How dual-threat quarterbacks are finally getting a leg up on the NFL

COLUMBUS, Ohio — After watching his quarterback run for 90 yards on nine carries, the football coach delivered a matter-of-fact assessment of his passer’s rushing production.

“Part of your job as a quarterback is to move the chains by any means necessary, and that’s what he did tonight,” the coach said. 

This isn’t a quote lifted from pro football’s barnstorming, leather-helmet days, an era when nobody wore face masks and everyone had a kisser resembling Artie Donovan. It’s not Tom Osborne talking about the need to run former Nebraska quarterback Tommie Frazier until his groin muscles contracted. Or, John Fox explaining why he turned loose Tim Tebow in Denver because, well, have you seen the guy try to throw the ball?

No, this was Chargers coach Brandon Staley discussing Justin Herbert’s record-setting performance in their 41-37 win over the Steelers on Nov. 21. That would be 6-foot-6, 237-pound Justin Herbert, who ran a 4.68 in his 40-yard dash at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. 

“You just have to convert, whether that’s by the ground or through the air,” said Herbert, who became the first player in NFL history to throw for 350 yards and rush for 90 yards in the same game. “If there are open rush lanes and guys are getting covered, and no one’s playing defense on the quarterback, you have to kind of step up and find a way to get through the line.”

The league always has featured quarterbacks who could beat opponents with their legs as well as their arms and minds. Think of Fran Tarkenton, Roger Staubach, Randall Cunningham, Steve Young, Michael Vick, Cam Newton. But the NFL has never seen a cluster of so many young signal-callers capable of scampering for yardage to extend drives. 

A season ago, eight quarterbacks rushed for 400-plus yards — the most in the Super Bowl era. 

While Steelers fans fondly recall a young Ben Roethlisberger swatting away would-be tacklers like King Kong perched atop the Empire State Building to extend plays, he’s only rushed for more than 200 yards in a season once in his illustrious career. Roesthlisberger, like many quarterbacks of his generation, treats the line of scrimmage the way dogs do invisible fences in their yards. Crossing it could produce a shock to the system.

Not anymore. Last season, 15 quarterbacks ran for 200-plus yards.

“QB runs add an extra gap for defenses to defend,” wrote future Hall-of-Fame left tackle Joe Thomas, an NFL Network analyst, in an email response. “It makes it harder on (the defense), so if you’ve got a guy who can do it, and won’t get hurt doing it, it’s smart to add QB runs.”

Sunday, the Steelers face Lamar Jackson and the division-leading Ravens at Heinz Field in hopes of reigniting their playoff push. Jackson is the league’s most dangerous dual-threat quarterback, and he's well on his way to a third-consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season. But it’s not just Jackson and the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, who are creating chaos for NFL defensive coordinators.

As the league evolves and offenses learn to incorporate a new breed of athletic quarterbacks, defenses are being stressed and stretched by the likes of Herbert, Josh Allen, Justin Fields and others, who can run out of collapsing pockets for decent gains.

 Last week, the Bengals’ Joe Burrow — less than a year removed from ACL surgery — put a spin move on Alex Highsmith and juked Minkah Fitzpatrick for an 8-yard touchdown run in Cincinnati’s 41-10 win over Pittsburgh.  

“Everything goes in waves,” Steelers linebacker Joe Schobert said. “I can’t predict the future, so I don’t know. I hope there’s not 32 Lamar Jacksons in 10 years. Actually, I do because I’ll be (retired and) watching football in 10 years. It will be exciting.”

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Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert on the run against the Steelers on Nov. 21 in Los Angeles.

Eight years ago, the NFL seemed on the verge of a seismic shift at the quarterback position. Robert Griffin III was a read-option nightmare for opposing defenses. Colin Kaepernick sliced through secondaries with his big arm and strong legs en route to a Super Bowl appearance. 

