The successful NFL QB's I have been around were among the 3 or 4 smartest players on the roster - the mind of the successful QB moves at a rapid pace, he gives the coverage a presnap read that has about 2.7 seconds to make a throwing decision before the rush starts to try and put him on injured reserved. All have very good arms, but you can be a great QB without having a great arm. Joe Montana was probably the most effective QB I coached against, he did not wow you with his arm strength, but he had incredible ability to get the ball to the guy who you couldn't cover. Joe also had the leagues’ best QB coach in Bill Walsh (Bill and I both coached at Washington High School in Fremont, California). QBs are all good athletes and yet in most cases they don’t have the agility and speed of a corner, wide receiver or running back. They need agility and balance in a small area so they can slide away from the rush and buy time. It helps if they can run well enough that when forced to run, they can be a threat. If they have great running skills, they force the defense to play almost exclusively zone, so underneath coverage can keep their eye on the QB.
Smart, athletic, very good throwing skills, mentally tough and great leadership skills – only 32 start in the league and only 12 take their team to the play off each years – there are only about a dozen back ups good enough to replace the starter without significantly hurting a team effectiveness. Every team carries a 3rd QBs and most have a 4th on the practice squad – that’s only 128 guys getting a game check each Monday for being an NFL QB – a unique group of people and the ones I knew were good guys.
