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Jets quarterback Geno Smith is working with former MLB pitcher and pitching coach Tom House. Can this help him? Let’s take a closer look . . .
House morphed from a baseball pitching coach into a quarterback coach. Over the years, he was worked with a number of noted quarterbacks, including Tom Brady and Drew Brees.
House is an expert on throwing mechanics, regardless of the sport.
Kudos to Smith for taking the initiative and reaching out to House to improve his throwing mechanics.
Any time a player shows this sort of pride in his work, you should tip your hat to them.
I know y’all probably feel a “but” coming up here.
Sorry, there is one.
While Smith does deserve a lot of credit for working with House, these sort of initiatives can only accomplish so much.
Just like Colin Kaepernick’s work this off-season with Kurt Warner.
Smith working with House on his throwing mechanics, or Kaepernick working with Warner on his overall game, falls short of helping too much because so many elements of real football are missing from these sessions.
You don’t have Justin Houston, Robert Quinn or J.J. Watt coming after your breathing fire. No pocket presence is required. The importance of pocket presence is off-the-charts.
You don’t have Darrelle Revis, Joe Haden or Richard Sherman covering your receivers like a blanket.
You don’t have 80,000 fans screaming in unison in an opposing venue making it hard for you to think.
So I don’t think off-season QB coaches or throwing coaches can really help quarterbacks very much. They can’t come close to working with these guys on what goes on when the real bullets are flying.
Just like I don’t think mini-camp and training camp practices tell you a heck of a lot. There might not be a sport where practices and games are different to the degree they are in football. Tackling is such a big part of football. There is no tackling 95 percent of NFL practices. In NFL practices, you can NEVER touch the quarterback under any circumstances. That is why they have a red jersey on.
You hear a lot about quarterback guru George Whitfield, who is working with Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. By the way, I hear NFL coaches are ticked at Whitfield for how he orchestrated the Winston workout the other day. NFL coaches have no control over these pro day workouts anymore.
I’m sure Whitfield knows his stuff, but how often do we see a QB guru work with a quarterback on his mechanics in the off-season, but when the real bullets are fired, with pass rushers coming at quarterbacks from all angles, and other debilitating game-day factors that hamper throwers, they lose the ability to think about what the guru taught them, and their muscle memory reverts back to their bad habits.
So the bottom line is, I don’t think these off-season quarterback sessions with coaches and gurus really make much of a difference.
April 6, 2015
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