Football professionals have mixed opinions
He’s a mystery, so they look for clues revealed years ago to prove their point. Somebody will be right. A general manager balks at the notion that John Beck will be the Redskins’ starting quarterback — this season or ever. Not tough enough, he recalled from his five-year-old scouting report.
The guy who worked with him at Brigham Young University is convinced otherwise. His proof? The meticulous way Beck prepared, the maturation of his game, and toughness he showed as a senior.
The scout sits somewhere in the middle.
| Top Five |
| Late-blooming quarterbacks |
| If John Beck, 29, is indeed the Redskins’ starting quarterback — and too many months remain before the season to say he will be — he at least has a blueprint to follow. But keep in mind, for every one of these players there are many more who got their chance and failed. Nonetheless, here are five quarterbacks who blossomed late in their careers: |
| 5. Joe Theismann » Remember him? Won a Super Bowl with Washington? NFL offensive player of the year in 1983? The fourth-round pick by Miami in 1971 played three seasons in the Canadian Football League before joining the Redskins. He didn’t become the starting quarterback until age 29. |
| 4. Trent Green » One former Redskins front office member once said of Green, “After watching him in practice, you wonder how he ever completes a pass in a game.” Green, an eighth-round pick in 1993, didn’t start a game until 1998 with Washington at age 28. From that point on, he started 113 games and made two Pro Bowls. |
| 3. Jake Delhomme » Undrafted in 1997, he started two games and appeared in four others in his first five seasons with New Orleans before joining Carolina at age 28. In his first three seasons with the Panthers, he threw for 72 touchdowns and 47 interceptions and led them to one Super Bowl appearance. |
| 2. Kurt Warner » From undrafted to grocery store bag boy to Arena League star to NFL MVP. A common story, right? Warner exploded out of nowhere at age 28, leading St. Louis to a Super Bowl win. He now has a shot at the Hall of Fame. |
| 1. Rich Gannon » The poster child for late bloomers. Though he started 48 games, including four in Washington, in his first 10 years, it wasn’t until age 34 that he blossomed with Oakland. He led the Raiders to a Super Bowl and made four Pro Bowls. |
“I thought he could be a starter,” Dave Razzano, an NFL scout for 23 years who studied Beck in college, said. “You probably want better in the long run, but you can win with him.”
And then there’s a former NFL quarterback and head coach who happened to work with Beck in Baltimore for a spell last year before the Ravens traded him to Washington in August. Jim Zorn worked with him in the offseason, watched him in practice, and extolled his habits.
Yet the former Redskins coach figuratively throws up his hands at the question: What kind of starter will Beck be?
“I have no idea,” he said.
In truth, nobody knows. The question became relevant when, after the draft on April 30, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan professed his love of Beck’s abilities. He didn’t hand him the starting job, but he did say that Beck was the No. 1 quarterback on his list coming out in the 2007 draft, and that Beck has “everything you look for in a quarterback.”
“He’s a solid guy, and he has a tremendous desire to be good,” said Zorn, the Ravens’ quarterbacks coach last season. “He loves to compete. He was never resigned to the fact that he wasn’t getting many reps and that he wasn’t considered the starter.”
Beck is one of two quarterbacks under contract with Washington, the other being Donovan McNabb who likely will be cut or traded once the NFL lockout ends. Rex Grossman may or may not re-sign. Another veteran may or may not be brought in. Many scenarios remain possible, one of which is Beck starting. His arm, all agree, is strong enough. His height (6-foot-2) is OK. His mobility is good. He’s accurate.
“Mike has to create hope with somebody so you’ve got to pump up Beck now, just for the allusion of creating hope,” one general manager said. “I can’t feel great about him. It’s more to do with his toughness. You see it when he hangs in the pocket, in his decision making. He wasn’t a real good leader, a good guy but not a take-charge guy. But … sometimes a guy gets it.”
But Brandon Doman, who spent a month on the Redskins practice squad in 2002, says that hope is real. And that toughness charge? Doman, who became BYU’s quarterbacks coach in 2005, called it a legitimate criticism. That changed, however.
“The toughest passing quarterbacks never stay down. They never show signs of defeat,” Doman said. “John had to learn that. He needed a lot of toughening up. But he didn’t back down at all. He found a way to find the grit necessary to become great. He showed it at a very high level to me, and I would never question that now.”
But it’s the behind-the-scenes work that stood out to Doman. He remembers a quarterback coming off a 27-touchdown season bugging him to do more. Watch more film. Study more defenses.
“He wore me out,” Doman said. “I had a couple NFL coaches and GMs after they interviewed him before the [2007] draft who said they hadn’t interviewed one quarterback that year who knew football like he knew it. … He’s a gym rat, a junkie. I’m sure that’s what those guys like in him. I’m glad he’s getting an opportunity.”
Maybe.
