Quarterback Quotes by Warren Moon, Joe Montana, Carson Palmer, DeSean Jackson, Colin Kaepernick, Chad Kelly and many others.
I never thought I would be the oldest quarterback in the National Football League at one point, not in a million years. I never thought I would play as long as I did, either, seventeen years from start to finish, with stops in Houston, Minnesota, Seattle, and Kansas City.
As a quarterback, you have to love it. As much as you like to turn around and hand the ball off – the whole traditional football game – as a quarterback, you gotta love putting it in the air.
Quarterbacks running in the SEC typically translate over well to the pro game. If you can run, take off and get 10 yards here and there against SEC defenses, there’s a good chance that you can do that at the NFL level as well.
I obviously would love to play with a great, great, great quarterback.
Its a touchy subject, ’cause I never want to take it there, where it seems like it’s all about race. But I feel like that’s something that comes along with the territory of being a black quarterback. When you have success – ‘Oh, you’re a freak athlete.’ Not, ‘Oh, you’re a good quarterback.’
I want to be remembered as the greatest quarterback who ever played. You have to go out and prove it first, and then you have to go out and work hard.
It just makes me laugh, when you talk to people who are ‘typical’ men, masculine, they watch sports and they can armchair quarterback, but they don’t do anything themselves and they judge your masculinity.
Everyone knows quarterback is a position where it takes a while to really start playing well.
A good catcher is the quarterback, the carburetor, the lead dog, the pulse taker, the traffic cop and sometimes a lot of unprintable things, but no team gets very far without one.
Like a bottle of wine or a promising college quarterback turning pro, C.E.O.’s are similar to what economists call experience goods: you commit to a price long before you know if they’re worth it.
I think the number one job as a quarterback is protecting the football.
One thing you know about playoff competition is this: If you have a hot quarterback and your defense can take the ball away, you don’t need to have a dominant defense anymore.
I was a quarterback in college. I hoped to go to the NFL, and I didn’t get drafted. I then became a free agent. I could sign with whoever I wanted to, and I ended up going to Pittsburgh.
That’s the thing: To be successful in the NFL, you have to start by having a quality coach and a quarterback that can kind of lead the team. If you have the trust of the quarterback, then you can build everywhere else.
Great quarterbacks, good quarterbacks, make plays.
Any time you have one-on-one time with any quarterback, it’s very valuable.
There are times when you need a strategic quarterback who has a proven record, and certainly, Colin Kaepernick is one of those.
This is the ultimate team sport, and I really feel that the quarterback position is the epitome of that.
It’s hard to play quarterback in professional football.
I never want to be a father figure to my quarterbacks. I’ve got my own kids. I want to be the cool uncle you’d like have a drink with.
Ron Powlus will win the Heisman two times and be the greatest quarterback in the history of Notre Dame.
I’m always studying. I probably wrote the most papers of any college quarterback.
When you’re a quarterback, and you’re dropping back, I can’t watch what the receivers are doing.
I give NFL quarterbacks a lot of leeway for a couple of years.
Everything falls on the quarterback.
Nobody, not even the head coach, would do anything to the football unilaterally, such as adjust the amount of pressure in a ball, without the quarterback not knowing. It would have to be the quarterback’s idea.
Some people get nervous when I run because quarterbacks, they gotta go down and stay healthy.
I had all kinds of different quarterbacks. But we never drafted a first-rounder.
I want to make sure that everyone knows, God has been my greatest quarterback and I’ve caught a lot more than 84 touchdowns with Him!
That’s the key to defending any quarterback: to make them throw before they want to throw.
It’s one thing as a quarterback to sit there and warm up. And there’s one thing to throw routes. And there’s another thing when you drop back in the pocket and, when a guy comes open, to really be able to urgently – bam – all of a sudden. That guy’s open; your body has to do what your mind’s telling you.
When I played football, basketball and baseball, I was always a starter. I played baseball as the number three or number four hitter. Playing baseball, I was the third baseman or pitcher. Football, I was the quarterback. I was always versatile. It came to me naturally. It was always easy.
I don’t know what to say… There’s always animosity when a singer leaves a band. It’s like you’re a football team and the quarterback just split for more money on another team.
They’re not defined by what they’ve done and where they’ve played. It wasn’t NFL quarterback Craig Kupp and NFL guard Jake Kupp. They were just Dad and Grandpa.
Our quarterbacks were getting hurt; a couple got kicked out of school. The coach asked who wanted to try out for QB. I went and tried out, and from there on, I was a quarterback. I was ineligible in 10th grade until spring, so I did baseball. I started in left field and pitched.
Quarterbacks are the leaders of the team, and I want to try to get guys going. That’s a job of a leader. That’s a job of a quarterback.
It’s hard for anyone or any situation to rattle me, as a quarterback and a person.
The team only goes as far as their quarterback takes them.
Quarterbacks like guys who try to do everything they can for them and put it on the line for them. So that’s what I try to do.
Sometimes, quarterbacks just get hurt. So do running backs, so do linemen, so do wide receivers. Blaming innovative schemes for these injuries is shortsighted.
As a kid, I always dreamt of being an NFL quarterback. I remember being 10 years old and saying, ‘Mom… I’m gonna throw a football in the NFL, and it’s going to be a touchdown, and everybody’s gonna love it.’
Every quarterback’s goofy. Every player out here is goofy. Don’t think they’re all serious.
As long as we win games and I harass the quarterback, however I do it, we’re good.
Footwork is the biggest element to any quarterback game because if it’s off, it will mess with your mechanics.
For me, a quarterback’s best friend, especially a young quarterback’s best friend, is a coach who believes in him.
I think there comes a time with a quarterback, especially when things go a little sideways, that players begin to try to do things a little uncharacteristic of what they’ve done in the past.
My high school coach was a big Clemson fan, and I told him, ‘As long as I’m the starting quarterback here, I’m not going to lose to South Carolina.’
What motivates me is being the best quarterback in the world.
I played quarterback, and it was a leadership position, and even though I’m doing a solo thing now, a lot of my success is a part of assembling this team of people who are really, really talented, and their position doesn’t put them out front the way mine does, but it’s still a team effort.
We started playing the Baltimore Colts early, and I was still very impressed with Johnny Unitas, who just passed away recently. I thought he was one of the best quarterbacks at the time when I was very young, he was in his prime.
I think that’s healthy on a football team for competition to exist in every position and probably most important quarterback so that everyone on the team knows that position isn’t handled any different than any other.
If you still produce at the quarterback position, it doesn’t matter what age you are.
Well, that’s the question we have to answer as coaches. Is our franchise quarterback here? Is he on the roster? Is he being developed, or is he somewhere else?
Andy Reid really dominated the NFC with Donovan McNabb as his best quarterback, got to a Super Bowl. Then he goes to the AFC, wins with Alex Smith. He’s won with five or six quarterbacks.
There are times when the criticism is something you deserve as a quarterback, and there are times when the people doing the criticizing don’t know what they’re talking about.
It’s hard to win with rookie quarterbacks, as I know.
Always having that chip on your shoulder is an important thing for a quarterback.
I just think that’s the key to all of the quarterbacks throughout the league. You want to have a consistent drop, a consistent balance in the pocket so that you can really get everything into the throw, so that you are throwing with good velocity.
The quarterbacks that win… those are the quarterbacks that are talked about for being great.
Coach Knapp is a tremendous quarterbacks coach.
You have to approach it the same way with any quarterback. You’re going to try to do the best for your guy.
I understand how hard every guy in this NFL works, especially at the position, especially at the quarterback position.
In middle school, I played quarterback. I was at a tiny school, so you played offense and defense – I played linebacker, and in high school I stopped playing around my sophomore year because of my acting stuff.
Many quarterbacks have won throughout their career and had a lot of success… and have a lot of wins, but were not able to win that Super Bowl… But that is the ultimate goal.
We know who is out there as far as available quarterbacks, but in reality, no one would be more prepared or capable as a No. 2 at this point than Dan. He got more snaps in the preseason than any of our quarterbacks and continues to get better.
Just understand that I’m trying to get to the quarterback by any means necessary. And if I have to throw somebody out of the way to do it, it is what it is.
If I was going to play offense, I’d love to play running back. In high school I played quarterback and wide receiver, but I wouldn’t mind running over some folks.
I don’t believe in having a separate workout for quarterbacks. Other players hate that.
I love protections, I love plays. If you don’t like that being a quarterback, you’re not going to last long.
The chemistry between a quarterback and a receiver is almost like a dance.
You see receivers getting open, the O-line blocking, and when that’s happening, playing quarterback is a lot of fun, man. You get to sit back, and deliver the football, and let your guys make plays.
