How Important Is Quarterback Footwork?

At some point during the 2025 NFL season, it seemed like the only thing anyone was talking about was feet. Tom Brady wouldn't shut up about the feet.

A lot of it centered on younger quarterbacks with poor mechanics. Their feet were happy and Tom was sad.

J.J. McCarthy was the poster boy for it all. Ball-knowers and film-grinders diagnosed all 10 of his toes, like JP Acosta after the Vikings loss to the Bears:

"McCarthy knows where to go with the ball, but he rushes his process and dirts [the pass]. Look at his feet in the pocket; never quiet, lots of wasted motion. Like a puppy with the zoomies."

Thankfully, we don't need tape to assess the feet. They make data for the feet, too.

Sports Info Solutions charts QB footwork three different ways: Planted, Moving, and Shuffling. They also track Scrambling.

How did McCarthy's zoomies measure up around the league?

Hold up... J.J. McCarthy had quieter feet than Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, and Drake Maye?

Is it possible that QB footwork, specifically planted footwork, isn't the be-all and end-all of quarterback excellence? That statuesque Tom Brady has some sort of "look what they've done to our beautiful game"-ass bias?

Perhaps. I mean, just look at the 2025 MVP finalists:

Most Valuable Feet

Clearly, there's more than one way to make hay with your feet.

All-Pro QB Archetypes

Since 2018, there have been three dominant quarterback archetypes:

• Pocket Passers (Terrifyingly good with their arm)
• Backfield Creators (Somewhere in between)
• Dual Threats (Terrifyingly good with their legs)

The 2023-24 seasons made it seem like the Dual Threat QB had taken over the league as Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson dominated the MVP conversation — and given their similar playing styles, it made it a lot easier to compare the impact they had on their teams and the league itself.

The 2025 season was more of a throwback, in a way, as it pit the Pocket Passer vs. the new-age Backfield Creator.

Pocket Passers

Matthew Stafford's 2025 MVP season compares favorably to Jared Goff's 2024 campaign. Both executed at an extremely high level and benefited from elite playcalling that consistently kept defenses on their toes with varied tendencies:

• Under Center Rate: 50%+
• Pre-Snap Motion Rate: 60%+
• Play-Action Rate: ~20%
• Quick Game Rate: Below 50%
• Throwing Past the Sticks: 40%+

Throwing Past the Sticks

This is where Matthew Stafford truly separated himself: pushing the ball downfield more often than not; throwing past the first-down marker and putting his team in position to score damn near every time the Rams had the rock.

Not only was Stafford better than Goff at throwing past the sticks — he was better than every starting quarterback since at least 2018.

Out of 178 quarterbacks, Stafford's 2025 season ranked in the Top 5 of the following rate stats when throwing past the sticks:

• Dropbacks, Attempts, Completions, and Catchable Rate

Not just the counting stats, mind you; the rate at which he threw it past the sticks compared to every other throw he attempted.

Stafford was also nails on a per game basis, notching Top 10 marks in:

• Passing Yards, Air Yards, Intended Air Yards, and Touchdowns Per Game

While impressive enough, just stating Top 10 this or that doesn't quite hit as hard as comparing his MVP season to some of the best Pocket Passer seasons since 2018.

Throwing Past the Sticks

*IAY:* Intended Air Yards; *Bullseye Rate:* Air Yards/IAY

Overall, Tom Brady's 2021 MVP runner-up season was the closest to Stafford's 2025, at least in terms of how often the Bucs and Rams were slinging it downfield, past the sticks, while still managing to connect on roughly 50% of their shots.

Total Coincidence, I'm Sure

As has been the case for his entire career, Stafford was willing to hang in the pocket under pressure knowing full well he could—and sometimes would—get JACKED. UP.

Under Pressure
Throws Past the Sticks

Stafford was under pressure for roughly 1 out of every 4 of his pass attempts during the regular season and playoffs. When pressured, he attempted a pass 70% of the time. Somehow, just 12% of those pressures turned into sacks.

When you take all that into account and remember that Stafford spent the month of August cooling in a refrigerator to get his back ready for the season, it makes his MVP campaign all the more impressive and frankly absurd that he was able to stay upright for 20 games — almost willing the Rams to another Super Bowl.

But enough about the MVP.

Some of the other pocket passers—Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott, and Aaron Rodgers—jumped out under the statistical microscope, albeit for a different reason.

Under Pressure
Footwork

Under pressure, each had a considerably lower Planted Footwork rate (at or below 40%) and they were sacked more often than the other four pocket passers.

Were they consistently under duress because of poor offensive line play? Or maybe their receivers weren't able to get open quickly enough?

