Adapt or Lose: Why the NFL Needs to Officially Embrace College Football Trends

A coach's primary responsibility is to put players in a position to succeed, yet NFL coaches remain far too rigid in their beliefs and style of play to fully adapt to the league's incoming talent. 

This is a fact of life that can be gently described as a major mistake. 

A perceived lack of development for quarterbacks, offensive linemen and tight ends has become a major concern at the NFL level. It's now smarter to adapt schemes to the talent instead of immediately trying to mold it to the NFL game.

At one point in time, the NFL influenced the collegiate game. Schemes and systems essentially became football's version of the trickle-down theory. 

This is no longer the case. 

Instead, collegiate offenses and plays are now becoming a bigger part of the pro game. 

While the wildcat and a more traditional zone-read option haven't taken over the NFL ranks despite the level of athletes now playing the quarterback position, the amount of shotgun and spread formations have dramatically increased.

These changes are predicated on two factors.

Player	Team	Yards
Drew Brees	Saints	4,952
Ben Roethlisberger	Steelers	4,952
Andrew Luck	Colts	4,761
Peyton Manning	Broncos	4,727
Matt Ryan	Falcons	4,694
Eli Manning	Giants	4,410
Aaron Rodgers	Packers	4,381
Philip Rivers	Chargers	4,286
Matthew Stafford	Lions	4,257
Tom Brady	Patriots	4,109
Ryan Tannehill	Dolphins	4,045

First, the NFL is now a far more quarterback-friendly league than it ever has been. Due to numerous rule changes slanted in the offense's favor, a quarterback throwing for over 4,000 yards is a common occurrence.

In fact, 11 different quarterbacks eclipsed the 4,000-mark last season. The number more than doubled compared to 10 years earlier, and only three quarterbacks hit the same benchmark 20 years prior to the 2014 campaign. 

Through six-plus weeks this season, 14 quarterbacks are currently on track to accomplish the same feat. 

The NFL is a passing league, yet many of the quarterbacks—even some of those capable of putting up big numbers—aren't viewed as legitimate franchise options for their respective organizations. 

For all the problems quarterbacks like Sam Bradford and Peyton Manning have experienced this season, both are still on track to throw for over 4,000 yards. 

Slinging the ball all over the field is the norm, and it doesn't require a special talent to do so. 

But none of this stops NFL teams from being overly concerned with incoming quarterbacks and their lack of understanding of the position. 

The Wall Street Journal's Kevin Clark meticulously detailed these growing concerns: 

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Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi said the new crop of college quarterbacks were flummoxed by a simple question about an "under" front, one of the most common defensive alignments. "Whoa, no one's ever told me 'front' before," he remembers one prospect saying. "No one's ever talked to me about reading these defenses."

Buffalo Bills general manager Doug Whaley said he had the same results when he asked prospects a question about defenses shifting from a common scheme called "cover 2" to an equally mundane tactic called "cover 3." Hue Jackson, the offensive coordinator from the Bengals, said he had to dumb down his questions, while Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said some QBs failed to grasp things as basic as understanding a common play call. "You have to teach these kids the absolute basics," he said.

The knowledge base was so low, Buffalo's Whaley said, that it left him feeling "a little nervous about the long-term future of this game."

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These concerns stem from the proliferation of spread schemes at the collegiate level. 

What is often overlooked is the reason why spread offenses became so popular in the first place. It was a reaction from coaches who were at a natural disadvantage against more prestigious programs. A spread offense was their response to even the playing field. 

The Baylor Bears, Oregon Ducks and TCU Horned Frogs aren't considered traditional powers at the collegiate level. Yet, each one of these programs is now considered elite after developing a unique style of play that evened the playing field against traditional powers like the Oklahoma Sooners, Texans Longhorns and USC Trojans. 

Mike Bellotti brought the spread to Oregon and eventually hired Chip Kelly as his offensive coordinator. 

