What happens to Tedford QBs in the NFL?

Actually, I just copied it straight out of Pro Football Prospectus, but I posted about this very topic.

He makes QBs look better than they really are. It’s not really a system – Tedford runs a very pro-style offense.

To a certain extent, Trent Dilfer was underrated, Boller still has potential. Akili Smith wasn’t in college long enough. David Carr has an odd side-arm motion and his confidence was rattled from Houston’s Swiss cheese o-line. Joey Harrington is the only player on this list who should have been good, but wasn’t.

I guess let’s see what happens to Rodgers.

Billick undermined him by signing McNair and appointing him the starter without even a competition (aren’t you glad to have Tedford), and he never had a good O-line in front of him. He should have beaten the undefeated Pats last year. But his stupid O-line kept on getting him injured. If Boller’s given a real offensive line he can do something with it. David Carr had the worst offensive line, ever, but I still think he has a good shot to make it in the right situation.

Coaches seem to assume the Tedford effect is all that’s needed to make a QB great in the league. How well do you think Tom Brady fares without that offensive line of his? It’s the main reason why Rodgers should perform above most people’s expectations this season.

Plain and simple, NFL teams are responsible for the demise of Tedford QBs. First and foremost, NFL teams wouldn’t be drafting Tedford QBs unless they thought the Tedford QBs had what it takes to succeed at in the NFL. So it’s not as if Tedford is producing crap QBs – no, he’s producing top quality college QBs and solid NFL prospects. But like so many good college QBs, they get drafted by desperate NFL teams who throw the rookie QBs into the fire too early and ruin them. They key is to let the rookies sit. So to answer your question, it’s not that Tedford doesn’t prepare them for the NFL, it’s that the (1) the NFL teams ruin Tedford QBs, (2) Tedford QBs almost always get drafted to crap teams (Boller, Harrington, Smith), and (3) bad luck – not every QB is going to succeed and it’s a lot more probable that they’ll fail than succeed.

If you’re wondering why top QBs don’t come to Cal, it’s because they’re top QBs. They are so obviously talented that they could go to New Mexico State and still get drafted in the NFL. Plain and simple. It’s the not-top QBs that usually come to Cal because they know they’ll the assistance from one of the top NFL QB-groomers to get to the NFL. This is not to say that Riley, Mansion, Longshore, Reed, etc., were bad, it’s just that they weren’t highly highly rated QBs (such as in the top 50 national prospects in the nation).