Tall tale: Story of short NFL QBs is, well, short
Ty Detmer heard the grumblings from pro scouts openly questioning his ability, even while he shredded the college football passing record books with relative ease.
The list of accolades for Detmer coming out of college was stunning: Heisman Trophy winner at BYU; two-time Davey O'Brien Award winner for nation's best quarterback; owner of 59 NCAA passing records.
Yet when Detmer prepared for the 1992 NFL draft, he heard the same refrain. At 6 feet tall, Detmer was not tall enough, scouts said. He was too much of a liability and not durable enough to hold up in the league.
Detmer wasn't drafted until the ninth round by the Green Bay Packers. Sixteen quarterbacks went higher than him — 11 didn't last as long in the NFL as Detmer.
"Back when I was coming out, everybody wanted the 6-4 and 6-5 guy," said Detmer, who played eight seasons in the NFL. "At the end of the day, can you run the offense? Can you get first downs? Can you throw it in the right place? To me, the height is all overrated."
In the 20 years since Detmer dropped down the draft board, little has changed when it comes to preconceived notions about height at the quarterback position.
Last month, former University of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson became the latest player whose ability was questioned strictly because of his height.
Wilson passed for 11,720 yards, 109 touchdowns and just 29 interceptions while learning two entirely different offensive systems at two schools in his college career. He's also listed at 5-11, rounded up from his NFL Combine height of 5-10 5/8.
Though the Seattle Seahawks took Wilson in the third round of the NFL draft, some teams didn't place him anywhere on their draft board — there were 253 total picks. Yet if Wilson were a few inches taller, many pundits suggested he would have been a first-round selection.
The odds certainly are stacked against Wilson. Since 1952, only two quarterbacks as short or shorter than Wilson have excelled in the NFL: Eddie LeBaron, a 5-7 quarterback who played in Washington and Dallas from 1952-63; and Doug Flutie, the 5-9 3/4-inch sparkplug who played for four NFL teams between 1986 and 2005.
Last season, 29 of the 32 quarterbacks who started the majority of games for each franchise in the NFL were 6-2 or taller. The average height and weight among 55 quarterbacks to start at least one game last season was 6-3, 224 pounds.
The question, though, isn't why so few short quarterbacks succeed in the NFL. It's why so few teams provide short quarterbacks an opportunity to succeed.
"If you're 6-feet tall and throw the ball well at the college level or you're 6-foot-3 and throw the ball OK, the 6-3 guy is probably going to get the nod," said former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, the NFL MVP in 1983 and a 6-footer. "It's more perception. We're driven in society by what so often we think works."
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"I say he's a test case. You're talking about Russell Wilson in the NFL, he'll get a chance to be a starting quarterback. If he can't get it done, for the next 10 years, I don't want to hear anything about any quarterbacks under 6 feet, in that 5-11 range. If this kid can't make it, nobody can at that particular height." – NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper on draft night
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What is the negative perception of short quarterbacks in the NFL, anyway? Why are so many teams adamant about avoiding them at all costs?
According to former NFL quarterback Rick Mirer, they can't see over the line of scrimmage with massive linemen in the way. The average tackle, guard or center in the NFL in 2011 was 6-foot-5 and 310 pounds.
Therefore, the notion is that short quarterbacks are more likely to have balls batted down at the line of scrimmage or incomplete passes. In turn, an entire offense would have to be redesigned for a short quarterback to roll out of the pocket.
The 6-3 Mirer was selected by the Seahawks with the second overall pick in the 1993 draft. Last month, Wilson became the highest quarterback drafted by Seattle since Mirer.
"You don't need to see over the top of the tackle, but you need to see over the top of his shoulder pad," Mirer said. "You don't get the clearest picture all the time. You're seeing glimpses of where the defense is. If you're four inches shorter than the average height, that's a disadvantage.
"You can make up for it in other ways. But there isn't a long list of guys that height that get away with it."
Detmer has heard the talk for years about short quarterbacks and their inability to throw over the line of scrimmage. His retort?
Even the tall quarterbacks can't actually see over the line of scrimmage with a defensive lineman holding his hands up while barreling up the middle. To succeed, a quarterback must instead throw though lanes on the field, regardless of height.
"No quarterback that's 6-4 is going to throw over a 7-footer with his hands up, and then he jumps," Detmer said. "They always talk about batted balls and all these things. Even the tallest guys, Tom Brady gets the ball batted down regularly because of the types of routes they throw. When the lineman doesn't get a rush, they're told to stay there and get their hands up to try to knock it down."
Wilson had just two balls batted down at the line of scrimmage last season while playing behind an offensive line at Wisconsin that averaged 6-5, 322 pounds — the fifth-heaviest line in professional or college football. His success is predicated on having an over-the-top delivery, a high release point and a strong arm, which are three essential aspects to overcoming the short quarterback stigma in the NFL.