I don’t believe I was meant to be a professional quarterback. I was meant to have these life experiences and be an impact on others who’ve struggled. That’s what I’m meant to do.
My goal was to be the starting quarterback at Texas Tech and I didn’t reach that goal.
Matthew Stafford, I think he’s straight. I don’t think he the best quarterback out there. But he do what he gotta do.
In order for this team to win the game, the quarterback has to throw the ball.
When you really think about it and look at the number of quarterbacks who come through the league, not many of them have Super Bowl careers.
I can be a receiver, a cornerback, a safety and quarterback-I can play everything.
It’s always good when the offensive head coach and the quarterback think like-minded. That’s a good thing.
When people talk about the great quarterbacks, it’s almost exclusively the guys who have won Super Bowls. There have been some very good ones who hardly get mentioned because they never won the big one. I don’t know if that’s fair, but that’s the way it is.
Being the full-time quarterback, there is a big responsibility to stay healthy for your team.
I think, between the tattoos, the way I dress, the way I talk, people don’t think it should go together with a franchise quarterback or someone that’s leading the team or representing the organization.
I’m just worried about being a good quarterback first, and being a great teammate.
I loved football even before I married a quarterback; it’s not for every woman, but I like it.
As a quarterback, you have to have a short memory. Don’t lose your confidence, and stay within yourself. Don’t try to do too much.
The No. 1 stat is wins. As a quarterback, you get evaluated on winning.
If I’m Colin Kaepernick I have to prove myself. I would say, ‘I would love the opportunity to show that I am a championship-winning quarterback again, and I understand that I am not going to be handed anything and that I would love the opportunity to come back.’ If he said that it would open the ears of a lot of teams.
Don’t ever underestimate Mike Gundy throwing the ball with his quarterbacks.
I see young quarterbacks just coming into the league, and they’re throwing screens and layoffs right away. As funny as this might sound, I really learned a lot by going downfield, even in tight coverage.
I’m playing quarterback, I’m playing football, and I don’t try to make it more than that.
People say how unbelievable and enjoyable this whole thing must be. But watching your children play quarterback, putting themselves on the line every game, getting smacked around and bloodied up… it’s very, very hard.
As a wide receiver, you don’t want to feel that the quarterback is only going to throw you the ball if you’re wide open.
I’ve never played, on the field, any other position besides quarterback. Never been on a special team. Never been on defense.
You could arm-chair quarterback what the president did or didn’t do, or was asked to do or asked not to do. I guess I’m more focused on what’s going forward.
You don’t know who theВ next groupВ isВ that’sВ unpopular.В The Bill of Rights isn’tВ for the promВ queen. The bill of rights isn’tВ for the highВ schoolВ quarterback. The Bill of Rights isВ for the leastВ amongВ us. The Bill of RightsВ isВ for minorities. The Bill of Rights is forВ thoseВ who have minority opinions.
It means a lot to me as a quarterback if my receivers think I’m a good quarterback. It doesn’t really matter what everybody else thinks, but it means a lot to me when I feel like those guys trust me.
I mean, if you told me I would be one of the quarterbacks of the New York Giants when I was 6 years old in kindergarten, I think I’d take that.
I never intended to be a running quarterback.
Quarterbacks have to ask the crowd to quiet down. Pitchers never do.
I look for a quarterback who can run and not a running back who can throw. I want a quarterback who can beat you with his arm. We are not a Tim Tebow type of quarterback team. I am not going to run my quarterback 20 times on power runs.
No one ever dreams about being a backup quarterback.
Quarterbacks are leaders; it is what it is.
The quarterback is an extension of the coach and has a certain type of swagger mentality, on and off the field.
I want to be a Hall of Fame quarterback one day. By God, that’s not going to be easy. I want it to be hard, hard as hell, just so I can show that I can do it and prove to myself and to my teammates that they believe and trust in me.
I know I’m a pretty good quarterback.
I haven’t played with too many guys like Dak Prescott, so I think he definitely deserves everything that’s coming to him. He definitely deserves to be paid amongst the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league.
I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.
Our whole philosophy was to intimidate the quarterback. We were able to do it. We were pioneers. People still recognize us as, maybe, the best defensive line of all time.
I’ve never really gone for the razzle-dazzle types: no quarterbacks, no flashy guys, and no Prince Charmings.
I’m very humble that people are accepting me, and they are proud that I’m their quarterback.
A lot of quarterbacks have big arms and can make all the throws, but the most important thing is knowledge of the game, controlling the offense and, more than anything, limiting mistakes. Knowing what good plays to get your team into at the line of scrimmage and what bad plays to get out of.
The head coach is the director, the quarterback is the lead actor and the offensive linemen are the grips.
Playing a rookie at quarterback tells the other players that you’re giving up the season.
The test of a quarterback is where his team finishes.
The mold that everyone is seeing nowadays is kind of the Aaron Rodgers mold – I try to mix and match from the different quarterbacks.
I’m not an athlete; I’m a quarterback. I don’t have great speed, and I can’t throw 90 yards down the field. I win games because I’ve done the mental preparation.
I think I constantly refer back to some of the things that I learned in New England and throughout my career. It was a great stepping stone, and it also gave me time to mature as a player and as a quarterback.
East Texas isn’t known for producing quarterbacks. I was never really on the football circuit. I wasn’t the type of guy that put my name out there.
Looking back on it, I’m extremely blessed to play on two very good teams, with great quarterbacks and owners.
Denard Robinson was my quarterback in high school. Never had his shoes tied. I don’t see how you can play like that.
You can find the intangibles of being a quarterback in almost every profession in the world.В There’s nothing like it.
Ultimately, I’ve just got to keep playing football and try to do it the best I can and try to continue to be a high-level quarterback, and if I do that, trust that in the long run things will work out.
As a receiver, you want to run through contact. That’s the biggest coaching point that most coaches give them. You’re going to get grabbed and you’re going to get into adverse situations. But if you run through contact and do not confuse the quarterback, more than likely you’re going to get the football.
College football and particularly the quarterback position is a performance-based deal.
As a quarterback, you have to go out and take care of the ball. That is your No. 1 priority.
My strength is basically my get off. It is overpowering. I can get after the quarterback on first, second and third down. I pride myself on being an every down guy.
I would look straight back at the quarterback thinking the ball’s coming straight to me… and as soon as I looked back, the ball’s going right over my head.
I like my kind of innate and natural ability in the pocket, and ability of anticipation, and all that stuff that’s important when it comes to playing quarterback.
A balanced offense will make Drew Tate a more effective and dangerous quarterback, … If he can lean on a good, consistent running game, that’ll be a real plus for us.
As a quarterback, you certainly don’t want to hamstring your team in any way because – I know this more than anyone – you rely so heavily on those playmakers around you.
As a quarterback, you have to be able to nickel-and-dime down the field.
As an Oklahoma quarterback, you learn to perform under pressure.
Every quarterback can throw a ball; every running back can run; every receiver is fast; but that mental toughness that you talk about translates into competitiveness.
I want to get to the quarterback and stop the run.
We would have more if the talent was there to be had. Last year, the cost of a top, world-class deep learning expert was about the same as a top NFL quarterback prospect. The cost of that talent is pretty remarkable.
For receivers… it’s a lot about timing, having chemistry with your quarterback to be successful and having a guy that you work with over the course of years.
There’s a way you have to play the quarterback position in the NFL. Maybe I’m a little bit old school, but I think you have to play the game in the pocket with consistency.
Obviously, when you take a quarterback, when you take anybody in the first round, it means something.
A quarterback has got to take control and I feel like I’ve done a good job with that. Not just what we’re doing offensively, but in the locker room getting to know guys and hanging out with guys. All of that is going to make you a better team.
I’ve played with some of the best that have ever played, obviously. I don’t know if there is anybody that is a better technician than Peyton Manning. Tom Brady is another quarterback that I was fortunate enough to play with for a bunch of years.
But yet I don’t think I should be labeled just a black quarterback, because it’s bigger things in this sport that need to be accomplished.
Obviously Eli Manning is a two-time Super Bowl MVP, so he is one of the best and a Hall of Fame quarterback. So I am just excited to be in the same quarterback room as him and we will see what happens.
You don’t know who was going to trade up or if you’re going to end up dropping to a team that needs a quarterback.
Sometimes you can line up with a quarterback after getting traded or going to a new team, whether it’s the draft or whatever, and it not go smooth.
My height doesn’t define my skill set. To be a great quarterback, you have to have great leadership, great attention to detail and a relentless competitive nature – and I try to bring that on a daily basis.
