Remember David Greene?

[Ex-hippie]

Interesting article here on the relative lack of success of left-handed quarterbacks in the NFL. Former Seahawk third-round pick David Greene is interviewed. Maybe he has an interesting point and we should all be more understanding of why he was a complete flop in the NFL. But I'm inclined to think that what this article really proves is that Greene is the kind of guy who makes excuses. I personally have never tried to catch a pass from an NFL-caliber quarterback, but I'm thinking a good spiral is a good spiral, and any adjustment that a receiver needs to make is very minor. Other lefties like Todd Marinovich and Michael Vick had their own reasons for washing out (same goes for Matt Leinart, who isn't mentioned in the article).

As a lefty who never could throw a football very well (I was a lineman when I played), I took an interest in this article.

Any thoughts?

[Billy]

Very interesting read. I never really thought about the fact that the always lauded LT means a lot more to a righty than a lefty--but of course it makes perfect sense.

The David Greene quote is a lame excuse IMO. If you listen to any good quarterback talk about a receiver, just about all of them will mention at least once the need for the QB to adjust to the receiver, not the other way around. It sure seems to imply that Greene felt the lack of reps didn't provide the receivers enough time to adjust to him. With as much time as he had on his hands when he was in Seattle, he should have been working on how to adjust to his receivers--since he could actually control that.

I'm a lefty myself so I can definitely see how it would be an adjustment for lefties in a right handed league so-to-speak. There are a lot of things that aren't designed for lefties, and I'd have to think as a QB, having to adjust to that would be difficult. I'd also have to think as a head coach or OC, it would be difficult to re-design an offense that is likely fairly well established to accommodate a lefty.

[Danny Darko]

Interesting read. Thanks for posting it.

All I know is Steve Young, Mark Brunell, and Boomer didn't make any excuses. I could see some nuance differences, but I think you could make it work to your advantage too. Deep passes may be somewhat harder to gauge for some receivers, but a QB succeeds with the short and intermediate passes that make first down and long drives happen. Montana and Young both thrived off of 6-15yrd bullets and I believe Young made play action his bitch because he could roll away from the usual angles of attack. (he did have a bunch of talented receivers, but not Brunell)

Boomer was a deep threat and you never hear his WR's mention any adjustment. Now I do think that a backup lefty is at a distinct disadvantage mostly due to the way the Tackles play off him and the shift his style presents compared to the starters repetition with an entire offense.

[Ex-hippie]

Very interesting read. I never really thought about the fact that the always lauded LT means a lot more to a righty than a lefty--but of course it makes perfect sense.

I hadn't really thought about it either until the days before the 2009 draft, when I was reading about a tackle, William Beatty from UConn, whom the Seahawks were looking at (he wound up going to the Giants in the late second round). Somebody wrote that Beatty may have been a good LT in college, but it wasn't as important a job because he played with a left-handed QB. It's hard to say, really. On the one hand, it's true he doesn't protect the blind side. But on the other hand, a lot of opponents have a designated right DE and left DE, and they usually put the best pass-rusher among the two on the defensive right. (Notable exceptions being Patrick Kerney and Michael Strahan, for unknown reasons.) I'm not aware of any teams that switch it around, though maybe there are some. Obviously they do switch linebackers around depending where the tight end is. So I think the LT still gets a lot of tough matchups regardless of which hand the QB uses (with "I think" being the key phrase). This could be a pretty good topic for someone like K.C. Joyner to take on.