Or was it simply because they didn't want to "hang in there" and get lit up—pretty reasonable, if you ask me!—and rather, they tried keeping the play alive by shuffling around or moving outside the pocket?

Under pressure, their footwork looked less like traditional pocket passers and more like the next, modern QB archetype.

Backfield Creators

Drake Maye's 2025 season compares favorably to Russell Wilson's 2019 campaign. Both used their legs at a high rate to extend plays and dictate the tempo of games:

• Under Center Rate: ~20%
• Total Scrambles: 60-70+
• % of Scrambles with 7+ Yards to Go: ~70%
• % of Scrambles on 1st or 2nd Down: 60%+
• % of Scrambles on 3rd Down: Fewer than 20%

Drake Maye was the MVP runner-up for most of the year thanks to his feet, and he made defenders hesitate in three distinct ways:

1. Shuffling or moving around behind a spotty offensive line, using happy feet in the pocket to open throwing lanes and let the routes develop
2. Leaving the pocket, scrambling for crucial yardage to move the chains, or
3. Baiting defenders toward the line of scrimmage, threatening to run before feathering a dot right over their heads; making throws on the move.

Not since Lamar Jackson's 2023 MVP season has a quarterback been as likely to attack the defense in each of three ways.

While both Maye and Jackson attempted the majority of their passes from the pocket with planted footwork, they were the only QBs who were just as likely to scramble as they were to throw from inside or outside the pocket once they got what Tom Brady might describe as "happy feet."

But here's the thing about happy feet, Tom: They're a pain in the ass to defend.

For example, let's say the quarterback is in shotgun:

• They snap the ball, the trenches go to war, and the middle of the field opens up in front of them.
• The second-level defenders (linebackers; maybe a box safety or nickel corner) now have eyes on Drake Maye or Lamar Jackson in the backfield, as the QB surveys their options, about 1-2 seconds into the play.

Now, if Drake Maye or Lamar Jackson starts shuffling or moving around in the pocket, they're going to make those defenders hesitate — they're going to make them think.

That's the last thing defensive coaches want to see.

Hell, you hear coaches talk all the time about how they want their players to play fast, to not think. React and go:

"See ball, get ball."

That little movement in the pocket, whether or not Maye or Jackson actually takes off to run, buys their offense another second for the play to develop—for their receivers to separate or work back to the ball—and they can keep the play alive for several seconds more if they leave the pocket to force the defenders' hand.

You see what I mean? Much thinking. Every dropback. Total pain in the ass.

Drake Maye, Lamar Jackson, and other dual threats are able to gift their offenses the most valuable commodity of all: More time.

Mahomes (and Everyone Else)

• Yards Per Attempt: Scrambling yards + Passing yards (from throws on the run) divided by / (Season-long scramble attempts + Dropbacks with Moving footwork)
• Dual Threat Rate: Scrambles + Throws on the run divided by / All Dropbacks, including the playoffs (calculated through the Divisional Round)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Patrick Mahomes remains in a class of his own.

While there could be three dominant QB archetypes, in theory... in practice, it's really just Pocket Passers, Dual Threats, and Mahomes.

While some quarterbacks have produced more with less, no quarterback has been asked to do as much and delivered as often as Mahomes.

*Plays include scrambles; pass attempts from the pocket with shuffling/moving footwork (happy feet), and pass attempts outside the pocket with happy feet.*

While Sports Info Solutions has only been tracking footwork since 2018, it's fair to wonder just how closely Prime Aaron Rodgers would have stacked up with Mahomes.

Since 2018, the two dominate the charts in pass attempts per game with happy feet.

Like with pocket passers throwing past the sticks, it's instructive to drill down into the data and focus on air yards to see how QBs fare with unsettled feet.

Air Yards Threat

*Pocket Rate = Pocket Air Yards/(Pocket AY + Outside AY)*

Now, if you were preparing to face Mahomes or Rodgers during those seasons, you'd feel less confident that you could cheat toward the line of scrimmage when they got happy feet in the pocket.

Not the case for most quarterbacks. Although cherry-picking a bit, if you were in the film room during the week of prep to face Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Bo Nix, Caleb Williams, or Allen during those seasons, you might come to the conclusion that you could cheat toward the line if you saw them get happy feet in the pocket.

Of course, these are season-long stats and not every one of their passes were dump-offs behind the line of scrimmage, but having such a low Air Yard total from inside the pocket indicates a schematic (and/or player) tendency to take the check down when they start moving/shuffling in the pocket.

It could be one of the biggest indicators in separating the true backfield creators from dual threats in seasons to come.

TLDR