Clemson’s Woody Dantzler was Ahead of his Time: A Very Serious Proof

Clemson football QB Woody Dantzler played in an era that devalued the system he played in and had little faith in players his height. Would he work today?

Woodrow Dantzler III was starting quarterback for Clemson from 1999 through 2001.  Those were ancient days, when you had to “run to set up the pass,” and the shoulder pads were as big as your dreams.  He was the first quarterback in D-I football to pass for 2,000 yards and run for 1,000 yards in the same season.  He was also the first Clemson player to steal my heart.

I was listening to an episode of The Ringer NFL Show where Kevin Clark and Robert Mays were interviewing the media-world’s greatest quarterback film analyst Dan Orlovsky.  And look, if you haven’t seen Orlovsky break down quarterback play, do yourself a favor and check out his Twitter.  Here he is breaking down the dude Trevor:

What Romo is to calling games, Orlovsky is to breaking down tape.  But I digress.

The podcast was talking about the ins-and-outs of playing quarterback in the modern game, and they got to an interesting question.  Which quarterback in the past would you liked to have seen play in today’s game?  Orlovsky said Michael Vick, which definitely would have been fun, since Vick is what happens when a laser gun runs a 4.33 40.  It was a fun conversation and a thought experiment that got me thinking.  How would Woody Dantzler have fared in today’s game?

To answer this, we need to look at what disqualified him as a passer in the early 2000’s and would that still keep him out today.  Despite scouring the internet (one Google search), I was not able to find a scouting report on Dantzler coming out of Clemson, so I had to take a stab at it myself watching old YouTube clips and guessing what might turn an NFL scout off.

Let’s start by jumping in the YouTube Wayback Machine.

I watched what games I could find on YouTube to check and see what I could glean from them.  First, it feels like these games were played just after we drew the 38th parallel they look so old.  There are games from Dantzler’s junior and senior seasons available, including one where he goes head-to-head with Vick and Virginia Tech in the 2001 Gator Bowl.

(It was ugly)

(Clemson got worked)

(These were different times)

What can we say about football when Dantzler was playing?  It was…different.  Nebraska, whose quarterback Eric Crouch won the Heisman in 2001, was still running the triple option.  David Carr, who had yet to be sacked into oblivion behind a porous Texans o-line, led the NCAA in passing.

In the NFL, offenses were still conservative by today’s standards, and if you were a quarterback who didn’t meet certain benchmarks for size, you were probably going to have trouble getting looks.  Thus was the problem with Eric Crouch, who despite winning the Heisman was drafted as a wide receiver.  And he was 6 feet tall.  That’s strike one for our guy Woody who stood at 5’10”.

The spread offense was still in its infancy.  Clemson ran a version of Rich Rodriguez’s offense that called on the quarterback to run the ball often, but also throw more than the traditional option offenses.  The knock on quarterbacks like Dantzler, Crouch, and Indiana’s Antwaan Randle-El was that they were run-first quarterbacks who would not be able to succeed in the NFL.  So if I had to guess, that’s the second issue scouts took with Dantzler.  Looking at what tape I was able to find on YouTube, Clemson’s offense had Dantzler roll to one side or another and throw or tuck the ball and run.  From what I understand, rollouts can help simplify reads for quarterbacks.  There is less field to see, which means fewer progressions to run through.  Is that a knock on Dantzler or a design of the offense?  It’s hard for me to say.

What about his production?  Here is where it gets a little tricky.  In his senior season, Dantzler ranked 39th in passing yards and 43rd rushing yards which combined made him 8th in total yards, ahead of Crouch and Randle-El, both of whom were drafted.  Hitting 2,000 yards passing is something number 1 over-all pick the year prior Michael Vick never accomplished.

Furthermore, Dantzler hit a few important benchmarks for success as a quarterback in the NFL: he completed more than 60 percent of his passes in his senior year, and he started two full seasons and most of a third season.

Vick didn’t do either of those things.

However, if you can stomach watching the 2001 Gator Bowl, you can tell that Vick is not human.  Using conventional stats to measure him is like measuring the distance from the earth to the moon in ducks.  I mean yeah, you can get an idea, but it isn’t that helpful.  What we can say is that Dantzler’s production was better than that of his peers who got serious looks in the NFL draft, one at quarterback and the others at wide receiver.

