The Cultural Sacking of Running Quarterbacks

Historically over the years we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing the emergence of the scrambling quarterback in the NFL. Names such as Warren Moon, Steve Young, Donovan McNabb, Vince Young and most notably Michael Vick. A few years ago it seemed like “the runners” were carving a place for themselves in the NFL hierarchy. However, this refreshing new style seems to be going out just as fast as it came in. With the indictment and prison sentence of Michael Vick and the mental meltdown of Vince Young, the NFL has looked elsewhere to generate excitement. For example many NFL teams have abandoned running the ball and have elected to air it out most of the time.

Its crazy to see how the NFL has changed so much in just 2 year’s time. Seeing this immediate change in culture makes you wonder. What happened to the running quarterbacks? A few events, some related some unrelated all happening simultaneously. The biggest factor that led to the extinction of the running QB is injuries. After Carson Palmer, and most notably Tom Brady have suffered from season ending injuries. As a result players around the league seemed less willing to run for a first down and put their bodies at risk as a result. And the loss of Vick to jail hurt the popularity of the NFL to casual fans. other major factors helped contribute as well.

The media played a major role in the change of culture too. Analysts and announcers for years have helped generate much of the buzz that these QB’s received but also were highly critical of them in bad situations. (Interceptions, fumbles, etc.) Announcers imparticular would highly praise their speed and athleticism but would criticize their mechanics and compare them to the league’s best pocket passers. In doing this, they inadvertently would make fans pick sides. Most people I’ve met either like running QB’s or prefer pocket passers. What I’ve noticed is that many (not all) quarterbacks with great running skills don’t have great mechanics. However, in their defense many of them have mediocre offensive lines and receiving corps. Therefore their legs become the first (and usually best) option for scramblers.

For example, during Michael Vick’s tenor with the Atlanta Falcons they led the league in drops during the 2004 and 2005 seasons and their offensive line was a run blocking line. Therefore he transformed himself into the most exciting athlete the NFL had ever seen. Most notably in 2006 Vick set an NFL Milestone by rushing for over 1,000 yards in a season.Many have criticized Vick for being a great runner. Called him such things as a “Running Back playing QB”, a gimmick, etc. Other contributions deserve their acknowledgment as well.

Numerous offensive and defensive innovations have also led to the extinction of the runner. For instance the emergence of the Wildcat formation, (which employs the QB at reciever) and the remergence of running back and reciever screens have compensated for the loss of those critical short plays scramblers would make. And defensively the infamous Tampa 2 defense almost perfectly contains running quarterbacks. Because of these innovations, teams have steered their QB’s from running the ball and have advised them to checkdown recievers or throw the ball away.
Its really an amazing feat that these factors have manged to eliminate one of the most exciting new trends in the NFL. While I enjoy watching the Peyton Manning’s and Drew Brees of the world be great pocket passers, I miss the days of dual threat QB’s that defenses would spend weeks preparing for. Why can’t the running QB and the pocket passer coexist? If winning is in question, it shouldn’t be. Vick went to the NFC Championship game and lost to Donnovan McNabb (another scarmbler) who made it to the Super Bowl. If there was one formula for winning, every team would win Super Bowls.

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