Injuries and declining production quickly jeopardized both careers. Kaepernick’s attempt to raise awareness of social-justice issues by kneeling during national anthems also turned him into an outcast in the eyes of some NFL organizations unwilling to face the public-relations blowback by a segment of the fanbase.

It appeared traditional pocket passers would continue to dominate the league. Then, the pipeline dried up, the supply chain was disrupted by a revolution at the high school and college levels. 

Spread offenses and wide-open attacks changed the way the game was played. It became a simplified, one-read approach to passing. Quarterbacks stopped taking snaps under center. Eleven heads turned to the sideline to get play calls from giant flash cards with pictures of Foghorn Leghorn and Donald Duck on them. 

And as high school and college games became increasingly played in space, coaches had fewer issues with putting their elite athletes at the most important position.

“It’s no different than the days of the option or Wing-T — you want to have the ball in your best athlete’s hands most often,” wrote former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports analyst Brady Quinn in a text message. “That’s translated to the spread offense and having dual-threat QBs at the high school and college levels.”

The result was breathtaking football in the amateur ranks and panic at the NFL level. As the college game produced fewer pro-style quarterbacks, offensive coordinators didn’t know how to reprogram passers and prepare them to decode complex defensive schemes. 

The league’s initial reluctance to embrace college concepts led to a series of high-profile busts. The best NFL quarterbacks in 2007 were still the best NFL quarterbacks in 2014 with the rare exceptions of breakout performers such as Newton and Andrew Luck. 

While Bill Belichick began including run-pass options in his New England offense, he wasn’t about to turn Tom Brady into a dual-threat quarterback. 

“Eventually, some offensive coordinators are going to start figuring out how use these guys and meet them halfway,” former Browns coach Mike Pettine said in 2015. 

Pettine was right. Former Texans coach Bill O’Brien created a hybrid attack for Deshaun Watson, borrowing from concepts the quarterback utilized at Clemson. Ravens coach John Harbaugh took a similar tact with Jackson, allowing him to play to his strengths. 

“I think about Terrelle Pryor and how he might have fared had he come into the league (a few years later,)” Fox Sports draft analyst Rob Rang said. “You think back at how many of those guys were asked to change positions if they wanted to play in the NFL. That was even true with Lamar. Some people weren’t sure he could play quarterback in the NFL.” 

Steelers fans will recall Kordell Stewart being used in a slash role for his first two seasons in the league before the club gave him a shot to start at quarterback, which he played at the University of Colorado.  

The success of Newton, Jackson and Allen, among others, nowadays has QBs at the lower levels sticking to their position of choice. And while everything runs in cycles, one NFL scout told DK Pittsburgh Sports not to expect a sudden resurgence in drop-back quarterbacks in the Dan Marino mold. 

“There’s just not a lot of those type of pocket passers coming through the college ranks anymore,” said the scout, who focuses on the SEC. “The league has been forced to adapt to it.”

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T.J. Watt with a strip sack of Geno Smith at Heinz Field on Oct.17.

For all you traditionalists in Pittsburgh looking for someone to blame, you can start with Myles Garrett. No, we’re not rehashing the Mason Rudolph saga. 

We’re talking about Garrett’s freakish athletic ability and how he can maneuver around offensive linemen. He’s a pass-rushing Gumby in size-17 cleats. He bends and contorts his body at outrageous angles coming off the edge. Von Miller has done the same for years. T.J. Watt is pretty darn good at it, too. 

That’s bad news for offensive linemen and the quarterbacks they are look to keep ambulatory. 

“The other point that I think is impactful is the lack of development of offensive linemen,” Quinn wrote. “Reduced off-season and padded practices make it harder at every level to train and teach technique. The athletes across from the O-line are getting bigger, faster, stronger and more agile. The O-linemen are being overmatched in one-on-one battles.”

So it’s rather serendipitous the league has enjoyed an influx of athletic quarterbacks. You see where this is headed, right?    

