So it is not without surprise that this team would offer to this generation another player of attributes more fit for one position than the position he actually plays.
In even the lowest levels of sources of information, Wikipedia, "Quarterback" is defined as, "The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller",[1] is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually considered the leader of the offensive team, and is often responsible for calling the play in the huddle. The quarterback also touches the ball on almost every offensive play, and is the offensive player that almost always throws forward passes."
Please note the part about actually throwing forward passes.
Another position in the NFL is called the "Running Back" and the same source notes, "A running back (RB) is a gridiron football position, a member of the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.[1] There are usually one or two running backs on the field for a given play, depending on the offensive formation. A running back may be a halfback (in certain contexts also referred to as a tailback), a wingback or a fullback. A running back will sometimes be called a "feature back" if he is the team's starting running back"
In short, the difference in the two positions, "Quarterback" and "Running Back" is that the "Quarterback" throws the ball or hand the ball off to the "Running Back" and the "Running Back" runs with the ball downfield and receives the ball from the "Quarterback" as a hand off.
In modern NFL football, there has been an increasing blurring of the lines between "Quarterback" and "Running Back" by having the Quarterback run the football as a greater part of his job; interestingly there is no such proportionate increase of running backs throwing passes and impersonating Quarterbacks.
Unless you actually have your running back wear a Quarterback uniform/number and have him exploit and to whore NFL positional rules and procedures to gain an unfair advantage because Quarterbacks have a higher level of protection in rules than a Running Back would have.
And here is the rub - if you have a Quarterback who is supposed to throw for most of his time on the field, then when he drops back to pass, he is afforded EXTRA PROTECTION in the rules that makes hitting him tantamount to hitting a woman in real life. Running backs are not so protected and are afforded dead common protections against tackles and hits that MATCH OTHER PLAYERS.
In a fine line of the NFL's confusing rules, when a Quarterback becomes a runner, he is then considered to eschew special Quarterback protections and can be hit like any other dead common player.
But there is the rub. In today's NFL, rules are not enforced equally and a Quarterback is still considered a passer first and thus defenses against him pursue him in ways that are designed to stop the pass first; trying to play a Quarterback with the intensity and tackling usually given a running back will draw a penalty of up to 15 yards and a post game fine of ever escalating and arbitrary levels by the NFL head office. Defenses that once had to be concerned with a "mobile" QB understand that they must approach him with the given he'll pass first and run second and for the most part, NFL rules make sense and don't give the offense an advantage gained by cheating.
Enter 2019 and the run first and run often use of Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Murdering Black Birds. It is a commonly used narrative produced by the NFL and repeated by the sports media that "Lamar hates to run"; oddly, he intentionally runs so often that he must have mental issues after the game doing something he'd rather not do.
This same modern sports media narrative has uplifted the consideration of Lamar Jackson to being the NFL's "Most Valuable Player" (MVP) because he is such a wonderful player at what he does; but this is a deceptive narrative because Lamar runs so often voluntarily and through plays called, that he is no longer a Quarterback but becomes a Running Back which is overtly cheating by the Baltimore team.
The NFL has a thing called "positional integrity" where certain players are bound by rules of their position and cannot do certain things. Offensive linemen, for example, line up to protect the Quarterback or Running Back, and cannot go up field to block prior to the release of the ball in a forward pass; once the pass is released, then these players go upfield to provide additional blocks on screen plays or plays where the ball is thrown behind the line of scrimmage or just past it. Should an offensive lineman become an upfield blocker prior to the release of the ball, then he has violated his positional integrity and a penalty is called. Running backs and wide receivers can go upfield and to administer blocks within a 5 yard region without being called for a penalty of holding, pass interference, or illegal pick. So those players too have restrictions on their positions and have integrity to follow.
Queerly, the NFL has no such positional integrity on the Quarterback and here is the cheating that the Baltimore team is doing; with the expectation that a Quarterback is supposed to throw the ball or to give it to a running back who does the running, Baltimore is having Lamar cheat by receiving all the protections of a quarterback against defensive actions while exploiting that millisecond defensive action of attacking the Quarterback as a passer (under more stringent rules) and then Lamar goes into run mode exploiting the defensive actions going after the Quarterback like a passer while they should be giving that running Quarterback a much more aggressive defense that will not draw special fouls that would be called if he was a passer moving behind the line of scrimmage to avoid defensive pressure.
Ordinarily in the NFL, Quarterbacks don't run very often.
