Dual-threat quarterback
In gridiron football, a dual-threat quarterback is a quarterback who is adept at both passing and running with the ball. With the rise of several blitz-heavy defensive schemes and faster defensive players, the importance of a mobile quarterback has been redefined. While arm power, accuracy, and pocket presence—the ability to successfully operate from within the "pocket" formed by his blockers—are still the most important quarterback virtues, the ability to elude or run past defenders creates an additional threat that allows greater flexibility in the team's passing and running game.
College football teams employed option offenses earlier and more commonly than offenses in the National Football League. An option offense allows the quarterback to either hand the ball off, run it himself, or pitch it to the running back. In the college game, many schools employ several plays that are designed for the quarterback to run with the ball. Reggie Collier was an early example of a dual-threat in college, with Brian Mitchell and Charlie Ward being other examples of 20th-century dual-threats. In the 21st-century, Tim Tebow emerged as both an effective runner and passer with the football, being widely regarded as one of the best dual-threats in college football history.
For much of the NFL's modern existence, quarterbacks running with the football was less common and often came in the form of the quarterback sneak. However, there was still some of an emphasis on being mobile enough to escape a heavy pass rush. Historically, dual-threat quarterbacks in the NFL were uncommon through the AFL–NFL merger, although Tobin Rote and Fran Tarkenton proved to be successful scrambling quarterbacks. Players like Randall Cunningham, John Elway, and Steve Young had success running in the 1980s and 1990s. Steve McNair and Donovan McNabb followed in the late 1990s into the mid-2000s. Michael Vick is often credited as having ushered dual-threat quarterbacking into the sport's mainstream in the 2000s. In the 2010s, quarterbacks with dual-threat capabilities became increasingly more common and sought after, with more recent ones such as Cam Newton, Lamar Jackson, and Jayden Daniels citing Vick's influence on their playing styles. The Canadian Football League has also seen dual-threat quarterbacks throughout its history. CFL quarterbacks such as Russ Jackson and Damon Allen ran the ball commonly during the 20th-century, and offenses have continued to utilize dual-threats in more recent history.
The term has received scrutiny by some black quarterbacks, with it being viewed as part of the broader racial issues black quarterbacks encounter in the sport. Those critical of the term assert that black quarterbacks are not viewed as "pro-style" quarterbacks and instead stereotyped as dual-threats, and therefore thought of as run-first players or not smart enough when making passing decisions.
History in college football
Dual-threat quarterbacks are a noted feature of college football offenses. High school football players are often dubbed as "dual-threats" in the college recruiting process. The term "pro style" is also used to differentiate from dual-threat prospects. Since 2002, Rivals.com, a website that focuses on college football recruitment, has used the "dual-threat" and "pro-style" designations for their quarterback prospect rankings. ESPN has released their "ESPN 300" recruiting database, an annual ranking of 300 college football prospects, since 2006, and in 2013, the rankings began separating the quarterback position into "dual-threats" and "pocket passers".Jack Mildren rushed for over 1,000 yards in a wishbone offense for Oklahoma in 1971. Reggie Collier, quarterback at Southern Mississippi from 1979 to 1982, is another example of an early dual-threat quarterback. SB Nation writer Robert Weintraub referred to Collier as the "original dual-threat". Collier was the first Division I-A quarterback to pass and rush for 1,000 yards each in the same season. Weintraub wrote that "as the years passed, offenses spread out, and more schools used dual-threat quarterbacks. Combined 1,000-yard rushing, 1,000-yard passing seasons for college quarterbacks became more common, and soon enough there were also 1K/2K and even 1K/3K seasons." Tony Rice quarterbacked the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the late 1980s; Notre Dame employed an option offense under head coach Lou Holtz at the time, in which Rice found success as a dual-threat. Southwestern Louisiana's Brian Mitchell played from 1986 to 1989, becoming the first quarterback to both pass and rush for over 3,000 yards during his college career. Mitchell's feat was later matched by Beau Morgan, quarterback for Air Force from 1994 to 1996. Florida State's Charlie Ward was successful both through the air and on the ground, with NFL.com writer Chase Goodbread calling him the "most dynamic dual-threat quarterback of the decade". In 1993, Ward won the Heisman Trophy and led Florida State to its first national championship. A starter during his junior and senior seasons, Ward passed for over 5,000 yards and rushed for just under 1,000 during his college career. In his 2001 Heisman Trophy-winning season, Eric Crouch passed for 1,510 yards and rushed for another 1,115.
