00:00All right. I want to put a name also out there.
00:03John Gruden made a comment this week,
00:05and he says that the evolution of the quarterback position,
00:09it's going in the wrong direction.
00:11He says it's diluting right now.
00:13He's saying that the quarterback processing
00:15and being able to process in the NFL,
00:18you see a lot of quarterbacks today that don't have what you had, Warren,
00:22or with like a Bernie Kosar going to the line of scrimmage
00:24and dissecting defenses yourselves
00:27and figuring out where to go with the ball.
00:29Is he right?
00:32You know, I'm not sure about that, Dan.
00:35If you look at quarterback numbers right now,
00:38their passing percentages are as high as they've ever been
00:44compared to the times when I played.
00:46I mean, interceptions seem to be down with a lot of the guys.
00:50The type of throws that they're making nowadays,
00:52you don't have to be able to drop back
00:55and read the defenses like you did back in the day.
00:57They're throwing a lot of bubble screens and tunnel screens
01:01and a lot of, you know, quick hitting throws
01:02that you don't really need to read a defense in order to do.
01:08So I don't think that's all true.
01:10And a lot of these kids are running the same things in pro football
01:14that they ran in college.
01:15So their learning curve isn't that high.
01:17And they come in a lot more better prepared to play than, say,
01:21we did having to learn some of the things that we learned coming in the NFL
01:26that we weren't learning in college.
01:27A lot of these kids are getting quarterback coaches, you know,
01:30as far back as junior high school and all the way through high school into college.
01:34So I think the position is a lot more stronger than it's ever been.
01:40And you look at the number of guys who are playing well.
01:43You look at the guys who have come into the game at an early stage
01:48and are having success very early.
01:50So I don't know.
01:51I might have to disagree with that.
01:54How about this?
01:55Do you agree that if you played in today's NFL
01:57that you have a completely different philosophy on how you attack defenses?
02:01Because I think, you know, Warren, if I go back and think about how you played
02:05and how playing against you and all those other guys,
02:08it would seem to me of more of a deep passing league back then.
02:12And maybe that's why the percentages were down a little bit.
02:15Whereas today, you see checkdowns, you see screens, you see middle screens,
02:19you see all that stuff.
02:21Is it just a different approach?
02:22Because the game today is played more in space.
02:26Yeah, you're completely correct.
02:28And we were more of a downfield intermediate throwing game
02:33and deeper throwing game where today they're throwing more high percentage passes,
02:37getting the ball out of their hands quickly.
02:38Because you've got all these defenses now that have these defensive ends
02:42who are running, you know, in college.
02:44They're coming out of college running four fours and four fives coming off the edge.
02:48And you don't have the ability to sit back there and wait, you know,
02:52three and four seconds to throw the football like they did back in the day.
02:55So you've got to get the ball out of your hands quickly to make things happen.
02:58And that's where the game has kind of changed.
03:00And you've kind of adapted your offense to that.
03:04You know, I've always made this comparison to you.
03:07And you tell me if you think this comparison is fair.
03:10You know, back in the day when Lamar Jackson came out of college,
03:14came out of Louisville, you know, you know, you had a general manager
03:17in Los Angeles at the time, Tom Telesco, say you should try another position.
03:22And he's gone on to win two MVP awards.
03:26Is that a fair comparison to you?
03:27Because I'm sure you were asked to play a different position when you came out
03:31of the University of Washington, but yet you held to your guns.
03:35Do you see the comparisons between you and Lamar and how his journey has come
03:39and where he is right now?
03:40Because I love the player.
03:42I mean, he's just a great football player.
03:46Yeah, I mean, I've seen him.
03:48He was a much better athlete coming out of college than I was as far as his foot speed
03:53and things like that.
03:54But I was a dual threat type guy coming out of college.
03:56And a lot of people wanted to change my position just like him.
04:00And I'm glad he stuck to his guns.
04:02I'm glad Ozzie Newsom, you know, traded back into the first round
04:06and drafted him in the first round.
04:07Otherwise, he wouldn't have been a first round pick coming out of college.
04:10So, yeah, I knew I could play quarterback at a high level.
04:14And it was just a matter of somebody giving me the opportunity to do it.
04:17I finally got my opportunity and I made the most of it.
Comments