Mike McCarthy’s QB school no longer exists in its original and intended form. Blame the CBA for that. Since 2011, rules have changed to limit and structure the amount of time coaches and teams can spend with players during the offseason. Teams have OTAs, minicamp, and meetings, but coaches can’t just call a group of quarterbacks together to train.
Like any good coach, McCarthy adjusted. His QB school has folded into the CBA’s parameters. In his overall praise of rookie QB Drew Allar, McCarthy snuck in a comment about it.
“We’re able to just adjust some fundamentals that we think will help him. I think a big part of quarterback play is understanding the profile of the individual,” he told reporters Saturday via a team-provided transcript. “They’re all built a little differently. Some guys are higher cut than others. It was great to get him on film.
“The first thing that we did with Drew, no different than we did with Will [Howard] and Mason [Rudolph], we shoot a profile tape. We were able to do that yesterday, evaluate that, and tried some things today that he responded to very favorably. So, he made a very good first impression.”
That “profile tape” comes straight from the quarterback school philosophy. Shortly after his hire, we dove into a coaching clinic McCarthy gave after becoming the Green Bay Packers head coach in 2006. Here, he broke down his philosophy of coaching and evaluating the position. During the session, he mentioned filming quarterbacks to have tape of their mechanics. This is used for coaches and players to review and adjust, a visual aid to talk through the changes.
I compiled a clip of McCarthy explaining how the team films, followed by clips later in his session of Alex Smith’s “profile tape” after the San Francisco 49ers drafted him in 2005. McCarthy served as his offensive coordinator.
“We take the quarterbacks Day One, get the film about 10 feet high…shoot them one time from behind, one time where he throws into the camera, one time from the side…one time from the left 45, one time from the right 45,” McCarthy said in that ’06 clinic.
The “45” means from an angle, to see the quarterback’s throwing motion and follow-through.
Smith’s clips only showed three of the five, but they align with McCarthy’s comments. There’s one from behind, one into the camera, and a side profile. All to capture every angle and view of a quarterback’s mechanics. His footwork. How he carries the ball. His release. His follow-through (keep the off-hand in, not extended out, for example).
While we don’t have footage, the same happened with Allar. Ditto with Will Howard and Mason Rudolph during the first minicamp pre-draft. A baseline view of his mechanics to know where to start adjusting. McCarthy and quarterbacks coach Tom Arth are big on footwork and working “ground up.”
By the sounds of it, Allar’s already being coached up and responding well. Pittsburgh tweaked his footwork from the first to second practice, and he’s already adjusting. If his mechanics improve, his accuracy will, too, and Allar’s physical tools will truly shine through.
How much Allar progresses is unknown. But McCarthy’s strategy to teach him hasn’t changed. Even if the rules have.
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