The State of Modern Quarterback Coaching

I feel so lucky to do what I do everyday. I get to work with motivated, hard working young people, specifically the quarterbacks, and help them achieve their goals on the field and in life. I am one of the lucky few who gets to truly enjoy his or her career every single day.

Over the last two years or so there has been one consistent battle that I’ve had to fight: de-programming kids from the “instagram era” of quarterback coaching. Obviously we have an instagram account, and we try to share our information, promote our guys, create some fun content, etc. But realistically, social media and instagram have been able to destroy so many quarterbacks’ mechanics and fundamentals, as well as their perspectives on the game. Here’s what I mean:

1 - Anyone is allowed to make an instagram account, meaning anyone can call themselves “QB Master Coach” or whatever they come up with, regardless of their background or credibility. In fact, the credibility of social media accounts is based on how good their posts look, not the content of what they are saying or doing. With that in mind, information has become a wild-wild west of some good tidbits, but mostly bad coaching.

2 - Highlights look cool! I like seeing highlights too. But, so many kids (and young men) are basing their fundamentals on highlight reels instead of sustainable game tape. If all you watch is Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen making unbelievable highlight reel, off-platform, sidearm throws, then you might reason that those motions are the most important to learn. But realistically, that is a horrible starting point for mechanics. Equally important, that’s also a bad way to approach playing the game. Making consistent, on-schedule throws doesn’t seem “cool” anymore, so very few kids try to do it, and they undervalue the essentials, while overvaluing the crazy play.

3 - Quarterback coaching, like any other field, goes through fads, periods where something is the “modern” way of coaching, only to see that technique fall by the wayside as years go by after seeing the side effects. Decades ago, quarterbacks were taught to hold the ball by their ear and point to the target. Twenty years ago, they were teaching guys to drive their lead elbow down. Perhaps fifteen years ago, it was common to hold the football “on the shelf.” All of these things we now look at with humoristic disdain, knowing they were fads better left behind as they didn’t really represent the best method of playing the position. That same thing is happening now, with the no-stride, leave the back-foot-back, drop the arm angle style of throwing. However, the mouthpiece for that current fad is so amplified because of social media. I have had countless quarterbacks start with me over the last 3 years that have come in with elbow pain, and the common thread amongst them is a single, well-followed instagram page that teaches a no-stride, side-arm motion.

So, when I look at the current state of quarterback coaching, I love the energy and publicity that quarterback coaching is able to generate, but I wish the science and common sense would come with it.

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