The Broncos need to follow an old-school plan when rebuilding QB room
Mar 4, 2021, 10:33 AM
Forty-three-year-old Tom Brady just won the Super Bowl MVP and never broke a sweat. He looks like he can play until he is 50. We should be paying attention to this.
Cam Newton, on the other hand, is only 31 years old and the football world is sticking a fork in him.
Why?
Because one style of play is sustainable and one is not. And if Broncos fans want to find their quarterback for the “next 10 or 15 years,” they need to understand this.
The more you rely on your legs as a quarterback, the faster you’ll flame out. If your running ability was part of what made you a great quarterback, you become less great in your 30s.
But, like Tom Brady, if you never ran in the first place, you lose nothing with age.
Cam Newton had the natural ability to make any play on the football field himself, so he often did. Just like Klyer Murray and Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and… should I go on?
Those plays end in collisions that the human body was not built to withstand.
Tom Brady — the greatest of all-time — doesn’t have those abilities. Instead, he relies solely on the one thing thats always worked for an NFL quarterback: Distributing the ball quickly to the right spot.
Read the defense, slide from pressure and dish the rock.
Read, slide and dish.
Let the other guys run with it. They’re better at it anyway.
Tom Brady rushed for six yards in 2020.
Cam rushed for 592.
(Who is over the hill, again?)
If Broncos fans want a long-term solution at quarterback, they don’t need Flashy McFlasherton. They need a read, slide and dish guy. A guy who doesn’t get hit. A guy who will be there game in and game out.
If the Broncos went this route, which I admit goes against the modern grain, they may get get to have their cake and eat it, too.
Here’s a plan for the QB room:
1. Thus far, Drew Lock has not been available for his team. This is a fact. He missed significant time in each of his last two seasons, including meeting time and practice time from being on Injured Reserve. All because he hasn’t learned to RSD! Get rid of the ball, Drew! The longer you hold it, the more bad things happen. You’ve got one year to figure this out. And you may not even have that.
2. Because we’re also signing Alex Smith. The Broncos need a veteran in the room and there’s no one who knows football better. He’s seen every possible scenario, on the field and off. He was the No. 1 pick in the draft, had five offensive coordinators in five years in San Francisco, then when he finally got some cohesion and started balling, he got a concussion and was replaced by Colin Kaepernick. He never got his job back.
Did he complain? No.
He handed Kaepernick the keys to a Super Bowl-ready team and went to Kansas City, which had gone 2-14 the previous year. He followed with five-straight winning seasons before passing the keys to Patrick Mahomes and going to Washington, where he almost lost his leg. Somehow, he is back on the field and went 4-1 as a starter last year, leading his team into the playoffs on one leg.
Tell me that isn’t a guy who elevates the room.
3. Okay, now here’s the part where you can have your cake and eat it. The Broncos are picking at No. 9. Everyone agrees that they need defensive help, and as long as they don’t chase a flashy young quarterback, they can pretty much take their pick.
So let’s say they go with Caleb Farley or Patrick Surtain. Then edge rusher or inside linebacker with the No. 40 pick.
And now its cake time.
“With the 71st pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, the Denver Broncos select, Kyle Trask, quarterback, Florida.”
Boom.
6-foot-5, 240 pounds. Not particularly mobile and needs some time to develop, but a perfect candidate for the TB12 method.
Read, slide and dish.
May the best man win.