According to the NFL's own website and stats, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, has played in 280 games and has run 597 times in around 19 years of play and has accumulated 1,002 yards of rushing. Tom Brady is a prototypical "pocket passer" who is a classic quarterback who throws first and only runs typically to gain one yard on 3rd and 4th down plays to pick up a first down. According to his career statistics, he runs 2.13 times per game.
Contrast this with the fake Quarterback, Lamar Jackson who has played less than 2 years in the NFL. In the 27 games (less than one tenth of Tom Brady's games), Lamar has run the ball 271 times! This means that Lamar Jackson averages 10 rushes per game almost five times more than Tom Brady would rush. Remember that Lamar has played in only 10% of the games as Brady, but Lamar has gained nearly 500 more yards rushing (1571).
One could argue that I am comparing apples with oranges here because Tom Brady is a classic NFL quarterback and Lamar is quite something else. However, below are the statistics of "mobile" quarterbacks in NFL history and how Lamar is still more of a running back than a quarterback when compared with them
Fran Tarkenton of the Minnesota Vikings in the 1960's and 1970 played in 246 games and had 675 career rushes for 3674 yards. That is 2.73 times per game and he was considered one of the "mobile Quarterbacks" in the middle era of the NFL which includes the start of the Super Bowl era. Lamar runs 4 times as often as Tarkenton per game.
Steve Young of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and later in the Super Bowl winning San Fransisco 49ers, had a 169 game career and accumulated 722 rushing attempts for 4239 yards. Steve Young's rushes per game career average was 4.22 rushes per game or HALF of Lamar Jackson's career rushing attempts! And Steve Young was a very MOBILE Quarterback.
In the modern era, the successful Seattle Seathug Quarterback, Russell Wilson, who has won a Super Bowl, has run the ball 698 times in his current 123 game career or 5.6 times per game or just over half the time Lamar Jackson runs. It must be pointed out that Russell Wilson is not just a mobile Quarterback. He was one of the modern gimmick Quarterbacks who run the run/pass option offense that requires the Quarterback to run a lot. And still, Wilson can be considered a real QB because he does not run nearly as often as he passes. Wilson has completed 2332 passes and his completed pass to rush attempt pass ratio is 2332 to 698 (69%).
Lamar Jackson's career passing completions to running attempts is so out of balance toward even the most MOBILE QB that it is why Lamar is considered a running back first. Lamar has completed 299 passes while rushing 271 times - that is nearly a 1 to 1 ratio!
I have used passing completions rather than passing attempts because quality Quarterbacks will have a higher passing completion rate than incompetent QB's and this would also mask Jackson's rather tepid actual passing talent. Lamar completes 63% of his passes but also throws far less often than real Quarterbacks. Using Russell Wilson's 64.5% completion rate is higher; if we were to look at actual passing attempts, Wilson averages around 30 passes per game whereas the fake QB Lamar Jackson throws for a paltry 17.4 passes per game. So not only does Lamar throw less, he rushes at a higher rate than anyone playing that position. And thus, he is getting away with rules murder because he exceeds the benchmark QB runner, Russell Wilson.
There was another modern era FAKE Quarterback, the dog killer Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons and later with the Philtydelphia football team. His problem was that he was a horrific passer - he completed only 56% of his passer (horrific level for a pro football player) so he ran to mask his incompetence but still ran only 6 times per game. And remember that Lamar Jackson runs 10 times per game with a higher completion percentage (63%). This means that Lamar is not masking incompetence in passing by running the ball. This means he is a run-first, throw second Quarterback that so skews what QB history has been that he is making a mockery of the rules. It is no wonder that defenses are having a problem with him - it is not talent - it is intentional game scheming where Baltimore is using rules that defenses have to play by against them and that is cheating.
The solutions to this cheating can be handled two ways:
1. Limit Quarterback runs to 6 per game (using Russell Wilson's extreme as a benchmark) and then disqualifying the Quarterback that attempts a seventh rush for the rest of the game and then immediately handing the ball to the other team at the spot of that foul. This would give the defense the ability to know when the gimmick QB Lamar Jackson can no longer run and would allow them not to have to resort to questionable hits to injure Lamar.
2. Or, allow unmitigated Quarterback rushes and to then abolish all Quarterback rules protections even when passing; treat the Quarterback like any other position in terms of fouls. Lamar would thus cause protections to be lifted for all other quarterbacks placing them in injury jeopardy!
Make no mistake, Lamar Jackson is no MVP - he is a cheater and will cause defenses no other alternative than to head hunt him and to intentionally injure his legs wherever they can. I don't advocate that, but he and his team has placed himself in this situation. And the NFL needs to act now to limit the whoring out of the Quarterback position into being a running back who thinks he can throw upon occasion.
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