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Phil Simms Is A Dastardly Andrew Luck Nonbeliever

Earlier today, radio host Adam Schein talked to NFL analyst and former quarterback Phil Simms. Apparently, they got around to talking about Stanford quarterback/No. 1 2012 NFL Draft pick/zenith of human evolution Andrew Luck, and Schein shared Simms’ juiciest quote in the above tweet (linked here). And…it is a pretty juicy quote, actually – so universal, so glowing is the praise heaped upon Luck that anything else seems downright heretical.

And, well, at times when you watch Stanford this year, it does seem like nothing is ever difficult. Up until this past Saturday, they hadn’t played a close game. He hasn’t done a ton of long downfield throwing this year, in large part because he has so many good tight ends at his disposal who can move the chains with shorter passes (also, Luck doesn’t have the world’s strongest arm, which, if you’re reaching for a negative aspect to his game, might be about as well as you can do). Indeed, looking at his stats this year, there are a few games where he didn’t average terribly many yards per completion.

If one the one hand it’s tempting to play devil’s advocate and see where Simms is coming from, though, on another – do you really not see any big-time NFL throws when you watch this? What about Luck’s perfect downfield strike against USC on Saturday? Sure, it was on a gadget play, but a perfect deep ball’s a perfect deep ball, and Luck showed he can deliver one. Factor in the mobility, the way Luck is in complete control of Stanford’s offense, and it gets a lot harder to think that when you think Simms sounds crazy for saying something like this, it’s because…it’s actually crazy.