“Out of necessity, quarterbacks have to be more mobile,” Quinn said. “Incorporating a quarterback who can run or scramble simplifies what defenses can do in the run or pass game. This makes it easier for offensive coordinators to find mismatches or matchups or weaknesses to exploit in the defense.”

Older, less mobile quarterbacks such as Roethlisberger have adjusted their approach, as well. Pre-snap reads have never been so important. Roethlisberger has survived by altering his game, making quicker decisions and passes. 

“These edge rushers are so explosive now,” Rang said. “If you have a mobile quarterback, he can exploit the gaps being created by the guys coming after him if he can slip underneath the rush. Their ability to run can counter these speed rushers.”

From 1970 to 2011, fewer than four quarterbacks a season averaged more than 50 carries. Over the past decade, 10 signal-callers a year have averaged that amount, according to research from the Sporting News. 

Already this season, nine QBs have 45 or more rush attempts, led by Jackson (123 carries for 707 yards) and Hurts (122 carries for 695 yards). Those two quarterbacks rank ninth and 10th respectively in NFL rushing.  

Kyler Murray, of the Cardinals, has made a conscious effort to reduce his carries this season, but his threat to run still must be taken into account by defenses.

“Offenses are just favoring more concepts that allow or require QBs to run five or 10 times per game,” Thomas wrote. “There was no such thing as zone-read 15 years ago. Everyone was running ‘pro-style-stand-in-the-pocket-and-throw’ offenses. That’s changed.”

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Bears quarterback Justin Fields runs the ball against the Steelers at Heinz Field on Nov. 8

Few teams have had more success corralling Jackson than the Steelers. He’s thrown three touchdowns and five interceptions in four career games, and his 59.2 passer rating against Pittsburgh is his worst versus any opponent. 

On the ground, Jackson has averaged just 40.4 yards rushing per game against the Steelers — 24.1 yards below his average. Pittsburgh has taken an aggressive approach in defending the Ravens quarterback, hitting him at every opportunity while forcing five fumbles.

Given his team’s recent defensive struggles, however, Mike Tomlin is understandably wary of Jackson and the problems he presents. 

“If you look at them from an offensive perspective, you start with Lamar Jackson and the many ways that he's capable of breaking you down with his arm, with his legs, by design, by improv,” Tomlin said. “He's Houdini at times. We're probably as familiar with playing him as anyone, but we don't seek comfort or find comfort in that. This season's collection presents a different set of challenges and I see a shift in terms of some of the things that they do.”

The Dolphins found success against Jackson two weeks ago by blitzing him repeatedly in a 22-10 win in Miami. The Browns forced the quarterback into a career-high four interceptions last week in part by employing speedy, undersized linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah to shadow him. 

Jackson has tortured the Browns in his brief career, averaging 72.3 yards on the ground and winning five of seven games. Cleveland selected Owusu-Koramoah in the spring with Jackson and other dual-threat quarterbacks in mind. 

Rang said teams around the league are drafting hybrid or “position-less” defenders as a way to counteract the passing game and quarterbacks who have the ability to escape the pocket. This, in an era when QBs are so well protected by NFL officials at the behest of the league.

Some critics point to the fact that few teams with “running quarterbacks” have won big in the NFL. But it’s all in how you interpret the definition. Patrick Mahomes and Russell Wilson own championship rings and have multiple Super Bowl appearances. They might not be volume runners on the level of Jackson and Hurts, but they can break down a defense with their legs by scrambling for first downs. 

“It’s the new wave of football,” the NFL scout said. “Look around the league and you have these guys like Herbert, Allen and Trevor Lawrence, who are sneaky good athletically. Things can always change, but for now I don’t see the position going back to the way it was.”

With Roethlisberger’s career nearing its conclusion, the Steelers might be adding such a quarterback in the near future.

-- DK Pittsburgh Sports writer Dale Lolley contributed to this report.