Later in the 2000s, Tim Tebow and Pat White emerged as statistically prolific dual-threats. Heisman.com writer Chris Huston wrote that Tebow's emergence in the 2007 season "marked a clear demarcation point between past and present" for college football. Tebow is widely regarded as one of, if not the best, college football quarterback of all-time. Writing for 247Sports in 2022, Brad Crawford cited Tebow as having opened the door for dual-threat QBs in college. Post-Tebow, the 2010s saw Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel, Lamar Jackson, and Kyler Murray all enjoying success as dual-threats; each quarterback passed for over 2,000 yards and rushed for over 1,000 during their Heisman Trophy-winning seasons. Robert Griffin III of Baylor and Marcus Mariota of Oregon were also noted by sports media writers for their dual-threat success. During the decade, the run-pass option, a type of option play, became widely used by college offenses. Deshaun Watson was noted as an effective player for the Clemson Tigers, who often utilized RPOs in their offensive scheme. Sportswriter and former NFL player Bucky Brooks noted Tua Tagovailoa as "an RPO master at Alabama."
File:111123 LSU Tigers vs Florida State Gators 025.jpg|thumb|Jayden Daniels of the LSU Tigers is the only college football player to pass for 350 yards and rush for 200 in the same game, doing so against the Florida Gators in 2023.
Jayden Daniels, who played college football at Arizona State and LSU, is the only player in Football Bowl Subdivision history to have 350 passing and 200 rushing yards in a game. Kansas' Jalon Daniels and Alabama's Jalen Milroe were also noted as dual-threats in the 2020s. Georgia head coach Kirby Smart commented that Milroe "is a bigger, more physical version of ." In 2023, Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian expressed difficulty with game-planning for a high-level dual-threat, as during practice "it's not like you can have a guy be a scout team quarterback that's a runner", adding that the scout player would need to "have the ability to throw it to give the defense a realistic about what they're going to be up against."
History in the NFL
Early era (1920s–1940s)
The NFL's modern era is generally thought to have begun in 1933, as a result of the NFL breaking away from college rules and the introduction of its own rule book, which included many foundational game elements. One such game feature was allowing for forward passes to be made from anywhere behind the line of scrimmage; as such, the era since 1933 has also been referred to as the "forward pass era".Prior to the advent of the modern era, many players were two-way players, as league rules prohibited most substitutions. Largely interchangeable, players would play multiple positions on offense and defense even into the early 1940s. Due to this, passers were just as, if not more, likely to run with the football than to pass. Players became more specialized in position over time, as coaches incorporated new game strategies to account for players' "unique physical attributes and skills". Run plays drove much of a team's offensive output, with running responsibilities being absorbed by halfbacks, whereas quarterbacks became distinct passers of the football.
Early history of dual-threats (1950s–70s)
In the 1950s, Tobin Rote was a rare example of a dual-threat quarterback; he led the Green Bay Packers in rushing in three seasons, and retired with 3,128 rushing yards.The next decade saw Fran Tarkenton influence the game in both passing and running aspects. Tarkenton writes, "When I began my NFL career in 1961, I was a freak. The reason was simple: I played quarterback and I ran. There were no designed runs in our playbook, but I would scramble out of the pocket when a play broke down." Tarkenton described scrambling as "not a skill set that was embraced", stating "plenty of people mocked it, and the rest wrote it off." At the time of his retirement, Tarkenton was the all-time leader in rushing yards by a quarterback, with 3,674.
Roger Staubach, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys from 1969–1979, was another early dual-threat quarterback; in 2012, Bleacher Report placed him sixth on their list of the greatest dual-threats of all time. The website noted Staubach "would run, juke, dive or underhand toss the ball in almost any situation." Greg Landry was also cited as a dual-threat during the 1970s, a decade in which "quarterbacks were predominantly drop-back passers with little mobility". Playing for the Detroit Lions in 1971, Landry became the first quarterback to pass for over 2,000 yards and rush for over 500 yards in the same season, leading Sports Illustrated to assert that Landry's ability to both pass and run with the football gave the Lions "the pro offense of the future." Landry replicated the feat in 1972. The Lions' head coach Joe Schmidt "installed option plays—the heart of the old split-T formation, the granddaddy of the Wishbone—to take advantage of Landry's running ability." This allowed Landry to run on designed plays, in contrast to the scrambling nature displayed by Tarkenton and Staubach.
Also in 1972, Chicago Bears quarterback Bobby Douglass set the single-season rushing yards record for a quarterback, logging 968 yards. Douglass, however, was not considered a good passer. His receivers complained that his arm was "too strong," and he often overthrew the ball. The Bears attempted to create unusual schemes for him before discovering his rushing ability, which led to his record-breaking 1972 season. From 1950 to 1988, Douglass' 1972 season was the only instance in which a quarterback passed 150 times and also had 100 rushing attempts within the same season.
Another rare dual-threat quarterback that emerged in the 1970s was Steve Grogan. Drafted by the New England Patriots in 1975, Grogan scored 12 rushing touchdowns in the 1976 season, a record for quarterbacks which stood for 35 years. During the 1978 season, Grogan ran for 539 yards on a team which set the NFL record for total rushing yards, which stood until the 2019 Baltimore Ravens rushing offense surpassed it. As he sustained injuries over his career, Grogan's mobility would decline and limited by these injuries, he transitioned to a more traditional pocket-passer toward the end of his career.