One thing that translates from college to the NFL is winners, and, I think, being a quarterback, that’s the biggest thing: being recognized, winning games.
Drew Brees, Kyle Orton, Curtis Painter – the recent legacy of quarterbacks at Purdue speaks for itself. I think it’s ‘Quarterback U.’ The facilities are just beautiful. I didn’t expect them to be as great as they were.
I don’t compare myself to guys who had the same quarterback their entire career. Nothing against that – they’re blessed with that. But I don’t compare my numbers.
Whether you’re a quarterback and you just threw a pick, or you’re a corner and you just got beat for a touchdown, you’ve got to have a short-term memory, shake it off and play the next play.
I think it’s really difficult for a young team to beat an experienced quarterback like Philip Rivers twice in one season.
Pushing guys to be the best, that’s part of the role I’ve always taken being a quarterback.
Quarterback play is important for every level of football.
It is relatively easy… to determine whether or not a blow to a quarterback was deemed excessive or incidental. So I’m discouraged that there have been a number of games that are influenced – not that the outcomes are in question – but a number of games influenced based on the protection of the quarterback.
Look, you can never have enough quarterbacks.
I just don’t think you pass on a great quarterback if you have the opportunity. If need be, you can trade it away.
If you’re on a bus and going down a snowy mountain like in Tahoe, and the bus loses its brakes, where do you want to be sitting? Immediately, you all think, ‘In the back.’ But in the front would be the correct answer. As a quarterback, you want to take control of it.
Big Ben, he’s a great quarterback.
I would start with the most important thing a quarterback has to be: poised. If you panic in that pocket, you are no good. I don’t care what else is there; you have to be poised.
Quarterbacks will make plays; they always do. But I think the team that runs the ball the best will win.
The quarterback is the leader of the team and the quarterback is the one that has the ball in his hands every single play.
There’s gonna be ups and downs throughout the season. And what defenses do to try and attack different quarterbacks, I mean, you can definitely see it. It’s how you respond to it. It’s how you get over that next step.
Everybody goes through situations like this. A tipped ball, a shoe-string tackle on a third-down scramble by the quarterback where he has 40 yards to run.
I think as a play-caller, you have to just go out there, rely on your guys that you have that are out there, rely on the fact that they have ability. And as a quarterback, you have to go out there and just go through your reads.
As a quarterback, there’s no better way to finish your year, in winning a Super Bowl, than with a touchdown pass. The chances of that happening, by the looks of most of the Super Bowls, is a very rare chance. Fortunately for me, I had an opportunity.
In Detroit, the quarterbacks lift with all the linebackers and running backs and everybody else, so I’m doing that whole thing.
For me, as a pocket quarterback, there wasn’t much adjustment as I got older.
I have unbelievable trust in my offensive line that they will get the job done. Not only them, but the running backs and as a quarterback, I have to do my job in getting the ball in the right people’s hands and doing what I do best.
When things aren’t going as well as you might like them to be, it’s always a question as to whether my personality… fits what an NFL quarterback should be. It’s not anything I’m not used to.
So the truth is, if there’s a lesson to be learned from mobile quarterbacks, it is deliver the ball from the pocket, which demands mastery of the data that is involved working in the pocket, which is, ‘I know everything about everything.’
The guys that are out there now likeВ Calvin JohnsonВ andВ Larry FitzgeraldВ they’re making $16 million, $15 million a year, and I’m not looking for anything like that. A lot of that money goes to the quarterback position and rightfully so.
I think, as quarterback and as a football player, you always want to get better.
In my heart, I know I haven’t been the best person, the best quarterback for the Steelers, I’m not talking just on the field, I’m talking off the field.
Andrew Luck is a great quarterback.
With any rookie quarterback, the more help you can get the better.
Playing behind a first-ballot Hall of Famer, who also is the all-time record holder for consecutive starts by a quarterback, it’s a different mind-set. You just have to challenge yourself in ways that you never challenged yourself before.
Call me a quarterback, not a running quarterback.
I think we all know that quarterbacks, kickers, specialists have certain preferences on footballs. They know a lot more about it than I do. They’re a lot more sensitive to it than I am.
We need to let the referee’s sole thing be to protect the quarterback and get those late hits out of there. They even have a stat on television that says ‘knockdowns.’ Knockdowns means that you knock him down after he throws the ball. The assumption is, if it’s legal, we’ll make excuses for them.
I know I’m a franchise quarterback.
Being a quarterback, the way I believe is there’s always so much room to improve. Any little detail. I always cut up the film and try to watch what I can improve on, whatever little detail it is.
I try to be a smart quarterback. I’m not the fastest or the best athlete, but if I can know what the defense is doing and stick to my job and what needs to be done I can make the plays needed to move the ball and score.
If your team is going to win, you need to play better than the other quarterback.
I don’t believe that you can be too short as a quarterback. It’s not about height.
Your life can change in one year. You can go from a nobody, not even getting any playing time on a college team, to being one of the most highly touted quarterbacks coming out of college for the draft.
I want to leave a great legacy behind, not just be a quarterback drafted in the first round who doesn’t produce.
Jessica Simpson attended boyfriend Tony Romo’s football game. The Cowboys quarterback had the worst game of his career. It’s a bad year for the name Simpson. Even O. J. is pissed – he feels like they’re making his name look bad.
The only way I’d ever recruit a white quarterback to play for me is if his mom and daddy would both have to be black, and that’s the only way I would do it.
If you play against a Peyton Manning, that’s a great quarterback, but I’d rather have that quarterback that stays still. You have a better chance of getting to him. The mobile quarterbacks, they do a lot of different stuff.
Going from reporter to anchor is like going from wide receiver to quarterback. As anchor, you’re running the plays and having the feel of the show – and knowing when to be more upbeat or slow down.
Over time, I learned that how a quarterback moves the chains and leads his team to touchdowns is about as important as whether he actually does it or not.
My first dream, of course, was to play quarterback at Ohio State. That was surreal for me, to the point where it went by so fast, I didn’t get to enjoy it.
I think he’s the best quarterback in this game.
To me, the quarterback position is about getting your team out of bad things and into good ones.
I don’t think I’m ever surprised at how high the quarterbacks go. There could be a lot of teams that often times don’t have a lot of first-round grades on guys that are going in the first round, and that’s just the nature of the business.
When you play quarterback your whole life, you’re kind of taught to sit in the pocket. If you want to get out of there quick, you probably shouldn’t play quarterback.
There are a very few consistent, common threads among the most successful NFL quarterbacks. Most of them are intangibles, which you can’t measure with a physical test. You need leadership ability, competitiveness, drive, and will. You need focus, poise, and charisma.
Look at Baltimore back in 2000. They had an outstanding defense. They could run the ball, and they had a quarterback that didn’t turn it over that much. I think that is a plan that can bring you great success.
You’ve got to protect your quarterback.
When you put pressure on the quarterback, everything looks a lot better.
There are a lot of guys who play in pro-style offenses who are not prepared when they come out of college. Either you’re coaching the quarterback to be a quarterback, or you’re not.
That’s why I play football… to be the quarterback, to be the guy with the ball in his hands.
When you watch Tiger Woods, you’re in awe of what he can do with a seven-iron. Watching Matthew Stafford from up here, he’s head and shoulders above most college quarterbacks.
That’s always going to be the issue though when you’re playing with a young quarterback. There’s going to be ups and downs.
We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we’d rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win. Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us.
I definitely would embrace that opportunity to be the No. 1 overall pick, obviously that every quarterback would love to be that. It’s no different for me.
Ryan Leaf is doing great now. If he progresses the way he is now, we’re going to have a quarterback that’s going to be reckoned with in the near future. And that’s not political.
I will remain in relentless pursuit of continuing my lifelong dream of being an NFL quarterback.
Young quarterbacks usually experience bumps in the road. I’ll take them in stride.
As a quarterback, you always believe in yourself. You always know you can do things.
You add a good receiver and that will take pressure off your quarterback.
When things go well, the quarterback is the one who sees all the attention. When things go wrong, they are the ones who get criticized the most.
I think the first thing that my sons will tell you, that I never tried to be their coach. And I didn’t give them as much advice as some people might think, being a former player myself and a former quarterback. If they asked, I gave them my opinion.
For me, I don’t really see a lot of the things I do as what I do, I see that as what our team does. It just happens to be that I’m the quarterback in those situations.
I was always a big fan of waiting a year of two to groom an NFL quarterback; let him learn and mature.
There’s not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra. Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn’t want us to play… is low, so we do a little extra.
