did not have to deal with to this extent, if he has a pocket to shift into, he's going to find it too.

The same goes for guys like CJ Stroud, Dak Prescott, and Patrick Mahomes. A reminder that the challenge is not doing this or working through things downfield on their own, it's doing all of it at once.

The combination of determining what is and is not open and negotiating the pass rush is what creates the processing burden of the QB position. The more you have to sort through in your read, the more sushi you have to box, and the more pressure you're facing, the faster the sushi belt moves. The more complex reads a QB can handle, the more options you can force a defense to cover and the less "right" the OC has to be with a specific route.

If there's anything to see, the elite pocket minds will find and expose it. If you process at an elite level, the belt is moving more slowly, at least in perception, to you than others.

In the next installment, we will look at the world of upside that visual clarity unlocks.

Published
Max Toscano
MAX TOSCANO

Max Toscano breaks down football strategy. Prior to joining Bengals On SI, he interned with the coaching staff at the University of Connecticut, assisting the defensive staff in opponent scouting as well as assisting the Head Coach and GM with analytics on gameday. Max's areas of specific expertise include Quarterbacks and Tight Ends, including also hosting a publication dedicated to the tight end position. He also writes for "And The Valley Shook" on SB Nation.

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