But let's also note that his career was defined not by injury but by two MVP awards, a Super Bowl title and induction in to the pro football hall if fame. Lets also not forget he has become Kaepernicks mentor. Please refer to my earlier post that showed "mobile" QB's missing no more starts during their careers than pocket passers before pointing out youngs issues with concussions. Clearly concussions are a far greater concern at other positions than quarterback.
PS. I've never heard the nickname Steve "the scrambler" Young
Pss. Young to Rice is the second most prolific QB/Reciever combo in NFL history, please don't tell me Young wasnt a great pocket passer because he ran too well
Didn't say he wasn't a great pocket passer, but he sure as shit wasn't known as a pure pocket passer. Steve Young is also a pretty rare bread. And yeah, probably should just right off his concussions as an anomaly. Didn't have anything to do with him running the football too aggressively. So what if they are far greater concern than other positions; they are still an important concern for quarterbacks (Aaron Rogers). And Young mentoring Kap proves what? Kareem was mentoring Brittney Griner this year...maybe she'll play in the NBA!
Also, come on, just about anyone to Jerry Rice would be a prolific combo. Rice is the best to ever play the game at that position.
The statistics and conclusions from that article are difficult to interpret (and simplistic), as most stats like that are--I'm pissing in my own cheerios as a former statistician here. Also, that wasn't the best conducted 'study' -> they omitted too seasons because they couldn't easily collect/interpret data--QB carousel seasons are likely to be wrapped up with injury concerns. And their criteria wasn't exactly the greatest (granted, they didn't have the data available).
They also don't (can't) take into account differences in protection/scheme/opponents/QB-injury-mentality (willingness to take hits), etc. It's difficult to marry cause and effect. They didn't look at the degradation of movement/legs as the QB ages, injury by age, as it relates to career longevity, etc. Those would be the more important things to look at. They didn't even look at career length, the most simple metric available. They didn't drill down deeply/closely enough at sacks (an important statistic). It matters HOW a QB takes a sack. Is he like Brady and Manning and just go down to avoid the hit, or is he like Big Ben or David Carr and stand tall no matter what, getting their clock cleaned? How often do they throw away?
I think one of the most interesting ways of looking at that data would have been by age/season/number of years/rush attempts/yards/injuries/%rushed by season played, so we could get an idea of progression based on aging and wear and tear. That would have meant something. It felt like the authors were gathering stats to prove their point, not the other way around.
The point isn't that pocket passers avoid injury (they don't), but that mobile quarterbacks build up wear and tear that affects them to a greater degree later in their career. If they don't become pocket passers, they suffer. Will they develop the necessary pocket awareness that they'll need later in their career? Their legs certainly won't give them the same advantages they did in their youth. Elway is an example of a QB who successfully made the transition; he's also one of the best ever.
Also, as has been noted before, hybrid QBs haven't won many Superbowls historically. Favre, Young, and Big Ben are it really (as indicated previously, Elway was too late in his career to be considered a running QB when he won--he'd changed into a pocket passer).
Apologies for the novel.