I played every position, from right tackle to quarterback and everything in between.
The quarterback position is a role of leadership, and I feel just who I am as a person, I bring different types of leadership to the table.
I see myself as a quarterback who had the run the option for the offense to be successful.
I wanted to be a quarterback. I used to like Johnny Unitas, the old quarterback for the Colts.
Anybody can be rattled. Tom Brady is a great quarterback, but at the end of the day, he is just a quarterback. It’s not like he is God.
Quarterback is not a position that you come in having not played it your whole life.
I got three years invested in Brett Hundley, two years invested in Joe Callahan. The quarterback room is exactly where it needs to be.
I think there are different kinds of quarterbacks, and if you look at any offense, there are different kind of quarterbacks, but you play to the strengths of whoever the quarterback is for the team.
I don’t think the day that I was drafted that I expected to be the starting quarterback for the Rams as a seventh-round pick.
As a rookie, I had changed positions. In college, I was a quarterback, and I had never played other positions.
Whoever the quarterback is, it’s my job to be as open as possible for them and catch as many balls as I can.
I am sure I lost out on a few million or more in money but I am happy with the team that I am on and the quarterback that I am with.
Playing quarterback you’re always going to get booed – eventually.
I never had a job. My first job was quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens.
When I was a kid, my father brought home the autobiography of Sid Luckman, the great Chicago Bears quarterback – probably an extra copy from the sports department where he worked. It was the first sports biography I ever read.
I really find myself doing a lot better when I’m injured, so sometimes I look forward to it. This is the style that I play-being physical, running the football, making adjustments on the pass, avoiding the rush. Those sorts of things go with the total package of a quarterback.
I’ve often said, ‘If I had one drive to win a game to this day, and I had a quarterback to pick, I would pick Kenny.’ Snake was a lot cooler than I was. He was a perfect quarterback and a perfect Raider. When you think about the Raiders, you think about Ken Stabler.
There was a period of time where the two most wanted guys in the state of Oklahoma were me and Josh Heupel. Me for suggesting that you could throw the ball at Oklahoma and in the Big 12. And Josh Heupel for having the temerity to play quarterback and not be able to run faster than 5 flat.
I have great respect for Greg Knapp, who was my quarterbacks coach in Denver for three years. He taught me so much about playing quarterback in the NFL and made me a better football player.
If you look historically at the draft at quarterbacks in the top 10, about half of them flame out very quickly.
You don’t have to go out there and fit the mold of what a quarterback is supposed to be. Make your own mold and do the best at each role. If you can run with the best and throw with the best, you can be the best quarterback in your own version of the position.
Peyton is one of the best in the game, and I’ve been blessed to have him as my quarterback. I learned so much from him.
There are some sacrifices you have to make being a quarterback in the National Football League.
I know perfection in this game is very hard to do and pretty much impossible, but it’s what I strive for because I think it’s what you should do as a quarterback and as a leader.
You never really know about a quarterback until he plays in a real game.
You have to have a great offensive line, great quarterback and guys around you that believe in you and help you.
I think any time an offense struggles with developing a rhythm, struggles with scoring points, I think the first thing you have to examine is the quarterback.
There probably isn’t another position in all of team sports that I can think of that has the same level of import as the quarterback.
Peyton was the best, my favorite quarterback growing up.
Quarterbacks need to make their team better. If it’s a bad team, they can even make a bad team better.
It’s my job, first and foremost, to take care of the football. Guys work their tails off. That’s Football 101. From the time you play youth ball to high school, college, pro, every level, that’s the starting point for every quarterback. You have to take care of the ball.
I think that for a lot of young quarterbacks, sometimes it’s difficult to get thrown into the fire quickly because from my experience, either you learn how to be a professional from the veteran players.
The NFL is changing a little bit. The prototypical quarterback seems to be a little bit more mobile now. At the same time, if you can’t throw the ball with the best of them, then you won’t get an opportunity.
I like watching Tom Brady, not just because he’s handsome – I get handsome; I understand handsome – but he’s a fine leader, he’s a great quarterback, and I like the team. I’m not going to apologize for that.
I was an athlete in college – a quarterback, a leader – so people telling me what to do doesn’t work.
That’s one thing you learn as a quarterback: focus. The better you are at focusing and the more you can continue to stay focused for a four-hour stage and really be zeroed in on what is happening, the better you play, the longer you play.
Winning means being unafraid to lose.
I think as the quarterback of any NFL team, you put a tremendous amount of pressure on yourself to win ball games because that’s what you’re here to do and ultimately, that’s what you want to do.
Every quarterback can be rattled. There’s no guy who can’t be.
You not a bad quarterback if you do what your team asks of you.
There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel’s, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.
Don’t let the Monday morning quarterbacks stop you from being bold. You’ve got to set a high bar.
I got put into leadership roles very early in life from fifth grade, sixth grade. I always ended up being the quarterback or the leader of the sports teams, and it’s kind of benefiting me now.
When you start looking at guys like Brett Favre, for instance, and other great quarterbacks that have played – Peyton Manning – you say, ‘Gosh, how will these guys be replaced?’
I had to find stories no one else was writing, so I got away from the quarterback and the coach. I’m still looking for stories no one else has written.
There’s not much simplifying. You gotta know what you gotta know. That’s how the quarterback position is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sometimes armchair quarterbacks are doing it to enhance their own image. I’m just not comfortable with that idea.
The quarterback must go down, and he must go down hard
Fletcher Jones, is that not a quarterback’s name? My kid is going to be a quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger Cats one day.
I’m just a quarterback. I’m just who I am.
I realize that as the quarterback, you have to assume some sort of leadership role because you have to talk in the huddle on every play, and you’re essentially giving out orders to the team. But in my mind, I have to prove myself on the field before I can start asserting a leadership role.
At 75 percent, I personally feel I can be one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
While it’s great for a quarterback to have athletic ability, his goal is to get the ball out of his hand, orchestrate the offense and not allow his ability to stand in the way of the offense running efficiently.
I guess that’s one of the things about playing quarterback. The quarterback gets most of the recognition.
I’m getting better as a quarterback. A lot of that is an understanding of the game, of myself, of who I’m playing against.
In this league you might have a quarterback within your division that you’re worried about running all over the place, the next week it’s a running back, so to be able to have multiple answers for every situation is probably a benefit for everybody.
It’s always a lot more fun as a quarterback if you can do things you don’t normally get to do. So if I can catch a pass and make a play for the team, that’s what I’m willing to do.
Third-string quarterbacks, fourth-string quarterbacks – they get their opportunities, and they shine.
I’m a backup quarterback at the University of Dayton. I was a one-year starter in high school. I think I got the job in high school because our quarterback left and went to another school.
Being an NFL quarterback there’s a lot of advantages that come with it. There are a lot of doors that open when you’re a quarterback but at the same time there’s a lot of scrutiny. There are a lot of things you can’t do as well.
Listen, I don’t think there are any backups in this league that don’t have aspirations to be a starting quarterback. It’s just part of the business. It’s part of being on a team and knowing your role.
The most important thing to remember is: to protect your quarterback – ME!
It’s really important as a quarterback to have stability in all your joints but especially in the lower body, like the ankles, knees, and hips.
There’s not a lot of short quarterbacks in the league, but I think there’s more guys paving the way for the transition of not really caring about how big you are, how tall you are.
I truly believe Colin Kaepernick could be one of the greatest quarterbacks ever.
Obviously, the quarterback position is an extremely important position.
If Tiger Woods had played football, he would have been a quarterback.
I think when you get Robert Griffin, one of the most explosive quarterbacks to ever play the position, in a Mike Shanahan-type system, the possibilities are very exciting, I think, with Mike Shanahan’s imagination.
That’s the job of a quarterback, to go out there and be confident with the communication of the play, in the huddle and with my play.
I’m willing to share my experiences with any young quarterback.
Playing quarterback is hard enough.
Though I loved books as a young boy, I loved sports even more. I wanted to be a quarterback in the CFL.
A guy like Darrelle Revis has been in the NFL a long time. They study tendencies. They know what you’re doing from the way you line up. When you run a route, you almost have to be perfect at it. You can’t slip. Timing has to be perfect with the quarterback going against a smart guy like him.
I think early in my development as a quarterback, before I ever got a Division I college offer or anything, my brother was in the spotlight, first-round draft pick. People expected me to be him, but I was underdeveloped, undersized, unrecruited… so it was tough at that point.
I haven’t seen a quarterback play a perfect game yet.
Every quarterback feels like he has something to prove.
As long as you keep your body healthy quarterback is a position where you should get better as you age.
