Steve Clarkson is known as a quarterback king maker. He started the hype machine that led to Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen being called “one of the greatest high school recruits ever”. He helped launch the careers of Ben Roethlisberger, Matt Leinart, J.P. Losman (maybe not such an endorsement) and Gino Toretta. Now he’s in the early stages of launching a primo career for David Sills, a Delaware native who just so happens to be 12 years old.

(Meet the future of the quarterback position, aged 12.)

That’s right folks, a 12 year-old is running through passing drills and prepping himself for college recruitment. He reportedly received a questionnaire from UCLA a year ago, and he’s not alone. According to this piece from CBSSPORTSLINE, Clarkson is tutoring no fewer than four middle school quarterbacks across the country, teaching them advanced formations and schematics as if they were seniors in high school.

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Throughout the history of the NFL the position of quarterback has been the most difficult one for teams to assess. Many quarterbacks have cost general managers and head coaches their jobs after being taken early in the draft and turning out to be nothing but hot garbage. Guys like Ryan Leaf and Todd Marinovich come to mind. The problem is that while teams fall in love with the big arm and body, you can’t really measure a quarterback’s ability to play NFL football until you see him on the field.

At least, that’s what we thought. Today we learn of a ground-breaking new study that could help general managers around the NFL save their butts when looking for that franchise quarterback. If you can’t decide between two quarterbacks based on their arm strength, 40-time, or Wonderlic score, just pick the better-looking one.

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