38 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
many times that you know how the rabbit is hidden but
you can’t help but still be enthralled by the sleight of hand.
“A lot of it was out of necessity,” Rodgers says on a
weeknight drive home from the Packers’ practice facility.
“I’ve had a bad knee for 17, 18 years of my life, and it’s
forced me to do certain things to offset the pressure on
that knee and figure out ways to throw that were pain-free.
“The other part of it was just figuring out how to get
ground force when throwing,” he adds, referring to how
the Foot Pop launches his throwing motion and allows him
to rotate his core faster and farther through his delivery.
“And being able to throw from different platforms and
weight distributions. [It allows] me to put my hodgepodge
of arm angles and weight distribution throws into one
and be able to throw from really any platform.”
Rodgers says he often daydreams about adaptations he
can make to his mechanics. Sometimes, he finds himself
conjuring tweaks while rewatching episodes of The Office,
his favorite show.
Will Hewlett, a private quarterback instructor for the
football think tank QB Collective as well as a personal
coach for Saints rookie Ian Book and Oklahoma star
freshman Caleb Williams, popularized the Foot Pop on
social media. He tracked the move as it spread f irst downGreen Bay’s depth chart and then through all levels of
football and now teaches it to his clients, some of whom
have yet to reach high school.
“[Team coaches] were like, ‘Knock that crap off,’ ”
Hewlett says. “[I] can’t just say, ‘Well, Aaron Rodgers does
it,’ because a coach will say, ‘[He’s] not Aaron Rodgers.’
But how are we going to get another Aaron Rodgers if we
don’t let these kids figure this stuff out?”
Those who believe that the recent retirements of Peyton
and Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Drew Brees, plus the
imminent departures of Ben Roethlisberger and (maybe,
someday) Tom Brady, signal the end of a golden age are
missing the almost numbing regularity with which we
are seeing better—and far more mind-blowing—throws
on NFL Sundays (not to mention college Saturdays and
high school Fridays). With the interception rate plum-
meting, the chance of a turnover on a pass is about the
same as a fumble on a run play. The average leaguewide
passer rating is about 20% higher than it was in the early2000s. And the Foot Pop, along with other idiosyncrasies,
has gained acceptance. There are now rigorous rehears-
als (and a better understanding) of off-platform throws,
when a quarterback must move away from the designed
launch point of a given play. Those kinds of unstructured
moments were once stamped out of a passer by his position
coach; now, they could be saving the quarterback species
one lifted toe and sidearm sling at a time.
A small sampling from just the first month of the
NFL season:›
The Cardinals’ Kyler Murray, against the Titans, rolls to
his right to evade charging pass rusher Harold Landry
and splays both of his legs in the air like a shortstop mak-
ing a throw from the hole to first base. To generate power
while aloft, the top half of Murray’s torso twitches as if it
were a rotating sprinkler head. His throw traces a path
reminiscent of a screwball’s, zipping just beyond a defender
and into the outstretched hands of DeAndre Hopkins,
meeting the star receiver in stride in the back of the
end zone.›
Lamar Jackson of the Ravens takes a shotgun snap
on a third-and-4 and immediately steps up into a
crowded pocket to avoid Chiefs pass rusher Chris Jones,
crashing from the offense’s right side. Jackson sees anopen wide receiver but, unable to stride forward in this
platform, instead jumps, putting his left hand on the back
of an offensive lineman for support, and hooks his throw-
ing arm as if he’s launching a discus. Marquise Brown
catches the ball 25 yards down field and trots in for a
42-yard touchdown.›
Patrick Mahomes, facing the Browns, sprints toward
the right sideline, his back, right foot stepping on his
own 20-yard line. With his left leg elevated, the violence
of his throwing motion torques his head so that, just
after the release, he’s looking over his left shoulder. The
ball travels 50 yards to the Browns’ 30 and into the arms
of Tyreek Hill, who runs the rest of the way for a score.
These throws, cultivated on practice fields, tell the story
of a gridiron “cultural evolution,” a term scientists use
to describe a change that is not genetic in nature but a
learned adaptation acquired from other members of the
species. Evolutionary experts are just now discovering
how various species can adapt and change faster thanQBEVOLUTION“COACHES WERE LIKE, ‘KNOCK THAT CR AP OFF...
SAYS HEWLETT. “BUT HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET
ANOTHER A ARON RODGERS IF WE DON’T LET THESE KIDS
FIGURE THIS STUFF OUT?”ILL
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