There’s a lot of pressure that comes with being a NFL quarterback wherever you’re at, and I’m ready to tackle any situation that’s in front of me.
I think at times I have to be careful not to stick my foot in my mouth and not to have the pedal to the metal at all times, because that can hurt me as a quarterback.
I said, ‘If the quarterback is a runner, it’ll work.’ But if your quarterback’s not a runner, in my judgment and in the judgment of most of the people, it wouldn’t work without the quarterback running the ball.
Quarterback play starts with your eyes and feet. Those have to be in the right place and have to be on time.
You take all the offensive linemen and put them in a burlap bag, and then you take a baseball bat and beat on the bag. You’re sacking them. You’re bagging them. And that’s what you’re doing with a quarterback.
I’m always getting doubled; I just have to find ways to beat it. Can’t use that as an excuse. Still got to get to the quarterback someway, somehow.
We always think we can get to the quarterback, put pressure on him.
Throwaways are OK. When a quarterback throws the ball away in our system, that’s a plus. That’s a plus decision. That’s the way I’ve always graded it.
I’ve always had visions of being a starting quarterback. That’s why I come to work every day.
Any quarterback that understands what the offense is really about is going to succeed.
I think there’s something inherently interesting in the Monday morning quarterback: the guy who, you know, sits at one end of the briefing room and tells everyone what they should’ve done and how they’ve screwed up.
But I remember back in 1998, the year after Peyton Manning left Tennessee, a lot of people didn’t really give Tennessee a chance. There was a lesser-known Tee Martin playing quarterback. He ended up leading them to a national championship in 1998 the year after Peyton left.
I’m definitely a football fan, so I try to stay up with how teams are doing, and you end up getting a lot of buddies that play on certain teams. I wouldn’t say I watch too much of other quarterbacks.
I don’t think the NFL has ever seen the likes of me, a quarterback who moves the way I do and throws the way I do. I’m not saying that with arrogance or anything. That is just how I feel.
This is really a dream come true. To be the starting quarterback in the Super Bowl is probably the highlight of my life.
There’s something to be said with your quarterback your leader being there on Day 1.
I’ve never had a quarterback run-driven offense. We don’t run designed plays where we snap the ball directly to the quarterback and he’s just running it. If the defense is cheating and overcompensating for your running back, then the quarterback needs to keep (it) honest.
I have a lot of empathy for quarterbacks.
As a quarterback your job is to drop back and give it to the open receiver, let them run. Obviously, there are times when you get some pressure and you have to make decisions, step up in the pocket and buy time for your receivers and deliver the ball.
Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
Extra thick skin is something every Bruce Arians’ quarterback needs to have because the stuff he says to media is rated G compared to the stuff he says to your face on the sideline and after the game in the locker room and throughout the week.
Point guard is like the quarterback. It’s an IQ-judgment position. The great ones are not about themselves. They’re about the others.
Me, personally, I’m going to be out there running full speed and chasing down running backs and chasing down quarterbacks. That’s what I do best.
If you have to name me starting quarterback to go be a starting quarterback, then I probably have some issues I need to address.
Obviously Tom Brady is a great quarterback.
Stats are for losers, and the one thing I’d like to point out, while at Wyoming, we won games, and I definitely think that’s how quarterbacks are judged in the NFL.
Going through your reads, there is always an answer. And if you consistently, from a mental standpoint as a quarterback, go through your reads, you always give your team a chance to win.
You’ve got to try to find ways to dominate in any way – it ain’t about getting sacks, it’s about making the big plays. If that’s pressing the quarterback, making them throw a pick – whatever you’ve got to do to try to dominate the game.
If you want to be a quarterback in this league or Pee-Wee, you’ve got to believe, ‘Hey, I’m the guy.’
You have to have quarterbacks who can keep up with everybody else. And I’m not saying that just black quarterbacks can do that, but more black quarterbacks are given a chance because they fit the mold.
With the quarterback position, because you’re touching the ball every single snap, you want to make a play and you just have to guard against that. It’s about making the plays that come to you, not necessarily chasing after plays.
It’s hard not to follow other careers of NFL quarterbacks in the 24/7 news-at-your-fingertips society we live in.
At the quarterback position I would say mental is just as important as physical. Then there’s that emotional component too.
I got a small window of time to be an NFL quarterback. Some day when I’m done playing I can sit back and look at what we accomplished, or how does it feel, or what’s it like.
The quarterback, you can play with a lot of big injuries. You get a little injury like an index finger or a thumb that most people can play with, sometimes you can’t. I’ve stayed away from some of those.
I developed a term that is used in the game right now called sacking a quarterback. Sacking a quarterback is just like you devastate a city or you cream a multitude of people. I mean it’s just like you put all the offensive players in one bag and I just take a baseball bat and beat on the bag.
I believe in my God-given athletic ability and the coaches that have been blessed around me. I believe I can do the job as a quarterback in the NFL.
I found myself trying to press to make plays because of situations that we were in, and as a young quarterback you have to let the game come to you.
If you are going to be a starter in the NFL or a major-college program, you are going to have to beat out other great quarterbacks.
If he can basically prepare, be the starting quarterback, come in and execute and keep his head right, then I feel good about Weeden.
I don’t play too much into the color game, because I don’t want to be the best African American quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback.
We are in a situation where we can have a developing backup quarterback because of the excellence of Tony Romo. We can have that behind him. To me, that’s what you’re ideally striving for.
Some coaches and quarterbacks over-analyze things at times. Sometimes it can be pitch and catch, let the play-makers make plays.
My entire career, you can’t say Travis Kelce without Alex Smith. He’s been my quarterback, he’s been the guy. I owe a lot of my success to him.
If you look around, there are very few really super quarterbacks. There are just very few. If you’re lucky enough to have one, lucky enough that one of these Andrew Lucks is available when you have the top pick, then that’s just a matter of luck. You can’t attribute that to anything else.
I feel like too many guys get wrapped up in this image that a quarterback is supposed to have, and I’ve never bought into that.
Kids are doing more in their offseason. That’s what the college quarterbacks, the pro quarterbacks do. That’s how you get better.
I’m a firm believer that all sports will eventually be global. Someday, we may have a quarterback from China named Yao Fling.
I’ve tried to get cute – and I don’t mind saying tried to be cute – at the quarterback spot.
I’ve never had a dumb quarterback. I think if you’re dumb, it’s difficult to overcome.
When you’re a quarterback in this league, you’re going to be talked about and it’s going to be on a weekly basis.
With Tom Brady, quarterbacks are playing now until they’re about 60 years old.
Obviously, I love the idea of athletic quarterbacks.
Playing quarterback you have to have quick reactions. You’ve got to be able to know pretty much everything that’s going on on the field, lateral quickness, lateral movements in the pocket.
My job is to make the quarterback position as easy as we can.
You love for a quarterback to sometimes make the decision as the rush is coming and make the decision as the play, as opposed to where that computer is hitting it fast and he’s knowing where to go with the ball at the right time.
Michael Strahan should get the amount of money that anybody else in the league is getting. I don’t care if it is a quarterback, wide receiver, defensive lineman, linebacker. He should make the kind of money Brett Favre, Marshall Faulk make, because he’s that type of player.
A quarterback that goes out and performs for you and is a franchise quarterback is more valuable than a player playing another position, but there’s a lot more risk there. It’s a more difficult position to play, and there are lot more failures.
Any team, if you can rattle the quarterback you have an opportunity to win the game.
Any defensive coordinator is worried about two things: a running quarterback and a deep ball. You know, don’t get beat deep and don’t let the quarterback run, because a big part of your defense can’t account for the quarterback as a runner, so he gets a free run.
You need to make sure you’re going exactly where your guy goes in press coverage. In zone, you can read the quarterback and his eyes a bit to determine where he’s going. You don’t get the opportunity in press coverage to read the quarterback, so it’s all on you.
I think my game isn’t very flashy, but the test of time for the position of quarterback is how fast can you get the ball out of your hands to the right guy? And I think I do that better than everyone else.
A quarterback has to trust the quarterback coach. And the quarterback coach has to trust him.
I want every kid to go to college and be like a normal student. I want them to be able to go to a movie, go to a concert. I want them to be able to have that opportunity. But if you’re paying kids, are you going to pay a lineman less than you’re paying a quarterback? I don’t know how to explain that stuff.
As a quarterback, I appreciated the passer rating whether you threw the ball a majority of the time or if you didn’t throw it as much. You were judged on a level playing field, and I thought teams should be ranked similarly.
