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The Man Behind the Charge: Quincy Avery

22 February 2021 Opinion Philadelphia Eagles

Now that the dust has settled on the Carson Wentz trade, it’s time to look who’s on the roster. For obvious reasons, everyone is pointing at Jalen Hurts to be the new successor at the quarterback position for the Philadelphia Eagles. How is he handling that? Jalen has enlisted the help of Quincy Avery, of QB Takeover, to help elevate his game to the next level, but who is Quincy Avery? Why enlist his help over other notable QB guru’s? Let’s take a look into what makes Quincy Avery the perfect man to take on the role of QB Coach for Jalen Hurts.

As a child, Quincy Avery grew up in the same Minnesota neighborhood where George Floyd would one day succumb to the wounds dealt to him by Minneapolis police officers. Avery, angered, outraged and fed up, decided to pen an open letter to the white coaches of the athletes that he trains to perform at a high level and pleaded for them to humanize those players for the police and to aid him in their fight for justice. In his own words he needed them to “use that power now” to help demonstrate what it is to stand hand in hand with those athletes and walk a mile in their shoes. Avery understands the power that these athletes possess, even at the college level. Athletes are seen to many as idols, someone to emulate their life after, and something to strive for to help them come up out of their own negative situation. This is something that Avery takes very seriously. In an article written by Les Carpenter of The Washington Post, Avery said, “To me, this is important, I am helping shape the dynamic of the Black quarterback. I want them to understand the platform and say what is right. This group getting into the NFL and the next one is going to understand it more.” So not only is Avery relying on the skills and techniques on the field that he teaches these athletes, but also the message that he directs to them to perpetuate leadership off the field, and in the communities, as well.

Quincy Avery has become a polarizing figure in an industry that’s become paramount to Quarterback prospects’ success rates ahead of the draft. Helped in no little part by his work with Deshaun Watson, Dwayne Haskins and 2021 NFL hopeful Justin Fields, Avery also has involvement in the Elite 11 High School Quarterback Competition. While his training sessions and camps are run out of Atlanta, Quincy noted that 140 of the players that he has trained have earned a Division I or II scholarship. Life wasn’t always easy for the grinder that you see running sessions with some of the best names in the NFL right now though.

Avery, starting as a quarterback in his youth as well, was a solid in his own right but was quickly moved to the wide receiver position whenever he attended college at Morehouse in Atlanta. In a way, this helped shape Avery’s game and take it to the next level. Being able to play wide receiver through the eyes of a quarterback is something that took Avery’s game to a new level. When Avery left college in 2008, he knew he wanted to coach quarterbacks. Eventually Quincy found a job as a low-level assistant for UCLA where he spent three years sleeping on an air mattress in the locker room while getting what he calls “a grad degree in football.” While he could see that his coach and staff, along with him, would not be able to stick around for very long, Avery took a notice to quarterbacks using personal coaches to help fix their fundamentals, something that, due to NCAA rules, college coaches couldn’t do.

Avery, a man with all the drive and perseverance in his body, drove back to Atlanta under the assumption that a town with so much talent could use a private quarterback coach. For months, Avery slept in his car while showering and eating at a local gym, and spending his afternoons at Starbucks so he could use the WiFi to send Facebook messages to top quarterbacks in the area. Avery’s big break came when talented quarterback prospect from Alpharetta High, Josh Dobbs, responded to his message and scheduled a time for a private workout.

Two cameras, one of which wasn’t working, and a GoPro was all that was needed for the workout, but the allure of a professional setting is what dazzled Dobbs as Avery broke down his mechanics, dissected his quarterback form and actually tailored the workout to give the illusion of game situations. Although Dobbs had several personal coaches, in both baseball and football, he stated that those relationships were merely transactional, except Quincy Avery. Avery would go to Dobbs’ baseball games, talk with his family and even stay after sessions to talk about life outside of sports. Dobbs stated he’s “like a big brother to me.”

When Dobbs was invited to a regional workout for the Elite 11, he brought Coach Avery with him. By that point in the league, 2012, the game was changing. Top quarterbacks were no longer
blond-haired kids,” as Trent Dilfer out it, and Dilfer was looking to find someone who could help him find and coach more Black quarterbacks, to make the reflection of the way the NFL was movie. As the drills unfolded and the camp was ongoing Dilfer recalls Avery’s voice being the “only voice you could hear,” and thus, he had found his guy.

Dilfer invited Avert to the Super Regional at Ohio State where Avery drove all night to with only $18 in his pocket, while continuing to sleep in his 2006 Mustang. When he was invited to dinner with the other coaches, Quincy respectfully declined, afraid to tell anyone he couldn’t afford his meal. It wasn’t until after that weekend at Ohio State that Quincy confided in his fellow coaches about his time at UCLA and why he had been sleeping in his car to make his dreams work, at which point, they asked Avery to attend the finals at Oregon. This time, he was treated with a plane ticket and a place to stay, in order for him to get in front of coach the top young quarterbacks on television. Soon after, he had enough clients that he could afford a house and never have to sleep in his Mustang again.

Now, he runs his camps out of the Quarterback Takeover in Atlanta, Georgia, starting his day with morning tutorials before raging physical and psychological warfare on the minds and bodies of his athletes with the sole purpose being to help that quarterback perform to the best of their god given abilities. Several times in recent years, Avery has been approached by college coaches, and he even figures he could get an NFL job, but his answer will always remain the same. Thank you for the opportunity but I’m not interested.

Avery wants to have a larger impact on his players’ lives rather than just as a coach. The quarterback position is one of the most polarizing and influential positions in all of sports. With Avery’s influential nature and transparent personality, it’s easy to see why so many young, Black quarterbacks choose Quincy Avery to be their personal quarterback guru. At a time when Black quarterbacks, and Black athletes, have finally become the face of the NFL, there’s no better man to lead the charge than Mr. Quincy Avery.

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