This column written by Kurt Warner is from last year, but it is every bit as relevant now as it was then.
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/colin-kaepernick-benched-athletic-quarterbacks-kill-kurt-drill-rgiii-johnny-manziel-kurt-warner/nev6q3h8v3lj1ne5rfn4c3vy1
When I was growing up, I was the best athlete in my area through high school. I could survive in almost any athletic environment. I would guess 99 percent of professional athletes would say the same thing.
But at some point along the way — for me shortly after high school — that is snatched away. It's then that you start developing into a complete player.
It becomes quickly apparent that athleticism isn't enough. Just ask 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who is only the latest at the position to be unceremoniously removed from the starting lineup.
Here's why I believe this is becoming a trend.
It begins with unrealistic expectations placed on those young men when they were drafted. If you look back at who Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III, Tim Tebow and Johnny Manziel were in college — the players these teams chose in the draft — they are still, to a large degree, the same players today that they were then.
We can say it's the players' fault because they haven't grown as we had hoped. We could point our fingers at the coaches because they haven't been able to teach them to become complete quarterbacks.
But are either of these the root of the issue? I don't believe so.
I had the opportunity to work with Kaepernick for a couple months this offseason. He was willing to put in the work, he was coachable, he wanted to be great and the reason he was there in the first place was because he knew he needed to improve. I would venture to say those traits are very similar to what you would find in great QBs like Tom Brady, Peyton Manning or Drew Brees.
So why is it that Kaepernick, Griffin and others like them aren't having the same type of success as their veteran peers?
I believe it's about their starting point.
It's about what the young quarterbacks have been asked to do in the past and what types of quarterbacks they are; what types of offensive systems they played in, what they were asked to do in those systems and how much they relied on physical abilities vs. mental abilities.
We all enter the NFL in different states, and the biggest question — and why it's hard to predict QB success — is: How will they progress in these areas once they get to the highest level?
Athleticism alone won't cut it.
A quarterback must be able to outperform his opponent through a combination of things, such as good technique and faster mental processing. This could mean developing great footwork in the pocket to avoid a sack, working on a quicker release to beat a defender with a throw and picking up the ability to understand defenses. He has to see the technique of a defender or gain a better understanding of how to read defenses so that he can anticipate throws — even if he doesn't have the strongest arm.
'Kill Kurt'I started playing QB in a fashion where I would stand in the pocket to throw to my first receiver and if things got a little uncomfortable, I bailed out and tried to use my athletic ability to run away from the chaos of the pocket. My coach, Jim Padlock, quickly realized this and developed a drill to try and combat my athletic ability and make me more comfortable in the pocket.
It was called the 'Kill Kurt' drill.
I was told to drop back in the pocket while my offensive line blocked and the defensive line rushed. I was not able to leave the pocket — though I could manipulate it by sliding around and moving up — but I could not take off and run. So the end result was either the whistle to stop the play because I had moved around well, or one of my buddies on the defensive side sacked me.
My buddies couldn't line up fast enough when "Kill Kurt" started. I hated it.
It was one of my least favorite times on the field, but it may have also been the most valuable. One of my greatest strengths as a quarterback was the ability to stand in the pocket in the face of a rush and deliver passes down the field. That drill taught me to read defenses and keep my eyes downfield instead of looking at the rush and bailing out at the first sign of trouble. It forced me to know exactly who I was reading on each play and to make a quick decision, inside the pocket, or I was going to get hit.
I am grateful my coach installed that drill early in my career, because even though I may have been able to avoid a lot athletically at that age, there was no question the ability to do that would be over sooner rather than later. If I was going to be successful playing the position, it would have to come with what I processed mentally — not what I was able to avoid physically.
As we can see when we look at Kaepernick and RGIII, they never had to worry about not being the best athlete on the field. Where many of us lose that tag in high school or college, these guys have been able to sustain it all the way to the NFL.
Sounds like an incredible blessing, and of course to some degree it is, but it has delayed their overall growth and remains the main reason they are continually struggling at the NFL level.
Many of these guys have never been taught how to play the position the way it has to be played against the best athletes in the world. They have always been taught the basics, but then been encouraged when things didn't look right to "Do what you do."
But it has finally caught up to them, just as it did the rest of us.
And now we expect them to stop doing those things, create good habits and mechanics inside the pocket, and become a conventional passer — oh yeah, and do it under the gun within an NFL game or over a six-month offseason!
This just can't be captured overnight. Throw into the mix the pressure of a big contract and high expectations to turn around struggling teams and you have exactly what were seeing transpire in these situations: a recipe for disaster.