kordell stewart/Colin Kapernick

I've been watching Colin Kapernick for the past 1.5 seasons and wonder how Kordell Stewart would have done if they tried to work with his strength (run with the football) instead of making him into a pure pocket passer. Kapernick has NOT won a super bowl yet, but he is so exciting running the football and is having so much success. I would have loved to have seen Kordell run the offence like the 49ers did.

 

I had similar thoughts as I watched him scramble and take off like Kordell used to - not unlike a blend of Ben and Kordell's good moments. Unfortunately Kapernick also had a few regrettable "Romanowski" moments as well.

 

Kordell should have been a WR in the NFL. He would have been a beast!

 

kevin Gilbride ruined Kordell.

Kordell was everything these guys like Kapernick, RG111, Wilson are now, but 15 years ago. he was ahead of his time and most oc didnt know what to do with a qb like that. heck most oc still dont know how to handle qbs that can run.

all i know is in 1997 Kordell had 21 td passes and 11 td runs. then Gilbride came in and changed his game and the rest is history.

 

Bingo. People were so stuck to their rigid beliefs (QBs shouldn't run / a QB can run but then he's not a real QB / I'm not so sure about this black guy / We'll get on board when he can win the same way Dan Marino wins, and until then he's a sideshow), that they sacrificed winning. Can you imagine if they'd tailored the offense to Kordell's game the same way that offenses tailor around their QBs today? The dude was built like a running back and was the quickest, fastest player on the field. And for all his imperfections as a passer, he was still good enough to win games despite being a square peg in a round hole. With a weapon like that plus Jerome Bettis, a decent offensive line, and a good defense, how do you not win a Super Bowl? It's a disgrace to the team and coaching staff that the Steelers didn't win a Super Bowl with Stewart.

On second thought (and this is really sad), the Steelers were hailed as open-minded and forward-thinking just for drafting, playing, and starting Kordell, however they misused him. Perhaps the bigger disgrace is on the league as a whole for being so ancient-minded. If they weren't so pathetic, maybe the Steelers (and Stewart himself) would have been a little more brave and used the outstanding tools they had instead of swinging invisible ones.

 

well the rules are a little different now. did kordell not play when you could still hit the qb? I mean even if they slid I think you could still hit them. if he played now no doubt he would be fine. I still think kapernick is overrated

 

actually, it wasn't gillbride, think it was ray sherman who became the OC after chan gailey left the team. cowher was so frustrated with sherman that cowher took over the play calling and fired him after just one season. i just remember that 1998 season was so frustrating after a successful 1997 season.

 

Kordell was not a great QB, he was on a great team though that made him look good. He had the best running game in the league, making it easy to run play action.

His accuracy throwing was not very good. He could only hit a guy if the guy was wide open. He was slow progressing through his reads.

I agree, he should have picked a different position and he would have had a long successful career.

Yeah he could have ran more an been more like Mike Vick or RG3, but look at those guys, injury history plagues both of them. Would it really be different if they let him do the same?

Kapernick and RG3 are both more accurate and more consistent than Kordell was.

 

Great Post

 

I thought Kordell proved very durable throughout his (not short) career, at whatever position he played.

 

I think Kapernick is a lot better passer than Kordell was though, both are great running the ball.

 

As a Steeler fan, there was a time when Kordell was my favorite player. That being said, has a "running" QB won the Superbowl yet? Now, in college, they seem to be the ticket. In the NFL, they are still a gimmick. Newton, Kapernick, RGIII need to throw first to be able to win. Nothing wrong with being able to pick up yards on the ground, but you need to throw to win. Randall Cunningham's best season was in Minnesota where he was a pocket passer. I believe that was 1998, around the same time the Kordell experiment no longer worked.

 

1998... Ah yes, 3 years before Kordell Stewart went to the Pro Bowl and his team went 13-3 on their way to the AFCCG, where they lost by 7 in a game with a 17 point special teams swing (to a team later busted for spying).

Until you win a Super Bowl you're a gimmick? Give me a break. That's as thoughtful as those that say Brady is better than Manning because of his Super Bowl wins. It's a team sport, first of all, with about a million factors. And if there had been an honest attempt at officiating in last year's Super Bowl, Kaepernick would already have a ring.

 

This!