The transition from playing in a spread offense to playing in Mike Martz’s offense for the Bears will be anything but a snap for Dan LeFevour.
At Central Michigan, the few snaps LeFevour took under center were on kneel-downs or quarterback keepers. The last time LeFevour was a dropback quarterback was when he played at Benet Academy in Lisle.
In the Bears offense, LeFevour will be taking almost all of his snaps under center. Martz never has been a proponent of the shotgun.
Martz and Bears quarterbacks coach Shane Day have been spending extra time going over the mechanics of the dropback with the Bears’ sixth-round draft pick during rookie minicamp this weekend.
He has been working on lining up under center since the Chippewas’ season ended. His agent Pat Dye hooked him up with former Bears quarterback and offensive coordinator Zeke Bratkowski and LeFevour worked on his mechanics with Bratkowski for nearly two months before the combine.
“I learned a lot from him, but obviously I have a lot more to learn,” LeFevour said Saturday. “I’ve learned a lot in two days with coach Martz and coach Day. You feel like a freshman again.”
Taking a center snap in the NFL appears a lot easier than it is.
“They have to learn to get away from the center, seeing the defense under a tempo,” Martz said. “The most challenging part is the footwork. Everything happens faster.”
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound LeFevour has been drilled on getting the correct depth on his drops, moving his feet in proper sequence, having his shoulders at the right tilt and keeping his weight under him. If that isn’t enough, he also has to worry about surveying the field while he’s doing it and being prepared to throw as soon as he completes his dropback.
It’s easier to do it correctly when it’s just him and the snapper in their own little world.
“As soon as you go to seven-on-seven, your mechanics go out the window,” he said. “I have to take my time until they become ingrained in mind and I don’t have to think about them.”
LeFevour is part of a new wave of quarterbacks coming into the league who have little to no experience in a conventional NFL offense. In this draft alone, the spread quarterbacks included LeFevour, Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy and Tony Pike. At the Senior Bowl, LeFevour and Pike traded notes on playing under center while working with coaches from the Lions staff.
Many of the college spread quarterbacks end up with a passing yardage number that seems to have nearly as many commas as the national debt. That production can be misleading to NFL talent evaluators because much of it came on short, easy throws NFL quarterbacks don’t get to make often.
It’s why many great college spread quarterbacks (Troy Smith of Ohio State, Colt Brennan of Hawaii and Graham Harrell of Texas Tech, for instance) have not been nearly as successful in the NFL. Of course, one of the reasons college coaches like the spread is they can run it effectively with a quarterback who doesn’t have Troy Aikman skills.
Many scouts have questioned LeFevour’s arm strength — but he appears to have a better arm than many spread quarterbacks who have struggled in the NFL.
Physical ability is a much more accurate indicator of a spread quarterback’s ability to transition to the NFL than production. Vince Young, a college spread quarterback at Texas, has been to two Pro Bowls for the Titans in part because he has the skills to succeed in any system.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy says you have to look at the players skills, not the scheme.
“You can get in trouble when you spend too much time (talking down) these prospects when it has to do with (the spread),” McCarthy said. “You have to look at how they were used, what their responsibilities were and stay true to evaluating their skill set.”
Aside from arm strength, what LeFevour has that should translate well to the NFL is size, athleticism, mobility and a feel for the game.
If he can just find away to get from Olin Kreutz to five yards deep, there is no telling how far he can go.