Maybe the solution is letting the quarterbacks draft the teams
instead of the other way around.
By Jerry McDonald – The Oakland Tribune
Maybe the solution is letting the quarterbacks draft the teams instead of the other way around.
The focus of the NFL draft is on getting the right player, but just as often quarterback success is predicated on the player getting the right team.
“It’s not just how prepared is the quarterback,” NFL TV analyst and former Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon said. “It’s how prepared is the team to get a quarterback ready to play.”
The 49ers and Raiders each have whiffed on a No. 1 overall pick in the last six years, and while much of the focus has been on the inadequacies of Alex Smith and JaMarcus Russell, it’s not as if either organization did much to maximize its investment.
As teams pore over every detail of Class of 2011 quarterbacks such as Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker, Ryan Mallett, Andy Dalton, Christian Ponder and Colin Kaepernick, who drafts those players will have as much to do with their career outcomes as their own skill and work ethic.
For all the tradition that goes along with the 49ers and Raiders, neither franchise has a chapter in its media guide detailing the drafting and development of quarterbacks.
Subtract Ken Stabler (second round, No. 52 overall in 1968) and Joe Montana (third round, No. 82 overall in 1979), and you have to go the Pleistocene epoch of the NFL draft to find a 49ers or Raiders homegrown quarterback who became a star.
That would be John Brodie, taken by the 49ers No. 3 overall out of Stanford in 1957.
In between, aside from Smith and Russell, it’s been a succession of Marc Wilsons and Jim Druckenmillers, Gio Carmazzis and Marques Tuiasosopos, with a side of Todd Marinovichs and Andrew Walters.
There’s something to be said for blind luck.
If Al Davis knew Stabler would win him his first Super Bowl, he’d have taken him before first-round pick Eldridge Dickey, also a quarterback. The same goes for Bill Walsh, who with his first-ever 49ers draft pick selected UCLA running back James Owens in the second round before taking Montana.
Even Walsh took Carmazzi with Tom Brady on the board and seemed confident about it.
“Bill Parcells said if you find a guy that can evaluate quarterbacks, hire him and pay him whatever you’ve got to pay him,” Kansas City Chiefs coach Todd Haley said at the NFL scouting combine. “It’s a tough job. You can’t measure it.”
With Jason Campbell entrenched as the Raiders starter, the 49ers are in more desperate straits, insofar as their only quarterback under contract is David Carr. But Raiders coach Hue Jackson conceded he is looking for a young arm, as well.
Coach Jim Harbaugh is being counted upon to identify the next quarterback of the 49ers. General manager Trent Baalke is talking up Harbaugh’s instinct and background. Harbaugh said he’s looking for the right “DNA,” as if the solution can be found in a test tube.
Harbaugh’s checklist included the following qualities, and few applied to Smith’s six seasons with the 49ers:
“Athletic ability, physical stature in the pocket, arm strength, accuracy, being able to make decisions, how to play the game. Winning is very important. So there’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle.”
Jackson’s analysis of the position seemed to include every asset lacking in Russell.
“The No. 1 characteristic the guy’s got to have is leadership. He’s got to be able to lead the team, because he’s the face of the franchise,” Jackson said. “No. 2, he’s got to be able to complete the ball. He’s got to be able to throw it straight enough to the guys he’s throwing it to.”
Just as important as the job description is what Harbaugh and Jackson put in place around the quarterback. Gabbert would do Harbaugh no good without an offensive system that plays to his skills and teammates good enough to execute it.
Likewise, Kaepernick would be just another Raiders quarterback whiff without better pass blocking, more production from wide receivers and the continuation of a solid running game.
Smith’s stay in San Francisco has been one of revolving offensive coordinators (Mike McCarthy, Norv Turner, Jim Hostler, Mike Martz, Jimmy Raye, Mike Johnson) and head coaches in Mike Nolan and Mike Singletary who never seemed sold on him as the starter.
Russell’s indifference was legendary, but it didn’t help matters that his career began with a holdout and a head coach in Lane Kiffin who campaigned against Russell’s selection and then installed a bootleg-heavy offense that didn’t suit his skill set.
The boos directed at Smith and Russell could just as easily have been directed at two organizations that can’t seem to get it right when it comes to drafting quarterbacks but have little choice but to keep trying.