This isn’t Kirk Cousins’ job to win. Right now this is Kirk Cousins’ job to lose…He’s putting together a profile right now, a resume of these next seven weeks that will make the decision easy for the Redskins: either they sign him to a contract or they’re still looking for the quarterback of the future.
I would be lying to you if I haven’t been out on the football field and told a quarterback to give me a post route and simulated me catching it and running into the end zone, envisioning scoring that game-winning touchdown.
Head coach and quarterback have a record attached to them. And I have always felt a great responsibility to help lead our team to win games, the division and ultimately the Super Bowl.
Things never change in football, it’s still blocking and tackling and execution, and having an experienced quarterback who is patient enough to take what the defense gives him.
I’ve always been somebody that it takes me longer to learn things, but once I learn them… I’m like a quarterback that plays best in the fourth quarter.
When you play quarterback and the offense doesn’t play well, a lot of that is because of the quarterback. You’re going to receive the criticism.
I don’t think there’s any question that the Arena League allowed me to flourish. I played three years in a league where the quarterback wasn’t supposed to be stopped. We never wanted to kick. When I went into the NFL, I had that same mentality.
I’ve had a different career than a lot of different quarterbacks, but this has been a career that I’ve loved and a position that I like being in.
Tom Brady is the two best quarterbacks of all time.
It all goes through the quarterback.
Once you really understand your role… that’s why I think actors get lost in a series. Everybody wants to be the quarterback or the game-winning wide receiver. I’ve been around long enough and done enough stuff to where I don’t feel that way. I just want to do what I do as well as possible.
If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a quarterback who thinks playing quarterback is just about passing.
I am competitively aggressive. My dream since I was a young boy was to be an NFL quarterback. I am living that dream.
What a humbling experience, being an NFL quarterback.
Quarterbacks are always ready.
No quarterback goes out there and plays well on his own.
I’m strictly a quarterback.
I see the role of a rabbi or a pastor in general sort of like the role of a quarterback who throws the ball a little bit ahead of the receiver – that is you want to make people run just a bit to catch up to the message that you offer.
Being a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers would be a dream. I have a lot of respect for the black and gold.
A quarterback should be leaders of the team.
I have two secret weapons — my legs, my arms and my brain.
There’s obviously a push to protect the quarterback, but you have to give the defensive players a chance. All of the quarterback has to do is pull the ball, and he’s a runner. How’s the defender going to know if the ball is pulled or not?
You look at Matt LaFleur and where he’s been. It seems like successful quarterback play follows him.
Publishers are notoriously slothful about numbers, unless they’re attached to dollar signs – unlike journalists, quarterbacks, and felony criminal defendants who tend to be keenly aware of numbers at all times.
I just want to be a complete professional quarterback, and that’s going to take time.
I think Burrow is gonna be a great NFL quarterback.
Honestly, being a 5’11 quarterback, not too many people think that you can play in the National Football League. And so for me, you know, I knew that my height doesn’t define my skill set, you know? I believed in my talent. I believed in what God gave me. I believed in the knowledge that I have of the game.
There’s high expectations for Cowboys. There’s been some great quarterbacks who have come through that organization.
I’m a very competitive person, but at the same time, as a quarterback, you gotta be poised; you gotta be very poised and patient. I’m pretty loose and relaxed, but I’m also very competitive.
I left Green Bay for Seattle in 1999. I wonder what would have happened had I stayed in Green Bay, where I’ve got one of the best quarterbacks of all time in his prime.
Quarterbacks can still have good bodies. I’m always conscious of the stereotype. I want to change what people think. There’s a lot more to it than what you see on the field.
I know I’m the No. 1 quarterback for the Washington Redskins, and that’s all that matters in my heart. That’s all I wanted. I wanted a team that wanted me, and I found that.
The best thing for any team is to make the quarterback feel pain. You’ve got to be respectful of the rules of the game and honestly you don’t want to hurt anybody, but to make him feel you is to bring his eyes down.
Our players are educated. They know. If you knowingly break the rules, we’re going to move on. We’ll find someone else to play quarterback.
As an offensive lineman, having spatial awareness is key: understanding where the quarterback is going to be and understanding what the defensive end might do depending on the play we’re running.
The disconnect between [offensive coordinator] Todd Haley and [quarterback] Ben Roethlisberger is so blatant you can just see it.
Mississippi State has two pretty looking quarterbacks.
I want to be the best quarterback at Texas Tech, the best quarterback in the Big 12.
The quarterback’s spending so much time behind the center that he may jeopardize his right to lead a Boy Scout troop.
It’s a tough situation as a defender to be put in. I understand what they’re doing trying to protect quarterbacks. I’ve been on the receiving end of a few of those where you appreciate them trying to take care of you a little bit, but I do see the conflict that it puts a defender in.
Being there every week for my teammates is really important to me. It’s about accountability. I hear stuff about the ‘toughest quarterback in the league’ and all that; what’s that mean?
Quarterbacks coach, I would do at Tennessee. Head coach? Absolutely not.
I don’t believe that you can be too short as a quarterback. It’s not about height.
I love everything about being a quarterback. The ball is in your hand at every play. You can have a huge impact on the game. It is a challenge.
I merely dared to say Tebow could be a successful starting quarterback in the National Football League – not a Pro Bowler, mind you, just a guy who could win games his way. Which prompted relentless attacks from anti-Tebow analysts and journalists.
We were talking about how old quarterbacks can’t throw before 10 am… Practice starts too early for us. Wake me up in the middle of the night and I can throw. I can throw anytime.
I try to get in people’s heads. My job is to get the ball, so if I’m talking trash to an O-lineman or quarterback or receiver, and they start thinking about me, that’s good, because they aren’t thinking about the game anymore.
I’m not your typical quarterback. I don’t like when people say, ‘Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to run,’ or, ‘Quarterbacks aren’t supposed to work out a certain way.’
If you’re the quarterback and want to be the best on the field, you’ve got to act like it.
The name of the game is ‘kill the quarterback.’ Every football team tries to knock the guy out of the game that’s handling the ball.
You compare a goalie position to a quarterback to a pitcher. You’re going to make that decision of what’s gonna happen to you. They’re a high-pressure position. They’re fun just for that.
Playing the scout-team quarterback in practice really helped develop my game.
Fortunately for a quarterback, you can play for a long time because you don’t get hit very often.
I’ve been playing this position since I was about 9 years old. For me, it’s just, ‘Come out here and be the best quarterback I can be.’
I’ve always done that since I was in second grade watching the varsity quarterback at my father’s high school – trying to steal reps as much as I can.
Paying to teach in the trenches was like putting my face through a cutout hole at a carnival while a quarterback threw pies at me. At least with a carnival, I’d see it coming.
We didn’t win a Super Bowl together, and that’s something I’ll always regret – not knowing what that feels like. But you and I have won more games together than any quarterback and coach combination in the history of the NFL.
The quarterbacks who are picked in the first round and are declared – and I don’t like the word – busts, it’s not that the scouts were wrong about their ability or their potential. But commitment is such a huge part of it.
I don’t even want to touch on the topic of black quarterback, because I think this game is bigger than black, white or even green.
My goal is to be the best quarterback I can be for the Colts, and hope that it’s good enough.
In football, it’s the ultimate team sport. You have to have good people around you as a quarterback for things to happen.
The quarterback has to get rid of the ball quickly, so there’s not a lot of time to make moves to gain separation.
The heartbeat of a football team is the quarterback position and I think everyone who has any intelligence about the game understands you must have consistency at that position to be a championship team.
What quarterback doesn’t like some speed on the outside?
If quarterbacks learned the West Coast offense in college, oh man – it would make a huge difference.
This game we play is the ultimate total team game. Quarterback by himself isn’t winning it. You got 11-12 coaches, you’ve got a lot of people that have a hand in it.
The Super Bowl is like a movie, and the quarterback is the leading man.
I think anytime you can take as much off the quarterback as possible, that only helps them out in the long run.
Some quarterbacks, you worry about the passing, not really getting out of the pocket and scrambling.
I remember when I was 6 years old and my brother used to go seek out guys that were 13 to come over and play football against me while he was the ‘permanent quarterback.’ I didn’t know exactly what the age difference was, but I was already playing against older guys.
For me, and I said this even before the draft, I think being with the same team for my whole career would be something that would be very special to me because, especially at the quarterback position, that means that we won a lot of games, hopefully Super Bowls, ’cause that’s the end goal.
It’s a quarterback-driven league, so quarterbacks get rewarded a lot of money.
If I believe that I became the best quarterback that I could possibly be, the best football player that I could possibly be… That’s how I’m going to measure my career as a success or not.
