Are Pocket passers in the NFL becoming obsolete?

CJ Stroud

I heard Harry Douglas talking on the radio a few years ago basically saying that QBs have to have some mobility now because of how freakishly athletic the defensive linemen across the league have become.

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I heard Harry Douglas talking on the radio a few years ago basically saying that QBs have to have some mobility now because of how freakishly athletic the defensive linemen across the league have become.

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I mean yeah I can see that but two of the last three superbowl winners were Matt Stafford and Tom Brady.

Some degree of mobility opens up the offense. The occasional scramble for a 1st down buys you an extra possession IMHO

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Everyone you named outside of Lamar Jackson and maybe Hurts is a pocket passer. Being able to scramble doesn't make one a "running" quarterback.

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Josh Allen rushed for over 700 yards both in 2022 and 2021.

Burrow, Lawrence, Goff, Herbert, Purdy, Tua, Stroud are all young passers either considered elite or at least capable of putting up elite offensive performances and are all very much pocket passers, with varying degrees of athleticism.

Mahomes and Allen are very much passers first but I’ll grant you that they both push the idea of “pocket” pretty far. But guys like Marino, Young, Elway, McNabb, etc were elite qbs that used athleticism and mobility a lot. Not exactly new.

Hurts and Lamar are the only two who really have designed runs as a staple of their offense, and they also are with two of the most stable, talented, and well coached teams in the NFL.

All that being said, given how much teams sell out to defend the pass now compared to 20 years ago it’s definitely a more valuable skill set to have mobility as qb than it was in the Brees/Brady/Manning/Rivers hey day.

Philip Rivers to me was the last ultimate one-dimensional pocket passer. He would rarely move outside the pocket, instead opting to step up into a narrow gap to execute the pass downfield.

His style demonstrated a type of fearlessness because he would usually be a split second away from getting obliterated, and sometimes he did, which resulted in some major injuries thought his career.

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Burrow, Lawrence, Goff, Herbert, Purdy, Tua, Stroud are all young passers either considered elite or at least capable of putting up elite offensive performances and are all very much pocket passers, with varying degrees of athleticism.

Mahomes and Allen are very much passers first but I’ll grant you that they both push the idea of “pocket” pretty far. But guys like Marino, Young, Elway, McNabb, etc were elite qbs that used athleticism and mobility a lot. Not exactly new.

Hurts and Lamar are the only two who really have designed runs as a staple of their offense, and they also are with two of the most stable, talented, and well coached teams in the NFL.

All that being said, given how much teams sell out to defend the pass now compared to 20 years ago it’s definitely a more valuable skill set to have mobility as qb than it was in the Brees/Brady/Manning/Rivers hey day.

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This is fair. If the OP was "are immobile qbs becoming obsolete?", I would have accepted that. But the Mahomes, Burrow, Lawrence types, who are athletic, still do most of their work from the pocket. Running qbs to me are those who a large portion of the gameplan is qb designed runs.

Current starters who I wouldn't consider a pocket passer;

Hurts, Lamar, Fields, Richardson

The more things a team or player can do well, the more ways that team or player can beat you.