The Peninsula District in Upper Hampton Roads is widely recognized as one of
the most talent-rich football areas in the country, but in the last few years
the area has become best known for producing blue-chip quarterbacks. The
Hampton/Newport News area has produced such notable quarterback prospects as
Michael and Marcus Vick, Ronald Curry, Aaron Brooks, Allen Iverson, Aaron
Sparrow, and several more. This year the district has another highly touted
quarterback in Hampton High School’s Tyrod Taylor. Let’s take a closer look
at Taylor and see how he compares with some of the notable quarterbacks from the
area.

Will Tyrod Taylor be the next Michael Vick or will he be a disappointment
like Aaron Sparrow? Quarterback is probably the most difficult position to
project from high school to college (as well as college to the NFL) because of
the wide variety of skills required for the position. A deficiency in any
required skill can prevent a quarterback from succeeding at the next level. In
this article I will take a closer look at Tyrod Taylor’s potential and compare
his talent to the three most recent quarterback sensations from the area –
Ronald Curry and the Vick brothers – to give fans a relative idea of his skill
level.

I will look at eight distinct areas in my evaluation ranging from his passing
skills to his ability to manage the game. I will break down his physical passing
skills, such as (1) Arm Strength; (2) Release; and (3) Footwork, as well as his
(4) Natural Passing Ability. Also, I will examine his (5) Overall Athletic
Talent and (6) Natural Running Ability as well as look at non-physical
attributes, such as (7) Game Management Skills and (8) Intangibles. Many scouts
will obsess over the physical traits of a quarterback prospect, but I believe
that the intangible characteristics, such as leadership, poise, and maturity, as
well as the game management skills can be more important than all of the natural
physical skills, so I would stress that these categories are not evenly
weighted. Instead, I would look at each category as a potential limitation that
may prevent success at the next level. For example, if a quarterback lacks arm
strength, then the playbook will have to be reduced to account for this
deficiency, thus limiting the quarterback’s potential for success.

...