You can’t put a running back in there and have him not know who to pick up. You can’t get your quarterback hit.
By running routes on air, with any quarterback, if I did routes on air with a D-II quarterback, I should catch most of the balls.
My first signing bonus was 3,500 bucks. I bought speakers and a five-disc carousel CD changer. Dude, I thought I was the wealthiest quarterback around.
Obviously, when you have a quarterback of the caliber of Aaron Rodgers, we’re going to have high expectations.
I handled myself as a quarterback in the manner I thought necessary.
Drew Henson could go down as the greatest quarterback in the history of Michigan football.
We need the quarterbacks. It’s a passing league and a quarterback-driven league. We need the Peyton Mannings in football uniforms out there playing – the Tom Bradys, the Drew Breeses, the Philip Riverses – we need those guys instead of them standing on the sideline.
I noticed a lot of dual-threat quarterbacks in the shotgun or in the pistol, a lot of them don’t last forever. I want to be in the pocket.
I think Brian Hoyer is a good quarterback.
I’m going to be a good quarterback, a great quarterback.
It’s a very easy thing to say, ‘Go get a backup quarterback.’ Now tell me where to get them. You just can’t dial them up.
The question of many college quarterbacks is can they operate in the pro game, in the pro system. Can they not only function under the early, especially with our game, but can they do it efficiently?
Tom Brady is a great quarterback, he’s a great player, and what you’ve seen with him is he’s gotten better every year.
That’s what we’re here for as quarterbacks is to help our team win, lead the offense down the field and put points on the board.
Marino was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005, and his name always comes up when the conversation centers on the greatest quarterbacks of all time. But his greatness comes with an asterisk: He never won the Big Game.
That Bears quarterback is no good. He’s washed up. He’s 30.
Warren Moon and Doug Williams really didn’t run that much. That’s the negative stereotype when it comes to African-American quarterbacks, that most of us just run. Those guys threw it around. I like to think I can throw it around a little bit.
I’ll make changes at receiver before I make a change at the quarterback.
Alex Smith is – I think he is a winner, and he’s a smart quarterback, and I’m a fan of his.
The quarterback position gets a lot of attention.
The quarterback is in charge of the chuck wagon. He’s handing it out here and there, but he can’t just throw it out there indiscriminately or the wolves will get him.
You’ve got to find the quarterback. Once you find the quarterback, you can fix the other things.
Typically, there’s about 20, 25 percent turnover every year. So, every three or four years with the exception of, as is the case with the Patriots and the quarterback, you have a roster turnover.
If any other part of your body has some weakness, you go, ‘Well I can probably manage.’ But when you’re a quarterback, and it’s your right hand, you’re certainly concerned far as being able to do your job.
If anybody should be a judge of quarterbacks, I’ve played with the most quarterbacks in NFL history throughout my first four years.
I’ve said for many, many years, as long as I can ever remember, when I’m asked, ‘Hey, what do you look for first in a quarterback?’ The first thing I look for is accuracy, because the rest of it doesn’t matter.
Of course, in pro ball, they never hit the quarterback in practice.
When you lose a good player, it’s like losing a quarterback.
I’m a quarterback at the end of the day. I want to prove that each and every day I go out and practice.
I think the quarterback position is not one that’s exempt from competition.
No one coaches what to do after three seconds, after the quarterback’s broken the pocket or he’s been in the pocket for five, six seconds.
I’m not a 25-interception quarterback, I know that.
As a quarterback, you’ve got a huge responsibility: You’re touching the ball every single play. You have such a big impact on deciding the game, just in your decision-making and how you are with the football and your fundamentals.
As soon as you make mistakes, or you have an off year, even if it’s not your fault as a quarterback… I’ve always said the quarterback and the head coach always get too much blame when you lose and too much credit when you win.
That’s what you kind of see with Matthew Stafford. He makes some incredible plays, even with his arm in different positions. But the consistency’s not there that you need at the position to be one of the top quarterbacks in the league, and I think that’s where cleaning up the technique will help.
Even though you can hit a quarterback, it’s not always in your best interest.
My job is to play quarterback, and I’m going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe that to my teammates regardless of who is out there on the field with me.
The worst thing that can happen to a man who gambles is to win
I’ve been catching footballs – I’ve been a wide receiver since I was 15 years old. And every quarterback I’ve had, for the most part, threw a pretty hard ball. So I’m not getting away from the calluses.
I don’t like the rules about you can’t hit the quarterback.
Playing quarterback is a glamorous job. It’s awesome. It’s everything I dreamed it would be. But after a while, it loses its glamour. Somewhere along those 15 years, it becomes a job. Especially at the end, it became work. Game day was awesome, but all the rest of it was work.
No one’s taking quarterbacks, for the most part, in the first round that haven’t had a lot of success.
A quarterback is always going to be the most valuable player on a football field because he touches the ball every single offensive play.
It’s hard to be a leader right away, but playing quarterback, you have to.
As a player, that’s not your responsibility to comment and to give your opinion on another player. As a quarterback, I don’t want another quarterback tweeting about my performance or judging me in that way.
If you’re dating the quarterback and then you go out with the hockey player, you just go to the hockey games. I don’t think I’ll still go to the football games.
I’m a great pass catcher. I’m excellent in pass protection, which is the most important thing. You can’t play, you can’t get on the field if you don’t protect that franchise quarterback.
I worked at a place that followed a system where the quarterback was taught to take the sack rather than force the throw. That’s kind of an old-school theory, but it has existed in this game.
I think that’s another misconception, [that] our quarterbacks run all the time. Quarterbacks can help you in the run game, they complement what you do, but it’s a running back-driven run game.
For 15 years I have been lucky enough to play quarterback in the NFL and it has been the most incredible experience of my life. There wasn’t one second that I took it for granted or failed to appreciate what a tremendous privilege it is.
In order to win in this league, you have to have a quarterback who can make all the throws, who makes great decisions, somebody who can get you out of bad situations, that just gives you a chance.
It’s hard to throw the football when you have some instability at quarterback or if you don’t have the weapons around you.
We just take pride that our sons have worked hard and they handle their position as a quarterback.
If you’re willing to put yourself and your dreams on the line, at the very least you’ll discover an inner strength you may not have known existed.
In the game of football today – whether it’s pro, college or even high school arguably – your quarterback play is determinative.
The only thing I wanted to do since I was seven was play quarterback in the NFL, but as I grew older, I started to discover other interests.
Everything gets thrown off depending on whether the Packers are playing. I grew up in L.A., and we had a terrible quarterback, Roman Gabriel. When I was 11 years old, I fired him, I fired the Rams, and I picked a quarterback I aspired to be. That was Bart Starr. That’s how long I’ve been a Packers fan.
I started playing quarterback my junior year of high school.
I don’t want to wake up and be bored. That’s probably my greatest fear is to have nothing to do. What better job is there than to play quarterback for an NFL team, and certainly one that I’ve been on for a long time and had success with? I don’t plan on giving it up any time soon.
I assume everybody thinks they’re a top-five quarterback. I mean, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’m top five, I think I’m the best. I don’t think I’d be very successful at my job if I didn’t feel that way.
The positions I played in football, being a quarterback and a defensive back, you had to kind of have a little independent thinking.
When people talk about me, they talk about just the arm and that I have a big arm. I want to be able to change that mindset to, ‘He’s a great quarterback who just happens to have a great arm.’
There’s a big world out there. Bigger than prom, bigger than high school, and it won’t matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd. Find out who you are and try not to be afraid of it.
The quarterback needs to know when he’s doing something wrong or how he can get better.
My whole life, my dream has been to be a quarterback.
I’m a big believer in your offensive limitations come from your quarterback.
Are there things you can do with the rest of your personnel or are things you can do schematically to help a quarterback? I think so. But at the end of the day, that quarterback still has to be a driving force of your team, especially if you want to be a consistent winner over time.
When you are a free agent like I was, it definitely makes a big difference when you know there’s stability at the quarterback position.
The bottom line is, as the season goes on, everybody becomes more comfortable. For a quarterback, it’s more than just him. It’s everybody else doing things. Offense is all about how things work as a unit. It’s everybody being comfortable.
I was a baseball player at North Central High School in Spokane, Washington even though I was all-city in basketball, even when I signed a letter of intent to play quarterback at Washington State.
I’m going to do what I need to do in meetings and out on the field to showcase my talent that I’m a franchise quarterback and I can be a really great quarterback in the NFL.
All quarterbacks, each play is its own entity, and you can pick apart each play. Sometimes they do a good job getting to the checkdown, and sometimes they progress faster.
