Washington State's Leach scoffs at idea 'Air Raid' QBs won't work in NFL
While Washington State head coach Mike Leach is known for producing yards, he believes he can produce viable NFL quarterbacks, too.
"I think the entire thing's ridiculously absurd," Leach told the Arizona Daily Star's Michael Lev in response to the notion that quarterbacks from his "Air Raid" offense won't translate to the pro level.
"No. 1, the best thing is to throw as many balls as possible and read as many defenses as possible. The more leeway you have at the line of scrimmage, the better. There's an awful lot of spread quarterbacks that have played in the NFL and have done so successfully. ... I've had a number of them on NFL teams. I haven't had a guy that was a premier starter. But given the fact there's 30 teams, as far as actually being on teams, I probably have more on teams than most schools."
The "Air Raid" offense - essentially an exaggerated spread offense that puts a massive emphasis on the passing game - has helped Leach's quarterbacks post gaudy numbers in the past. While the coach has put a few passers in the NFL, none of them have taken off like they did in his system, leading many to question whether his offense actually helps quarterbacks develop the skills necessary to succeed in the pros.
Last season, the Cougars' Luke Falk ranked fifth in the country with 4,561 passing yards, despite missing a game and then some due to injury. Under Leach's watch at Texas Tech, Graham Harrell became a 5,000-yard passer and one of the most prolific signal-callers in NCAA history. But he, like Sonny Cumbie and Kliff Kingsbury before him, only managed a short stint in the NFL.
On the flip side, Leach's coaching disciples - including ex-Baylor coach Art Briles, Cal's Sonny Dykes, and Texas Tech's Kingsbury - have all used similar versions of the "Air Raid" system to breed NFL-caliber quarterbacks. Former Cal QB Jared Goff was recently selected first overall in the 2016 NFL Draft, while Baylor's Seth Russell and Texas Tech's Patrick Mahomes enter the upcoming season as legit NFL prospects.
"The other thing that's interesting, the NFL, from one team to the next, there's a wide variety of how they value the quarterback position - what they value, what they want," Leach said. "The failure for everybody to be on the same page is why there's so much struggle in the NFL for them to find quarterbacks. When you consider that virtually every team in the NFL has drafted a quarterback in the first round, and yet there's so many of them that weren't drafted or weren't drafted in the first round that are starting, that means the entire evaluation process is flawed to a point."