By now, I’m sure you’ve heard every good thing there is to hear about Andrew Luck. After all, his visage is constantly stamped all over ESPN and the cover of this paper.

But there are still some folks out there who aren’t sold on the Luck’s abilities as a quarterback, and count CBS sports NFL analyst Phil Simms among the skeptics.

On Tuesday, Simms went on Sirius NFL Radio to talk about all the hype surrounding Luck, and he shared a few eyebrow-raising opinions.

“I think the hype is a little too much,” Simms said. “I feel bad for [Luck] in that respect. I mean, what’s he going to do to match what they say he can do? There’s a lot to him. I think his best quality, by far, is he’s big and strong and he’s going to be able to move and run in the NFL. There’s no question.”

Here, I see what Phil’s trying to say. Because Luck constantly impresses with not only his physical but also his mental attributes, it’s easy to fall deeply in love with the way he plays football. But perhaps it’s not fair to him to hype him up so much.

But then Simms went right ahead and jumped the shark.

“But the one thing I don’t see, I just don’t see big-time NFL throws,” Simms continued. “I don’t care what anybody says. I’ve watched a lot of him. He never takes it and rips it in there. And you can say what you want, but man, you’ve got to be able to crease that ball every once in a while…There’s not a lot of rotation on the ball, and there’s not a tremendous amount of power.”

(Imagine the sound of a record screeching to a halt.)

Uh, what?

I think anyone who has watched Luck’s highlight tape has seen a few passes that would suggest he can make “big-time NFL throws,” unless Phil is referring to some sort of secret metric that only he, Todd McShay and Mel Kiper, Jr. understand.

But Phil, like anybody who watches football, knows that arm strength isn’t everything. He continued on, saying, “Not that you need to have that power arm. I’m not saying you’ve got to have that exclusively, but man, it sure helps when you can do that because there’s four or five plays a game it is about arm strength.”

Okay, sure. In fact, I don’t necessarily disagree with Simms to a certain point. I think it’s true that Luck’s arm is not as strong as NFL stars like Jeff George, Jay Cutler, Matt Stafford, Ryan Mallett or JaMarcus Russell. But while Luck’s arm might not be “John-Elway-with-a-Nerf-Vortex football” strong, it’s certainly strong enough to make “big-time NFL throws.”

Observe him throwing a perfect 62-yard bomb against USC last week on a reverse pass to Ty Montgomery or throwing a ball 50 yards in the air while falling down against Arizona State last year, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Additionally, I think a lot of his arm strength is masked by the fact that he doesn’t throw many passes further than 30 yards because of the run-heavy, West-Coast offense he leads so well.

And while Luck’s arm is plenty strong, I also think the fact that he might not have an absurdly powerful arm is actually a good thing.

On the NFL level, some of the greatest quarterbacks in history have had howitzers for arms. Dan Marino, John Elway and Brett Favre all could throw it so hard that they would break receivers’ fingers with their passes. But all three of them were also prone to relying on their potent arm strength too often–a fact that is particularly true in Favre’s case.

Guys who have those incredibly strong arms often think they can zip a ball into every window (most of the time, it’s because they can), but the effects of that can be disastrous. Favre’s arm strength is exactly the reason why he’s the NFL’s all-time record-holder for both touchdowns and interceptions. For every touchdown pass that he rifled past a middle linebacker and a defensive back into a 6-inch window for a scoring strike, he also threw a missile that hit a defender right between the numbers on his jersey for an easy pick.

Conversely, Luck knows his own strength so well that he doesn’t try to wing passes late over the middle into double coverage. Instead, he’ll check down to a tight end or running back or even (gasp!) anticipate whom the open receiver will be based on his superb ability to read a defense before the ball is snapped.

So don’t get too upset at Phil, Stanford fans and Luck supporters–his criticisms are about as valid as, “You bob for apples in the toilet…and you like it!”

But just because Andrew Luck’s right arm might not be borrowed from Superman doesn’t mean he won’t be successful at the next level. After all, some quarterbacks with less-than-stellar arms have led their teams to multiple Super Bowl victories–quarterbacks like Phil Simms.

And I have a feeling that, unlike Simms, Luck’s name won’t be booed on draft day.

 

Something about Jack Blanchat’s sunny disposition and effervescent smile makes Clemson fans’ blood boil. When Phil Simms gets a hold of this column, Jack will also be seeking protection from the boys at Morehead State. To suggest a new identity for Jack, email him at blanchat “at” stanford.edu or follow him on Twitter @jmblanchat.