"I was really captivated by the offense and the stress it puts on the defense," Bellotti said in a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times' Chris Dufresne.

Since the aforementioned programs couldn't recruit at the same level as the nation's powerhouses, they were at a natural disadvantage, particularly in the trenches. Instead of trying to bang heads against college's most talented teams, spreading the field and using tempo became the ultimate equalizer. 

As Bellotti alluded, stretching the field horizontally as well as vertically and varying offensive speeds forced more talented defenses to adjust and stressed their traditional schemes. 

Never was this more apparent than when Johnny Manziel played for Texas A&M and faced Alabama. Nick Saban's squad is known as a legitimate pipeline into the NFL and considered a pro-ready system on both offense and defense. 

Yet, Manziel in Kevin Sumlin's version of the Air Raid scheme shredded the Crimson Tide for 907 total yards and seven touchdowns in their two meetings. 

However, the problems in Manziel's game were apparent despite his overwhelming success with the Aggies. As I wrote in December of his redshirt sophomore year, "He's a one-read quarterback in a system that has yet to develop a special NFL signal-caller. Manziel often takes off from the pocket when his initial read isn't available. He's undersized. He doesn't possess elite arm talent. And his athleticism doesn't necessarily translate as well in the professional ranks."

Despite those obvious issues, the Cleveland Browns still selected Manziel with the 22nd overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. 

While some might argue—and rightfully so—that Manziel was overdrafted, the Browns doubled down on any mistake the organization may have made on draft night by not making the Heisman Trophy winner comfortable in his situation. 

Of course, Manziel's off-the-field problems are well documented, and he admitted to not taking his preparation seriously last year, but the Browns also asked a lot of the rookie quarterback by trying to have him digest and execute an offense that was so drastically different than the one he operated at College Station. 

This is where the disconnect often lies between the collegiate and NFL ranks. 

In order to operate at a breakneck pace and consistently find the right matchups, many spread offenses are simplified to the point that quarterbacks are merely a cog instead of being the key operator. Verbiage is minimal. Reads are basic. And the nuances of the position are often forsaken for counting the alignment of a defense in order to find where an advantage actually exists.

As such, the traditional way to play the position established by Bill Walsh during the San Francisco 49ers' heyday and continued by today's future Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Manning, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers is eroding. 

Expectations placed on young quarterbacks are also unrealistic. A "perfect" prospect like Andrew Luck only comes around (approximately) every 20 years. His level of understanding was considered far more advanced than his contemporaries'. Even so, he's still been a turnover machine early in his career. 

Uncredited/Associated Press

Whether it's Manziel or this year's No. 2 overall pick, Marcus Mariota, it's less about what a prospect learned in college as it pertains to how they played the quarterback position and more about the transcendent traits in their games. The key is cultivating those traits by making them comfortable in a scheme that may not be considered traditional but plays to their strengths.  

Manziel's handling has proved to be problematic, because the team continues to say there is a plan in place for his development. This plan hasn't been defined or produced any results, though. 

On the other hand, Mariota found instant success with the Tennessee Titans because head coach Ken Whisenhunt and his staff found ways to incorporate aspects of Oregon's offense into their more traditional system. 

Here's the overall problem:  The success programs like Baylor, Oregon and TCU continue to experience feeds on itself, and spread systems continue to be the great equalizer for many other college programs. Those programs continue to get better and recruit at a higher level, while others try to emulate their success. 

A college head coach's primary responsibility is to win games. Nowhere in his job description is he asked to prepare individuals for the NFL. Sure, the ability to develop NFL-caliber talent helps a program in the long run, but it's an ancillary result of being successful on the field. 

"My first thought was, 'They [the NFL] don't understand,'" Bowling Green head coach Dino Babers, an Air Raid disciple under Baylor's Art Briles, said in reaction to the Wall Street Journal piece, per Fox Sports' Bruce Feldman. "They get paid millions and millions of dollars and can't teach these kids that stuff? They want us to teach to 'em? Let me take my stuff up there."

