Vick, Cam and Wilson are all capable but hardly ever use it.

I do not think that it should become an obsession at all. Play spy with the DE’s and call it a night. Hopefully your interior line and LB’s are skilled to stop the run up the gut. But not every defense has personnel to get the job done.

It will be like the wildcat. Hot for a couple of years… by this time next year the hype will have died down dramatically.

You can not stop the read-option by “crushing the quarterback” on every option play! The way the NFL protects its marquee players (i.e., QBs) they’ll NEVER allow defenses to just unload on a QB who does NOT have the ball in his hands – and the beauty of the option is in keeping the defense guessing whether he does or not.

Once the suits on Park Ave get a whiff that certain defenses are planning on blasting QBs whether they’re carrying the ball or not, they will go all Bountygate on their @$$es, and put an end to all of that.

Now, agreed, on the few times the kid actually DOES have the ball, all bets are off – but THEIR job is learning how to avoid the big hits. Ya CAN’T be a read-option QB if ya can’t do that. Rob Griffin is one guy who still has to prove he knows how to do that consistently, but he’s a smart guy. He’ll learn.

Russell Wilson really isn’t a read-option QB, he spent college in pro style systems, the success of Newton, Kaepernick, et al. led to Seattle incorporating it into their offense.
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Uh, an accurate post would read, “The success of RG3 and the Shanahans led to SF and Seattle incorporating the pistol formation and read option into their offense.” Newton was a non-factor and has mostly been forgotten.

(RG3 was kept in check the whole game, kirk cousins beat us)

This time last year everyone was saying these same things about Cam but defenses figured him out and took away some of things he had the most success doing. He came down to earth in a big way. He managed to fight through it and had success but not at the same caliber. He was talked about as if he was a top 5 qb after his rookie year but a year later and his not even in the 10 ten conversation anymore. He has been leap frogged by Kap, RGIII, and Wilson.

And the year before that Vick was 2nd runner up to Brady for MVP. People were talking about him in the same way. The best running qb in league history learned how to throw the ball? And he can still run like he did in his first few years in the league? He is unstoppable! But what happened? The same thing, opposing defenses watched what he did in the passing game the year prior and adjusted. They took away the things he had the most success with and he couldn’t adjust.

So before touting all the success these new found sensations wound having in their 1st year as full time players, realize teams will adjust and be ready for them in their 2nd season as starters. And that “all of this has happened before and will happen again”

Dave… Did you read the article ABOVE?
He added that Eagles coach Chip Kelly will not be able to run his Oregon offense at the NFL level. “Categorically, it will not work,” Jaworski said.
I shouldn’t need to tell you Jaws is an ARDENT Eagles worshipper, if JAWS says it won’t fly I think it may be your EAGLES in a world of hurt if he tries

I can figure it out, so I’m assuming guys being paid millions to do this can as well.

ok that was fast…

RG3 is great but he got KTFO by a butt and almost got his leg snapped in half in his rookie season…

Seattle was successful with it because they only used it 6-8 times a game and worst case you are giving the ball to beast mode. I am interested in seeing what it looks like when the options are Beast, Percy Harvin, and Russell Wilson. But I still don’t see it being used more then 8 times a game.

I agree the league will try and protect these guys, but at the end of the day they’re gonna take more hits, and while they’ll never admit it post-bountygate there will be a lot of defensive players who will feel like, if I take that guy out we’ll win….while football has changed a lot it’s still basically who can knock the snot out of the other guy, and if a QB runs out of his protective cocoon he’ll eventually pay the price.

so does Newton not belong in the same breath as those guys? I guess not.
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You know that’s a great point, has Carolina used him in this manner? It would be interesting to see how he’d do in a read/option, his measurables and skill set would seem very similar to Kaepernick and RGIII.

I got an idea, just pop the qb regardless of be hands it off or not, teams will have to make a decision on getting a few yards or getting their qb killed, most coaches other than shannahan will care more about their players.
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I agree 100%. DCs will tell their linemen and LBs, “If the quarterback hands it off on the read option, beat the he*l*l out of the quarterback, and if he keeps it, beat the he*l*l out of the quarterback. Pretty soon, Mr. Touchdown USA quarterback will be wobbling around like Ray Nitschke in the original “The Longest Yard”, and the backup QB will be peeing his pants.

The weakness, of course, is that you’re leaving your secondary man-to-man when you commit to blowing up the running game. bert1913 is right on that count.