Why is so much emphasis placed on individual positions in a team sport?

If the stick that the spearhead is attached to isn’t sturdy, the spear still wouldn’t be able to penetrate because the stick would break.

Good post – exactly why we want a really good QB, not just a mediocre/average “nice guy”. Can we win with Jason? If the O-line is dramatically improved and the defense plays like it can – maybe – barely make the playoffs, a little above average, but we’ll never be a championship team with JC at QB. It seems to me that JC’s deficiencies – poor field vision, a slow release and not understanding the offense, making him continually fail to connect with open receivers – effect the entire offense negatively. We deserve better, even if it costs us a bit in 2010 (because of a rookie learning the game).

I know that the QB is the most important player on a team. I’m just saying that regardless of how good the QB is the rest of the team does play a part. A QB may go through reads quickly and effectively but he still has players blocking for him for him to do so. A QB can be super accurate but it’s still the WR’s job to make the catch. If the QB play action fakes are effective it may open up the run game but the O-line still has to open up holes and the RB has to find those holes. It just seems that so much attention is payed to the QB that it somewhat makes the other position players seem like they are there just to be there when they have to pull their own weight as well. Would Wes Welker seem as effective if he couldn’t grab a pass from Brady and get the YAC? Not even close.

As far as JC is concerned, he does go through his reads slow but at the same time quite a few times the past season he didn’t have a lot of time to do so. If your getting sacked on a 3 step drop how much time can you seriously have? He does have to work on his pocket awareness and accuracy. But once again, his pocket constantly began to collapse at the start of plays if he even had a pocket in the first place. And pressure can affect accuracy even though great QB’s can still push through. Zorn’s first season when we were 6-2 and the O-line was actually holding up he seemed very accurate. But as soon as the O-line collapsed everything else did and we went 8-8. Can he read defenses yes, but does he need work on it? Of course. But defenses didn’t always blitz just because of that, they also knew how fragile the O-line was. As far as deep passes and play action passes are concerned those aren’t things that were done a lot throughout the season. As far as our running game is concerned, look at the difference from when Portis was playing compared to Betts, Cartwright, Mason, and Ganther. Almost an instant upgrade with the same QB. As great as a QB may be the other players still have to pull their own weight for the team to be successful.

I think you kind of took my question the wrong way and I have failed to realize nothing. Obviously all teams want and would love to have an elite QB. Thats common sense. And I know that the QB touches the ball every snap. But regardless of how great a QB is he cannot do everything by himself. Thats just non-sense. We all know that JC isn’t an elite QB but a better line would definitely improve his play. I hiiiiiiiiiighly doubt that Heyer would be a pro bowler if he was with the Colts, he would probably be a back-up. And the offense may be respected by the QB but it can also be respected by the play makers on offense as well. Moss isn’t almost always double covered for no reason. And come on now it’s the NFL. The players are effected by their teammates but if you seriously need a elite QB to motivate you to do your job then you really don’t need to be there. If I were an O-lineman I would be motivated by me wanting to be the best, not by the player I’m protecting. If an o-lineman was fully doing their job a QB wouldn’t be stepping into them. When you step up into the pocket your not supposed to get sacked.

Now a QB can do it by his self but the team can’t do it without the QB

Brees couldn’t do it by himself. His offensive line gave him the time needed to throw the ball and his defense made the game impossible for Peyton to win. The colts are a perfect example of how a team with a great QB and no other support will lose games.

Obviously a better O-line isn’t going to help a QB much before the snap. Thats common sense. But it is also common sense that better O-line play allows for better QB play. How many times this season did JC have pressure in his face as soon as the ball was snapped? Too many. And since you mentioned audibles, maybe you didn’t know that Zorn admitted to restricting JC from calling audibles. And how is a playmaker only respected as much as the QB? So is Reggie Wayne only respected because of Manning? Is Randy Moss only respected because of Brady? Is Chris Johnson only respected because of Vince Young? Is Desean Jackson only respected because of McNabb? Brandon Marshall was respected this year only because of Orton?!?!?!? Wow!! I could go on and on. Playmakers can break tackles and make defenders miss, and get great separation from coverage, and just simply make great plays. Those are things that they do on their own. Obviously a WR depends on the QB because they have to get them the ball. Once a receiver has the ball in his hands it is his job to get YAC. It is the receivers job to get open and make the catches. You say that I’m clueless but you are so fixated on the QB position that you are basically disregarding the other players. According to your logic the only person on a football team that needs talent is the QB yet the QB cannot do everything their self. It is a team sport. They all depend on one another. I truly believe that Snyder would hire you then we would definitely be the laughing stock of the league because you are as clueless as they come.