Better talent will continue to play in these schemes as they eventually hope to play in the NFL one day. 

We're no longer at the point where Mike Leach is coaching the Texas Tech Red Raiders and quarterbacks like Kliff Kingsbury, B.J. Symons, Sonny Cumbie and Graham Harrell are putting up video game-like passing statistics even though they lack the physical tools to be considered legitimate NFL prospects. 

Today's top quarterback prospect—the California Golden Bears' Jared Goff—is another Air Raid disciple.  

Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

Bleacher Report's Matt Miller spoke with a college scout who believes Goff is "the best quarterback since Andrew Luck." 

At this point, how does any scout separate Goff from the myriad other Air Raid quarterbacks—from Tim Couch to Robert Griffin III—who never made the transition to the pro game?

It's simple: Goff should be viewed as an individual and not a product of the system, because what he runs at Cal is different than other Air Raid quarterbacks who preceded him. 

Offensively, the Golden Bears only employ 14 or 15 passing concepts and four or five running concepts. The automatic assumption is that Goff is already behind on the learning curve. However, his responsibilities in the scheme extend beyond just understanding those concepts. 

CBS Sports' Sean Wagner-McGough provided a detailed piece about how Cal's offense operates. Golden Bears offensive coordinator Tony Franklin explained the process:

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We go through our progression, we throw it to the guy who is open or we run the football. 

When you learn the concept, you understand the word. So when you say 'sluggo,' immediately your brain says 'OK, sluggo means this. It means my eyes start here, there's a player going there and I'm bam, bam, bam, one, two, three.' So most of us, within a two-week period, can learn those concepts, they can master that in their brain.

I could run 'north' and I could run 'sluggo X.' So in [Goff's] brain, if I said 'north sluggo,' he knows that it's a high-low read for him. It's a high-low and then to a checkdown. If I tag 'X'...if I go 'sluggo X,' he knows now that his eyes have to start opposite of the X [receiver]. He knows now that he's high, middle, low—rather than high, low, middle.

So take the same concept and I could go, 'north on pop sluggo X.' So now, I've added four words because I've changed the offensive line protection with my play call. So it could be as easy as 'north sluggo.' End of story. Or it could be 'north on pop sluggo X Z takeoff.' I could keep adding. But in his brain he still keeps going 'sluggo is a high-low concept.' It's a concept-based deal. So he learns a concept, then I can make an adjustment in a game that we might not have ever repped. If I tag it, he'll know it.

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A play call in a traditional West Coast offense can be as long as 15 to 20 words—all indicating where each player needs to be on the field during that particular snap. Today's college offenses, though, are whittling down those excessively wordy calls in order to easily understand concepts and operate at a faster pace. 

This is a big part of where the disconnect forms between the two levels. Instead of seeing the big picture during the draft evaluation process, teams are becoming too entangled with the minutiae of the position. 

"It's doomsday if we don't adapt and evolve," St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead told Clark.

While the quarterback position often dominates this conversation, similar concerns about a lack of preparation and development along the offensive line have become more and more prevalent. 

"The techniques and nuances of the craft, particularly pass protection, have suffered in college," former NFL offensive lineman and SiriusXM NFL Radio host Ross Tucker told Bleacher Report's Mike Tanier. "It's all about tempo now."

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press/Associated Press

Spread offenses often rely on moving the ball quickly. Short passes then substitute for the running game in many instances. 

As a result, linemen suffer in a few areas. First, drive blockers in the run game are rare commodities at the collegiate level. Fewer offensive linemen truly understand leverage and how to use their hips to explode through blocks. Also, deep pass-sets are far less common. Angles can be completely ignored or emphasized to a much lesser degree if a lineman comes out of a zone read-heavy scheme in which he is asked to slide or short-set all the time.

The Auburn Tigers' Greg Robinson was the second overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft. He was considered very raw as a left tackle, but the Rams saw immense upside and couldn't pass on the talented blocker despite his limited experience. 

