The Old College Try Is Growing On The NFL
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By DERON SNYDER
The sneers and snickers are decreasing. The contempt and ridicule are fading. Skeptics are becoming believers, and pessimists are becoming fewer.
Decades in the making, a fundamental change has seeped into the NFL, altering points-of-view on the sidelines and in front offices: College-style offenses are no longer laughing matters.
Now the joke is on those who would dismiss the success of Washington’s Robert Griffin III, Seattle’s Russell Wilson and San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick. They merely quarterback half of the NFC’s playoff field. Carolina’s Cam Newton, another dual-threat signal-caller, owns the NFL record for career passing yards through two seasons (7,920), topping Peyton Manning’s 7,874 yards set in 1998-99.
Manning still gets it done the old-fashioned way with Denver, as does Tom Brady with New England and Matt Ryan with Atlanta. But adding the ability of pocket passers to the mobility of scrambling QBs — like, say, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers — has produced hybrids previously known to flourish primarily in college.
The performances of RG3, Wilson and Kaepernick in college-influenced offenses have made the NFL reconsider long-held beliefs that Saturday-style attacks can’t work on Sundays.