For starters its kind of hard to take your arguments very seriously when you seem clueless on how to use the reply button. Now to the important stuff. Regardless of how accurate a QB is he cannot make a play by himself. Did I say play makers had to always be wide open? No I didn’t, your trying to strengthen your weak argument by putting words in my mouth. For the QB to be accurate is one thing but for the receiver to make the play when not open what does he have to do? MAKE THE CATCH!!! The QB does not catch for them! You are single handedly proving the point that I am trying to make. You are so focused on the QB that your taking away from the other position players! So every time a receiver is open it was the QB right? It has nothing to do with a receiver maybe running a good route or just straight burning their defender right? Its all the QB and his audible? And as shvd98z24 just said, you completely ruined your already weak argument by mentioning Flacco with Manning. And how could you say they would get the same results? Its a different group of players who knows what the results would be? There is no way that you can actually believe all of the things that your saying, if so then something is definitely wrong with you.

I can’t help but laugh at this, it is hilarious. I think me and you are finally on the same page and maybe the way that we were wording our responses was causing us to misunderstand each other. Your response has to extent said basically what I have been saying this whole time. You said that you got my point completely and this response actually shows it so finally, thank you lol. As far as your point, the way that you just now stated it is the best way because it makes sense even though it was obvious. The QB is the most important position because it is the leader, we know this. We know that the QB has the biggest effect on his team because once again, he is the leader. We know that the better the QB is then the better the offense will perform. So now that we are finally on the same page let me just tell you this. Read others post thoroughly and think about what to say before you respond because you responded so aggressively that what you were saying didn’t make complete sense and was basically proving the point that I was making. And also, trying to attack someone to get your point across just makes whatever point you were trying to make that less valid. The whole calling me clueless think unprovoked was unnecessary. And finally, you can’t exactly tell someone to get lost on their own post that your responding to. Well it was fun and I look forward to our next disagreement because it was actually pretty funny.

Dude your just completely lost so nevermind my last post. You have completely misunderstood the entire point. Ok I wanted to know peoples opinions about the emphasis on QB’s other than the obvious fact that they are the most important position because since they are the leaders they basically over shadow the rest of the team. Regardless of a teams talent level people make it seem as if an upgrade at QB is supposed to fix everything. Good and bad, whatever happens the QB is always looked at separately instead of the team as a whole unless it was a game of which maybe a QB played like crap but the defense dominated. The way you were responding at first was stating that regardless of the teams talent a team will win with a great QB. I was saying even though QB is the most important position, regardless of how good he is a team is not going to be successful without team work. They all help each other. The O-line protects the QB therefore they play a role in a teams success. The O-line opens holes for the RB’s, etc. Every position player plays a role in a teams success or failure yet when everything is going good the QB gets the most recognition and when things are bad the QB is the first person looked at. You just kept blabbing about how the QB is the supreme ruler of the team yadda yadda yadda therefore a great QB makes everyone better. I’m basically lobbying for the rest of the team because they don’t get as much credit or scrutiny as the QB. Why is it so difficult for you to understand my post? You just keep going on about how the QB makes the backs and receivers look good and motivate the defense as if they dont do anything themselves. You associate everything with QB. Even when I tried to give examples of playmaking receivers making plays after the ball is in their hands you kept associating that with the QB and his accuracy! What does a QB have to do with how many defenders an RB makes miss? What does the QB have to do with the a receiver burning his receiver on a route? What does a QB have to do with how many tackles a player makes defenders miss? According to you none of this is possible without the QB. How can you seriously be missing all of this that I am putting in front of you? You either really don’t pay attention or your just very stubborn. I try to give all of these examples to make it clearer about what I’m saying and you relate EVERYTHING to the QB, even what the other players do once the ball is in their hands which is not the case. Other position players have their all talent level which is not directly related to the QB but flourishes with it. Sigh.

I didn’t say anything about you thinking the QB does everything on their own in the last post. Remember you said the first time you typed that it was a typo. What I did say was that you associate everything with the QB. You say I’m I’m not reading anything yet your saying that I’m saying things that I didn’t. Now was that a typo again or are you proving to me that you aren’t comprehending what I’m saying to you. Reading and comprehending are different.