Quote Originally Posted by pbmax View Post
Yes but he falls into the category of all the older players and also includes Steve Young. No one, after seeing them run, wanted a running QB in the modern NFL passing era. I don't think Cunningham was the fastest guy on the field, but he was faster than other QBs and players his size. He was big and played a little Rothliesberger ball while he was waiting to throw.

But mainly, no one copied the Philly offense and Cunningham approach. And the 49ers wanted Young to stop scrambling and sit in the pocket and go through his progressions.

I would say Vick was more an intermediary step than revolutionary. He was a more skilled passer than Cunningham, whose main talent aside from his legs was a huge arm. Reid wanted to adapt his offense to him and so did Chip Kelly until he was injured. And Dan Reeves developed a Vick friendly system, though it was highly controlled. Those were the first occasions in the modern era that an offense was fundamentally altered for a QB who wanted to run as much as pass.

And that is the legacy he could argue he passes on to CK, Newton and Wilson.
Cunningham was very fast. Per an article I saw today, he claims to have run a 4.29 in the 40 once, and was actually timed at 4.4, which is impressive since QBs did not work out for running speed and quickness like they do today. In his prime Vick was certainly faster and quicker than Cunningham ever was, but Cunningham was pretty impressive for his time.

I don't agree that Vick was a more skilled passer. Going on memory yesterday, I would have said Cunningham was the better passer; but after looking at their career stats, they are remarkably similar in completion %, int. %, avg/comp., QB rating, etc. Even their best seasons stats for passing are quite similar.

Vick may have taken the concept of a running QB to a more productive level, but he was by no means the originator of the concept.

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