this season, beginning with the patriots v. jets controversy, and followed by all of the game-time coverage of the green dot stickers on the QB helmets, it became clear to me (or maybe i'm COMPLETELY wrong 
) that todays QBs are not as good as those that pre-dated the communications-inside-the-helmet generation.
let's back up some first. in past generations, there have been QBs who could read a D and call their own plays (such as joe montana). in my estimation, those QBs are better than their counterparts who could not read a D and call their own plays (such as drew bledsoe).
fast forward to today's game. the QBs (with a possible exception of peyton manning) don't have to be as competent in reading a D, because the coaches upstairs are reading it for them. and the QBs also don't have to worry about calling the "correct" play, because their coaches are able to "spy" the D formation (not the necessarily the signals, but the formation) from upstairs, and call down the appropriate corresponding O play to counteract it.
i believe QBs of yesteryear are/were better players, because they didn't rely on transmitted battlefield intelligence beamed into their helmets to perform. the current system puts a premium on coaching analytics, as opposed to player knowledge, skill and abilities.
here are a couple articles that gave me food for thought:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3035449&type=story
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-071023haugh,0,1791523.column
) that todays QBs are not as good as those that pre-dated the communications-inside-the-helmet generation.let's back up some first. in past generations, there have been QBs who could read a D and call their own plays (such as joe montana). in my estimation, those QBs are better than their counterparts who could not read a D and call their own plays (such as drew bledsoe).
fast forward to today's game. the QBs (with a possible exception of peyton manning) don't have to be as competent in reading a D, because the coaches upstairs are reading it for them. and the QBs also don't have to worry about calling the "correct" play, because their coaches are able to "spy" the D formation (not the necessarily the signals, but the formation) from upstairs, and call down the appropriate corresponding O play to counteract it.
i believe QBs of yesteryear are/were better players, because they didn't rely on transmitted battlefield intelligence beamed into their helmets to perform. the current system puts a premium on coaching analytics, as opposed to player knowledge, skill and abilities.
here are a couple articles that gave me food for thought:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=3035449&type=story
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/bears/cs-071023haugh,0,1791523.column
Football gone Pentagon. Great choice of words.
