The NFL Draft marks a college football players movement into the NFL and with this transition often comes a lot of discussion about whether certain players can actually be successful in the NFL. During the draft you will hear dozens of analysts speculate as to whether certain college players are ready to make the move up to the NFL. With a different style of play, a large increase in game speed, and better competition, this shift, and the handling of it, becomes a major concern for all coaches when looking at potential players.
The NFL Draft marks the turning point for all rookies
The handling of this major change is most apparent at the quarterback position and coaches have many theories on how to handle the transition. Some coaches take the baptism by fire approach and throw their newfound quarterbacks immediately into the starting spot and hope for the best. Others believe it is best to sacrifice a few years and keep rookie quarterbacks on the bench for the beginning of their careers and allow them to learn the system and slowly adjust to being in the NFL. Both of these theories have their pros and cons but if Edmund Burke were a quarterback coach how would he handle the rookie quarterback dilemma?
He might need a little change in sideline attire but Burke would have a promising career as a quarterback specialist
To see how Burke would handle this situation it is important to look at his theory in his writing Reflections on the Revolution in France. In this Burke describes his stance on changes in politics. Burke argues that radical reform for any commonwealth is very dangerous. He believes that politics is based on around experience and that no one has enough experience to radically reform the government and know that they will be successful. Burke argues that incremental change is the best way to reform a commonwealth as there will be a higher chance of success and if the change is detrimental the affects will be smaller.
This is why Burke believed the French Revolution would end in disaster, as it was too radical of a change. Keeping this in mind and thinking of how Burke would coach his quarterback he would probably keep him on the bench the first few years. This would allow the rookie quarterback to slowly and incrementally adjust to the NFL. Burke would avoid the baptism by fire route at all costs as he believe the radical change from being a college player to starting in the NFL is too great and would end in the same sort of disaster he predicted for the French Revolution. Would Burke be successful as a coach though? Well we can look at journey of a few quarterbacks to find out.
Burke believed rookie quarterbacks, if brought along too quickly, would suffer the same disastrous fate he believe the french revolutionaries would suffer
First let’s look at the baptism by fire theory and for this we can look at former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf. In college Leaf broke all sorts of records for passing, led his time to a Rose Bowl, and was a Heisman trophy candidate his senior year. Leaf was then drafted 2nd overall in the 1998 NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers and immediately thrust into the starting quarterback position. He did not fair too well. Leaf never came close to having the success he did in college and played terrible in the NFL. He bounced around from team to team until his career ended in just four years later in 2002. He is now considered one of the biggest NFL busts of all time. Burke would argue that the demise of Leaf’s NFL career should be accredited to the radical changed he experienced, becoming an NFL starter so quickly. Burke would argue that this disaster may have been avoided if Leaf was incrementally eased into the starting role as it would have given him the knowledge needed to succeed.
Now let’s look at a quarterback that transitioned into the league the right way according to Burke and for this we can look at the current Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
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Rodgers looking ahead at a very promising future
Rodgers experienced the same sort of success as Leaf in college and in 2005 was drafted 24th overall by the Green Bay Packers. However, unlike Leaf, Rodgers was not immediately thrown into the starting position. Rodgers spent two years as a back up in the league, learning the knowledge necessary. As a result of this slow transition and incremental change when it came time for Rodgers to assume the starting role he was ready. Since he became the starting quarterback Rodgers has known nothing but success. He lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory and is considered to be in the elite of all NFL quarterbacks. Once again Burke would credit Rodgers success to the avoidance of any sort of radical change while transitioning into a starting NFL quarterback.
If Burke were a quarterback coach he would ensure that all his rookie quarterbacks would avoid radical change during their transition into the league at all costs. He would slowly and surely ease his young quarterbacks into the starting role as he believes this sort of incremental change is the path for success. Looking at the examples of Leaf and Rodgers Burke may have been a very successful quarterback coach at that. So for all coaches out there trying to turn their rookie quarterbacks into successes take a page out of Burke’s book and avoid radical change at all costs.
Touchdown Theory 