Which raises the final issue: what does he look like throwing the ball?  I’ve read Steve Belichick’s book on scouting.  I’ve analyzed a few of Dantzler’s games.  And I’ve watched a lot of football in my life, so believe me when I say this: I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a respectable judge of quarterback mechanics.  Everything I’m about to tell you should be taken with a grain of salt.  But I’d say Dantzler’s mechanics were…fine?  His upper and lower body weren’t always in sync and he could have somewhat of a looping throwing motion, although it looks like he got better his senior year.  I’d put him above Tebow for sure.  Like, way above.  Like Brad Pitt describing the A’s in Money Ball above.  He seemed to be fairly accurate throwing the ball downfield, but he wasn’t asked to do that too often.  It also seemed like a lot of his balls were tipped (probably due to his height).

So that’s probably why he didn’t get a shot.  He was shorter than quarterbacks “should be.”  He was fast, but not Vick fast.  He came from a program that let him run a lot, which probably got him labeled a run first quarterback and discounted his overall production as being a product of system.

Now, what has happened in the intervening years that might have changed this?

Absolutely everything.

The first big shift was the wildcat’s moment that prompted Miami to draft Pat White.  White and Dantzler both played in Rich Rod’s system, only Dantzler was better at it during a time when it was harder to play quarterback.  Seriously.  Check the stats.

So would Dantzler have been successful as Miami’s wildcat quarterback?  LOL no.  Nobody can succeed in the wildcat.  BUT the sort of positional flexibility is something that is becoming increasingly valuable in the NFL.

A seismic, and apparently lasting, shift has been the NFL’s adoption of spread offense concepts, requiring simpler defensive looks.  Run-pass options are best defended by man coverages which can leave defenses exposed to running quarterbacks and might be easier to read.  Which brings us to Dak Prescott.  He comes from a spread system, and he looks like he’s much better against man than zone.  At Mississippi State, Prescott had a cleaner release, but he also looked to have some accuracy issues at times.  In their senior seasons, Dantzler and Prescott were similarly ranked in terms of completion percentages too.  Dantzler was 20th.  Prescott was 16th.

There is also Russell Wilson (shouts RVA) who is the closest established quarterback, in terms of build, to Dantzler.  Wilson is 5’11, while Dantzler is 5’10”.  Both players are mobile, and Wilson didn’t crack the 60 percent completion barrier until his senior year when he went from Russell Wilson to RUSSELL WILSON at some Midwestern school.  dangeRuss Wilson is a different beast all together, but he did show that guys under 6 feet tall can get it done.

Innovative offenses are also valuing multidimensional players more and more.  Look at was the Saints are doing with Taysom Hill.  The dude does just about everything for the Saints and can still chuck the ball around.  Granted, Dantzler is 5 inches shorter than Hill and a few pounds lighter, but his versatility was definitely there.

Which brings us to size.  Dantzler is small for a quarterback.  And as I wrote above, it might have led to some of his passes being tipped.  But you know who else is small?  Kyler “First Overall” Murray, that’s who.  And you know what’s happening in the NFL?  An offensive revolution that requires defenses to play more man coverage and simplify looks.  It’s no longer a knock on a player to say that he came from a spread system.  It’s everywhere.

Does all of that mean that Woody Dantzler would have been a Hall of Famer if he were coming out of college now?  Probably not.  But I do think that a creative offensive coordinator could have put him to better use than kick returner, filling a Taysom Hill-esque roll, assuming Dantzler was willing to do it all.

HOWEVER, since this is a Clemson blog, I’m putting my thumb on the scale.  Weighing the above evidence, I can conclude the following:

1. Kyler Murray is a mobile quarterback.
2. Dantzler was a mobile quarterback.
3. Murray played in a spread system.
4. Dantzler played in a spread system.
5. Murray is 5’10”.
6. Danztler is 5’10”.

THEREFORE, Woody Dantzler would have gone number 1 overall in 2019 and would probably already have a yogurt deal.  QED.