St. Louis offensive line coach Paul Boudreau described to Sports Illustrated's Greg A. Bedard what he sees in Robinson: 

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Some guys make the Pro Bowl because of the media. Most of them just need time. I've got this guy, Greg Robinson, the second pick overall [in 2014]. They had four plays [at Auburn] and one protection: slide left, slide right. He didn't have a snap count. Now, I coached Willie Roaf when Willie was a rookie. Willie's in the Hall of Fame. And I can tell you from a coach who coached Willie and now coaches Greg Robinson, Greg Robinson as a rookie has more talent and is a better player than Willie. Willie had a great coach at Louisiana Tech and Willie was ahead of the curve because of the techniques he was taught, just like how we talk about preferring the Wisconsin, Iowa, Stanford and Notre Dame guys. They have one up on the guys from the spread.

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Offensive linemen are not magically going to become nasty, dominant run-blockers if they're playing in a spread system in which the quarterback throws the ball most of the time. 

NFL franchises must understand their limitations and weigh those against a player's perceived upside. Robinson, for example, can claim all the necessary tools to be successful at the professional level, but it will take time for him to fully develop. 

By placing these types of players in positions to succeed—whether by moving them to a different position at the start of their careers or limiting what's asked of them—offensive line coaches can get the most out of these top talents. 

Blocking issues extend beyond the offensive linemen, too. 

No position at any level has changed as much as tight end over the past 20 years. The position simply does not require the same duties as when Mark Bavaro destroyed opponents as a blocker and a receiver. 

A more athletic breed of tight end arose with the likes of Shannon Sharpe, Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates and Jimmy Graham dominating the game.  

While tight ends slowly became bigger parts of offenses, their inability to block was often overlooked due to receiving skills that could completely change the complexion of any game. 

"The fast ones don't want to block, and the big ones are too slow to block s--t," a former NFL coach told Tanier. 

Complete tight ends like the New England Patriots' Rob Gronkowski are a rare breed. 

It simply comes down to a matter of preference for coaches. If the tight end is talented enough in the receiving game, he'll be a big part of the offense despite his deficiencies as a blocker. And pure blocking tight ends are rarely used today. Instead, teams will often go four-wide or use an H-back if the tight end isn't a proficient receiver. Tight ends often line up in the slot as well.  

The coaches who make concessions for tight ends don't do the same for quarterbacks and offensive linemen. The only logical solution to get the most out of all these positions is to cater pro schemes to their collegiate counterparts. 

We've already seen this to a degree. 

When quarterback Griffin earned the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year honor in 2012, then-Washington Redskins offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan had built his offense to resemble the one at Baylor. Griffin ran the zone read. He operated out of the pistol formation. The team was even able to protect the young signal-caller with a strong running game. 

Problems cropped up when the next Redskins staff decided to try to expedite RG3's development as a pocket passer instead of bringing him along slowly. As a result, the Heisman Trophy winner's progress stalled, and he's now sitting on the bench behind Kirk Cousins. 

A couple other examples of the NFL changing as a result of the altered college landscape appeared this season.

The previously mentioned adaptation of the Titans offense to Mariota's skill set is an obvious case. The Patriots also decided to rotate their offensive linemen to get favorable matchups up front based on the team's available talent at the position. Browns veteran quarterback Josh McCown set a franchise record with three straight 300-yard passing games in a spread offense that looked much closer to Oregon's than the run-first scheme the Browns staff touted prior to the start of the season. And Cam Newton is currently carrying the 5-0 Carolina Panthers as a runner and a passer. 

The game continues to evolve on a daily basis. Coaches such as Walsh, Paul Brown, Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick achieved tremendous success because of their ability to adapt to the game as it changed. 

The NFL's next great coach will be the one who learns to embrace everything at the lower levels of football and turn it into his advantage in the professional ranks.

Brent Sobleski covers the NFL and NFL draft for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @brentsobleski.