At the combine in Indianapolis this week, Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota shared his opinion that the most difficult part of his transition to the NFL will be getting used to huddling before plays after playing exclusively in a no-huddle scheme in Eugene.
Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, who has previously shared his opinion that such offenses are best left in college, agrees with Mariota’s read on the obstacles he’ll face while making the transition to the professional ranks. During Arians’s appearance on Thursday’s edition of PFT Live, Mike Florio asked him about the difficulties that come with evaluating Mariota and other quarterbacks who didn’t huddle in their college offenses.
“Seeing the guys coming out of the systems now where the coach holds a card up, the players line up, he kicks his foot and they play football -- the hardest thing for them is to get into a huddle and call a play,” Arians said. “They’re stuttering, they’re stammering, the guys around them don’t believe in them. That’s that leadership thing. That’s the hardest thing for these young quarterbacks who play in these systems…they have to learn how to play quarterback at this level and sometimes that’s overwhelming.”
Every quarterback coming into the NFL has to deal with facing faster, better prepared defenses by making the right decisions as masters of the overall offensive system. That starts with running a huddle because an inability to do that means you’re not going to get to the rest of the job.