If you have a settled quarterback situation, you’re pretty doggone good.
The most important thing I learned is I have to get my body in shape, because those men look good. Not just the other quarterbacks – everyone. Their bodies look good.
My quarterbacks have to be a member of my family, and that has nothing to do with football. Trust is everything. We have to connect on a deep level in order to really be able to build something together.
I’ve just tried to do everything I can personally to be the best quarterback I can be, whether it’s doing extra work for my rehab, extra work in the film room, on the board, extra work out on the field with my drops and footwork.
As a quarterback, when you do have a three-and-out or things do not go right, you are the first one to know. You know more than anyone out there what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and don’t necessarily always need to hear it when you come off to the sideline.
I’m proud to be Archie’s son. Being a quarterback, I had my mentor and hero living in the same house.
Look at baseball, with its defensive shifts – outfielders looking at cards on the field much like a quarterback would. It’s possible that someday defensive backs will be playing with similar cards based on where receivers are lined up and what those receivers’ route-running strengths are. The possibilities are endless.
The only model to me that correlates with big success in the NFL is having a Hall of Fame franchise quarterback.
Biggest influence is my parents. It’s funny but my mom was the first one that allowed me to play tackle football. My dad was not ready to let me play yet. She definitely was the one who allowed me to do it. Obviously my dad taught me to throw and be a quarterback.
It’s definitely tough on the pass rushers when they say you’re taking a quarterback down and you fall on top of them and it’s roughing the passer. Ain’t really much you can say, it’s just tough.
I don’t like celebrity quarterbacks. We don’t need those. We need battlefield commanders.
I think the quarterback position, moreso than in all of sports, no other position compares – you rely on so many people to do your job.
I said all along, you judge your quarterback in his third year.
I think Tyrod Taylor is actually a better quarterback than he gets credit for, because he does not make mistakes.
I wouldn’t say you worry about your health when you run. I would say a quarterback as an obligation to protect yourself as a runner, whether it’s getting out of bounds, sliding or getting down, whatever it might be.
When you play quarterback in the NFL, you’re going to get scrutinized.
The great ones have the ability to focus and tune everything else out and see more than the others. Average quarterbacks have tunnel vision. They see what’s in front of them. The better you get, the more that tunnel expands, and the more guys on the field you see.
To play with Drew Brees, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. How could I pass up that opportunity and to play in a Sean Payton system.
For me, it’s not about sacking the quarterback. It’s about changing the course of the game. It’s causing a crucial fumble at a crucial time. It’s making a tackle for a loss when the opposing team needs to gain one or two yards for the first down. I look at myself as a sudden-impact player.
Why does everyone always assume the quarterback is the leader?
It’s not always statistics that determine the best player, especially the quarterback.
The simplest way to win in the National Football League is to knock out the starting quarterback. You know, throughout the years, history has proven if your number one quarterback goes down, your chances for success become very limited.
You name the sport, I’ve played it. I was quarterback for a football team one year, played volleyball, played softball – you name it.
Aaron Rodgers has always been one of my favorite quarterbacks.
I have always been a pretty accurate quarterback going back to high school and it is something that I have prided myself on.
When you really start figuring things out as a quarterback, you realize you don’t have to be perfect every time, but you do have to be quick and decisive.
I think rap was a better move for me but football’s been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn’t trade this in for nothing.
My advice to the next quarterback that misses an entire year is to understand there is a little difference going out on the road again. You miss that. When you’re hurt, you do not feel like you are part of it.
Coach Gase has done amazing things, not with just quarterbacks but offenses in general.
I want to know what everyone is doing on every play, all the way from protection to tailback to progressions of quarterbacks.
Playing football helped me a lot. Just reading the quarterback’s eyes and reading receivers, figuring out what they want to do.
Young quarterbacks do well because they have a great defense.
Obviously, you have to have some physical ability to play quarterback in the NFL.
If you can have a really good coaching staff, and you can have a really good young quarterback and do a really good job in player personnel and string together multiple successful drafts, your window is not small in the NFL because of the quarterback.
From the standpoint that you try to adjust your offense to your quarterback, you try to adjust your football team around your players. You do the best you can with the hand that you have, and you’ve got to add some parts along the way.
You don’t want to read about your quarterback in the newspaper every day of the week.
There’s just a misconception that comes with being a dual-threat quarterback. You run first, throw second. I’ve proven I throw first and then run if I have to.
Just being the best quarterback, best teammate, best leader that I can be. I just worked on doing that every day and getting better, and hopefully that leads to some accolades and success down the road.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady says he thinks it would be great if Donald Trump was president. Which is really weird because I thought Brady didn’t like things that are filled with too much air.
Just once I’d love to profile a quarterback who’s not a maniacal competitor, but is really good anyways.
Peyton Manning is doing things that I think no other quarterback in the history of the league has done at the line of scrimmage… I just think they are a team right now that’s got a real chance to run the table.
I think there’s a special relationship between the center and quarterback.
If you ask any great player or great quarterback, there’s a certain inner confidence that you’re as good as anybody. But you can’t say who is the absolute best. To be considered is special in itself.
Dez Bryant isn’t a quarterback. He’s not a leader. He’s a talented, high-maintenance wide receiver.
It’s not a ton of fun being a backup quarterback.
You’re shooting the quarterback, and he drops back to pass the ball, and you see the ball leave his hand at 10 frames per second. At 7 frames per second, the ball’s already gone.
I think I’ve thrown enough balls and put it on tape where I don’t think arm strength is an issue. I wouldn’t be a starting quarterback if my arm strength was such an issue. People are making it seem like I can’t throw the ball 30 yards. People are getting out of hand with it.
I don’t think about it, ‘Wow! I’m the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.’ For me, this is my job. This is what I’ve been preparing to do. And I really want to win badly.
The number of starting quarterbacks in the NFL from Texas speaks for itself.
It’s a headache, chasing a guy around. I’d rather play against a quarterback that sits still.
I don’t think I can fully explain what happens when you take on the role of quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Sometimes, I can’t even explain it to myself.
We have never, ever, in the history of football seen a guy that possesses what Aaron Rodgers possesses. Nobody, no quarterback in history, has the touch, the accuracy, the ability to throw the ball moving left or right, throw the ball from the pocket, throw the ball from different plains.
It’s far different aging as a quarterback than aging as a tight end.
I’ve always known being a professional athlete is tough, let alone being a quarterback in the National Football League. There’s a lot on you, a lot of pressure on you to succeed. You take the glory and you take the falls, but that’s what I signed up to do.
Everyone talks about the good old days, when guys were tough and quarterbacks got crushed all the time, but back in the day, there weren’t defensive ends that were Mario Williams – 6-7, 300 pounds, 10 percent body fat, running a 4.7 40.
There’s a lot of different ways of playing quarterback, and there’s a lot of different situations. So that’s why, for me, if I can keep my mindset the same, if I can stay consistent in how I prepare, then I’m good.
I have plenty of opportunities to get better and continue to grow as a quarterback.
I don’t believe you could be a 39-year-old quarterback in the NFL and eat cheeseburgers every day. I want to be able to do what I love to do for a long time.
We did all the strategy right on the field. Today, the coaches call all the plays, so all the quarterbacks have to do is perform. They are more or less programmed.
You learn, across the league, with very successful quarterbacks, nobody does it by themselves.
I was a receiver until I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t play quarterback until I was a freshman.
So, there’s no guarantee in the NFL that if you’ve got the No. 1 pick or you’ve got a top-five pick, that you’re going to be able to draft a franchise quarterback.
If you’re a quarterback, you want everything on your shoulders. You want to be the one to make the decisions.
I’m on the record as saying Andrew Luck can be the greatest quarterback who ever played the game of football. I’ve seen him do some unbelievable things that I still can’t believe a quarterback was able to do. I have tremendous respect for that guy.
I think to be a great quarterback, you have to have a great leadership, great attention to detail, and a relentless competitive nature. And that’s what I try to bring to the table, and I have a long way to go. I’m still learning, and I’m still on a constant quest for knowledge.
People ask me who he reminds me of. The way he’s playing, I’d say he doesn’t remind me of anybody. I’ve never seen anybody – running back, quarterback, wide receiver – make the plays that Vince Young made today.
It’s much easier when your team’s winning. When your team starts to lose, that’s where a lot of these quarterback controversies divide a locker room. The key, as a pro, is to be a pro.
Quarterbacks should wear dresses.
Imagine yourself sitting on top of a great thoroughbred horse. You sit up there and you just feel that power. That’s what it was like playing quarterback on that team [the Pittsburgh Steelers]. It was a great ride.
