Long before Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow made last Sunday's play-of-the-day with another one of his ridiculously fun and unorthodox passes you just can't practice (or can you?), Ken Anderson had the "Throw of the Day," at turn-of-the-century Paycor Stadium practices.
As the Bengals all-time passing leader before he became their quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, Anderson picked up out-of-pocket tricks of the trade from two of the greatest quarterbacks coaches who ever lived in head coach Paul Brown and offensive assistant Bill Walsh.
"I would take throws from the week before that we would watch on film and make it the "Throw of the Day," Anderson says. "Sometimes you have to climb the pocket. Sometimes you have to step back. Sometimes you have to move one way or the other. It all depends on the circumstances."
Circumstances that look chaotic with 21 other men breaking down with breakneck speed. But even a circus has a script and always has.
At practice, Bill Walsh would lug out bags for his quarterbacks to step over and around before or as they threw. Fifty years later, Bengals quarterbacks coach Brad Kragthorpe uses pop-up plastic stanchions made only for simulating traffic of the passing game.
Bengals offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher, who was doing off-platform throws 30 years ago as a youth in Upstate New York football camps, surmises the reason for all the buzz is in the last decade the athleticism of quarterbacks has made the scramble drill more of a staple.
Talk to Burrow, the textbook 21st-century quarterback, and he'll tell you that's how he loves to play the game. Some of it is about getting away from pressure, but it's also about giving receivers time to get downfield or go across the field. "The way you get big plays," Pitcher says.
At his peak five decades ago, Anderson literally wrote the book "The Art of Quarterbacking." Burrow's volume may end up being titled, "Quarterbacking Improv," which is also an art.
"I'm feeling good in that department. I work it hard every week," Burrow said Sunday after another night at the improv netted the latest of his NFL-leading 30 touchdown passes. "Thursday is my day to throw on the run. Thursday is a big work day for me and that's where I feel like I get the most done. I think I've taken a big step in that department this year."
Everyone has their own views of what makes what they have given the charming name "off-platform throws." But there's no doubt if Burrow isn't the best at it nowadays, he's right there.
There are no stats for trapeze artists, at least not good ones. But Pro Football Focus gives you a pretty good idea with Burrow's numbers for "moved off spot."
That would encompass about a third of his throws with 152 dropbacks. On such throws, he's the NFL leader with 668 yards, eight touchdowns and a passer rating of 106.6. He's also third with yards per attempt and first downs, as well as fourth in completion percentage.
And one long shake of the head from his backup Jake Browning.
He pondered Sunday's four-yard-jump-shot touchdown to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase along the back line of the end zone. The one where Burrow avoided Hall-of-Fame edge T.J. Watt and jumped into defensive lineman Cam Heyward, another Hall-of-Famer, as he left his feet to float a Hall of Fame pass over the linebacker.
"The jump throw was impressive," says Browning, which is impressive itself because players are rarely impressed. "I feel like a lot of quarterbacks would have scrambled toward the sidelines when they felt the pressure. He put his foot in the ground and went directly into it."
This is what they call "going downhill," in the pocket, which Burrow loves to do and has been doing more of when Kragthorpe oversees Thursday's Moving Day during what Pitcher calls "the meatiest practice of the week."
Head coach Zac Taylor carves out about 15 to 22 minutes for Kragthorpe during the special teams period to practice with the quarterbacks what looks like you can't practice. Like any artist, though, Burrow always seems to be thinking about it and trying different avenues no matter the day or practice period.
"We do it a couple of different ways," says Kragthorpe, who says the spring and summer is when they also do heavy work on it. "Whether it's on the move, moving the pocket and re-setting as a passer maybe in an awkward position or feet alignment, and then still being able to generate a throw that has velocity and accuracy. That's the emphasis.
"Being able to throw when you're moving in the pocket or outside the pocket, being able to throw at any point in time when you need to be able to throw is really important. You might not be able to get your feet set or get the right foot in the ground when you need to throw. On those fast decisions you have to make to get the ball out of your hand, you have to be able and ready to throw the ball at any point in time. You don't always have the luxury of getting your feet set to be in the position you want to be in."
Off-platform is a big category. It can involve different arm angles. Usually, it's about throwing off the left foot and not the traditional foot, the right one. Or as Burrow showed Sunday, no feet at all.
(Take Burrow's longest throw Sunday, the 49-yarder to Chase. He climbed the pocket, giving Chase time to settle into his route over the middle, and unleashed it running off his front foot.)
Before Pitcher coached the quarterbacks the previous four seasons, he worked with quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, whose view of the improvisational throws was "Disconnected upper body from the lower body so you're off-platform. You're not going to be able to deliver the ball with the weight distribution and body position that is ideal."
Whenever Anderson thinks of off-platform throws, what comes to his mind is Joe Montana's throw to Dwight Clark that won the NFC Championship Game a few hours after Anderson thawed the Freezer Bowl during an iconic and ironic day of pro football. The Walsh-coached Montana sprinted out right, Clark broke off his route that way, and as Montana neared the sideline he twisted his body with both feet as he launched it.
"Something Joe does a good job of is trying to replicate game-type throws all through practice," Pitcher says. "There are times he'll take his drop and get to the top of his drop and deliver it on rhythm or deliver it one hitch or two hitches. But he makes sure he takes a lot of reps on the other throws. He'll do it Wednesdays, too, but not as much."
Kragthorpe says a lot of what you see on Thursdays are Burrow's own suggestions. Maybe not the particular drill itself. But a nuance to the drill, or a tweak in reaction to that week's game plan.
"Based on the protection and where it could be the most vulnerable," Pitcher says.
As always, Anderson loves watching Burrow. Off or on platform.
"Those throws seem to be about half his plays lately," Anderson says. "He's got a great feel in the pocket. Great feel for what's going on around him."
Anderson went on to coach quarterbacks at Jacksonville and Pittsburgh, where he coached one of the ultimate off-platform-extend-the-play guys in Ben Roethlisberger.
Who would you take out of pocket off the wrong foot? Joe? Or Big Ben?
"I'd have to go with Joe," Anderson says after a slight pause and chuckle.
But, no. On Thursdays, you won't see a jump pass drill.
"That's just him being the one of the best in the world at what he does," Pitcher says.
