I think one thing as far as my learning curve and what I'm learning - there is a time to take a sack, and then there is also a time to try to find a way to maybe throw the ball at a receiver's feet.
There is a strike zone in the pocket that's very clear. Can't hit QBs low, can't hit them high.
I know how important it is to have your quarterback standing upright. Matter of fact, I know how important it is not to allow someone hit on him period because I want him to think that this pocket is completely safe, no one is going to get to me and I got all the time in the world to make whatever decisions I need to make.
If you pay a QB $10 million, you don't want him to run the ball.
I always felt like hanging around the pocket was trouble, but the truth is, the great players take the beatings in the pocket and expose themselves -- and that is the real risk.
You see Tom Brady, you see Alex Smith, and you see all those guys in the pocket and how quick they are with their footwork and how they get the ball out fast. I have to get like that.
If you exhaust every play out of the pocket, what happens is you find more opportunities.
I've got to have two hands on the ball when I'm leaving the pocket, when I'm moving in the pocket.
In the pocket, I usually keep two hands on the ball.
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.
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 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.
The quarterback gets plenty of protection in the pocket, and he picks up protection out of the pocket; he's got protection down the field on his slides.
I think the number one job as a quarterback is protecting the football.
The best advice I try to give a young quarterback is, you need to know what you're doing. You need to know what you're doing, because if you know where to go with the football, you can get rid of it and throw it and you won't get hit.
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.'
I think my pocket presence and my ability to extend plays speak for themselves.
The truth is that in the NFL, the job is to deliver the ball from the pocket. That's the job.
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.
It's always a danger when you've got a great quarterback that throws the ball well, that scrambles well. You may push him into his asset. You may force him to do what he does best. So you've got to be able to throw curveballs and stop the pass as much as stop the run.
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.
I'm not fast, so I have to be able to throw from the pocket.
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.
You have a little more time to make moves when you're in the slot.
Obviously it happens very fast on the field during the game; if anything, it's more of a feel. You feel when the pocket is collapsing around you. You feel when someone is close to you. It is a split-second decision.