Wilson himself has attempted to put the notion that he's too short to bed for quite some time.
"My height's not a factor," Wilson said after his pro day at Wisconsin in March. "I played this way my whole life. The key is finding lanes and delivering the ball on time. There's not that much of a difference if I was 6-1 or 5-11, to be honest. Playing behind the offensive line you play behind, you don't really see over guys, you throw through lanes, deliver an accurate ball, throw the ball with arc and pace and just make plays."
Former NFL quarterback Jake Plummer said he watched Wilson play several games at Wisconsin last year. He saw all the characteristics necessary for Wilson to succeed at the next level and doesn't understand the fuss over a couple of inches.
"I wouldn't even have checked his height," Plummer said. "I would have said, ‘This dude can ball. I like him.' I wouldn't have cared. I think it's bulls***, really. If a guy can win and can play, why wouldn't you give him a chance?"
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Fear of failure as a scout or coach is perhaps the biggest deterrent to selecting a shorter quarterback.
Last season, Seneca Wallace, at 5-11 3/8, was the shortest quarterback on an NFL roster. He started three games for the Cleveland Browns.
Only five of the 55 quarterbacks to start a game were listed as being shorter than 6-2: Tyler Palko (Kansas City, 6-1), Rex Grossman (Washington, 6-1), Michael Vick (Philadelphia, 6-0), Drew Brees (New Orleans, 6-0) and Wallace.
Fifteen quarterbacks who started were at least 6-5.
Brees certainly has done a lot to debunk the notion that short quarterbacks can't excel in the NFL. He set the single-season passing record last season by amassing 5,476 yards through the air.
But for every Drew Brees, there are more Joe Hamiltons. Hamilton was a 5-10 quarterback chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round of the 2000 NFL draft. In three years with the team, he played only four downs of regular-season football.
"As a scout, if you're putting your neck on the line for a guy that's 5-11 and he doesn't pan out, people are going to look at you and say, ‘You're an idiot. That guy was only 5-11.' " Detmer said. "But if you put your neck on the line for a guy like JaMarcus Russell, 6-6, and he doesn't make it, it's JaMarcus Russell's fault. ‘He had everything. It's not my fault. He had everything, and he just didn't do the work.' "
Mirer said it takes courage for a team to be willing to stand up to conventional wisdom and risk falling flat on its face.
"If you go out of the box a little bit," Mirer said, "and take a guy and it doesn't work out, it's always going to be, ‘Well, what were you doing? There was a kid that was 6-3.' "
Dan Reeves, who coached the Atlanta Falcons when the team selected Vick with the first pick of the 2001 NFL draft, said his team maintained a list of "minimums" for each prospect. If a quarterback, for example, was shorter than Atlanta's desired height, scouts and coaches marked it against the player but also weighed his overall talent level.
"Sometimes you say, ‘OK, 6-3 is what we want as a minimum for a quarterback,' " Reeves said. "But when you have a guy like Mike Vick come in, you say, ‘We need to look at that because this guy came in and played great. Let's lower that minimum.'
"That was huge for us. If it wasn't for Mike Vick's ability to make plays with his feet, we would have had a tougher time taking him."
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During his first participation as an NFL player, Wilson fared particularly well at Seattle's three-day rookie minicamp earlier this month. Head coach Pete Carroll even said Wilson would contend for the starting quarterback job with big-money offseason pickup Matt Flynn and Tarvaris Jackson.
Theismann recognizes the obvious challenges that lay ahead for Wilson.
"If you're under 6 feet right now, you're fighting an uphill battle," Theismann said. "It's the nature of the animal. The preconceived notion is you're going to struggle."
If Wilson ultimately fails, perhaps we won't see another argument about short quarterbacks for the next decade, as Mel Kiper suggests.
But if Wilson succeeds and breaks the mold, will it create an opening in the future for shorter quarterbacks?
"If people see someone have success, and Russell does, he's going to open the door for some other guys," Reeves said. "You want everybody to be faster, bigger, and stronger — whatever the position. But to me, it comes back to the talent. You'd better not pass up talent or you're going to get beat."
Of course, the notion that a short quarterback's NFL success can alter the pro football landscape has been suggested before.
In 1996, Detmer posted a 7-4 record as the Philadelphia Eagles starting quarterback and guided the team to the NFC playoffs after filling in for the injured Rodney Peete.
On Dec. 27, 1996, the Philadelphia Daily News ran an article with the headline: "Ty Detmer's Success May Open Doors For Other Short QBs."
Two decades later, the NFL discourse has hardly changed.
"For some reason, Mel Kiper will always have a job to sit there on TV and talk about short quarterbacks," Detmer said. "This whole thing has been going on for years. It's been 20 years since I came out in the draft, and it's still going on and always will. That'll never change. It's still all about protecting your backside as an organization."