How positively impactful can pre-snap motion be for NFL quarterbacks? Consider this: In 2020, when former Bears starter and current Bills backup Mitchell Trubisky had the benefit of pre-snap motion, he completed 81 of 111 passes for 856 yards, 381 air yards, seven touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 101.9, which was the league’s sixth-highest for quarterbacks with at least 100 passing attempts. Without pre-snap motion, Trubisky looked a lot more… well, Trubisky-esque, completing 118 of 186 passes for 1,199 yards, 622 air yards, nine touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a passer rating of 82.3, which put him 30th in the NFL.
Not that every quarterback is able to glide off the concept of pre-snap motion to that degree, and no offense to Mr. Trubisky, but if it can turn him into a plus starter, imagine what it can do for the game’s best signal-callers?
When we talk about pre-snap motion, there are two obvious kinds: Motion to indicate, and motion to disrupt. Motion to indicate means that we want the quarterback to have an idea what the defense is doing based on the motion reaction of the defense. Generally speaking, if a receiver goes in motion and a defender follows, man coverage is coming. If the defense stays static and you see adjustment calls, it’s most likely zone. Some defensive coordinators are getting smarter about this, showing man reaction and playing zone and vice versa, and you can expect this to happen more often, but it’s usually helpful.
When we talk about motion to disrupt, we’re talking about the ability to use pre-snap motion to put a defense in a bad position — either by moving a receiver to a spot where he’ll face a defender who can’t keep up with him, or by using motion to establish route concepts in which primary defenders are taken out of the play altogether.
There are those offensive play-callers who have imagined and created all of this to the great benefit of their quarterbacks, and here are the best quarterbacks with pre-snap motion in the 2020 season.
(All metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions).
