The past two years we've experienced young quarterbacks take the NFL by storm. Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III, Andrew Luck are just a few of the quarterbacks that come to mind, and if four-time Pro Bowler and former NFL quarterback Drew Bledsoe is right, we'll be seeing a crop of young quarterbacks in the NFL every year that have been prepared better than any of their predecessors.
According to some comments that Bledsoe made to a CBS Boston affiliate, advances in technology are a big part of what is making the transition from college signal caller to the face of an NFL franchise so much easier.
The first part of that technology at the fingertips of college quarterbacks is today's realistic video games.
"You watch these football video games they’re playing when they’re little kids, they’re pretty darn realistic man,” Bledsoe noted. "These guys, all of the sudden, they’re getting it from a really young age; they’re kind of seeing some of those pictures. Playing quarterback is a lot of repetition. You’ve got to see a lot of the same pictures over and over so you can make that decision without thinking about it.”
The other part of the equation is having access to film and cut-ups in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the hours that former NFL players had to wait for vital film.
“Film study is so much better and so much easier now. If we wanted to watch a breakdown of 3rd and 3 or 6, the video guy had to go put that all together and edit it and splice and it took him hours and hours and kept him up overnight."
"Now it’s a couple of mouse clicks or you scroll through on your iPad, on your phone and you can get those breakdowns. So I think these guys are able to study and learn a lot more in the film room now.”
Both of those are excellent points, and that makes me wonder. Will advances in video games and film study methods in turn make a better, more prepared crop of coaches in the near future?
Only time will tell.