PULLMAN, Wash. — Something strange is going on in the NFL. After suffering injury problems at quarterback, two NFL teams each decided to make a move that practically seemed unthinkable until recently.

They turned to a quarterback coached by Mike Leach, mastermind of the college Air Raid offense.

The New York Jets started former Washington State QB Luke Falk. In Jacksonville, the Jaguars are riding the arm of former WSU quarterback Gardner Minshew after an injury to starter Nick Foles. Beyond that, five other quarterbacks started for NFL teams last week after being coached in college by direct disciples of Leach’s Air Raid offense: Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, Arizona's Kyler Murray, Cleveland's Baker Mayfield, Washington's Case Keenum and Jared Goff of the Los Angeles Rams.

Leach’s coaching mentor, Hal Mumme, called it a “changing of the guard,” part of an evolution that started growing in major college football about 20 years ago and also has engulfed high school football where it “spread like a grass fire,” Mumme said.

And now it’s poised to set a blaze in the NFL, or so it seems, after seven of 32 NFL teams – 22% – started a first- or second-generation pupil of Leach’s system last week. All but Keenum are 24 or under, giving the NFL a potential new wave of signal callers that contrasts with the old way of NFL thinking, which often went something like this:

Leach’s quarterbacks in particular sometimes were perceived as too short by NFL scouts, said Leach, head coach of Washington State. Or “they always think they have weak arms, with no foundation or basis to say that,” Leach told USA TODAY Sports last week. They were typecast by NFL scouts and front offices as “system quarterbacks” who couldn’t hack it in the pros.

“What they thought was the system made the player, and not so much the player helped make the system successful,” said Gil Brandt, former Dallas Cowboys vice president of player personnel.

In college, Leach’s quarterbacks have put up video-game-like passing statistics. Of the 50 most productive passing seasons in the history of major college football, 10 came from quarterbacks coached by Leach since his hiring as Texas Tech's head coach in late 1999. That includes three seasons by Graham Harrell at Texas Tech from 2006 to 2008 and two by Falk at WSU in 2015 and 2016.

But until this month, none of his quarterbacks at Tech or WSU got much of a chance in the NFL. Only three ever played in an NFL game: Harrell, Kliff Kingsbury from Texas Tech and Jeff Tuel from WSU.

And it didn’t amount to much. Kingsbury appeared in one game, Harrell appeared in four and Tuel appeared in two. They combined to make one NFL start and complete 29 of 65 passes for 346 yards, prompting an obvious question: How could so many of them be so prolific in college but barely get a cup of coffee in the NFL?

'Kind of amazing’

Part of the answer is that old paradigms die hard in the NFL. The league seemed to scoff at the pass-happy up-tempo Air Raid attack before successfully adopting parts of it and recently even embracing it in full.

Leach notes that various NFL teams have been using Air Raid concepts over the past decade or so, such as the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. The acceptance of it just has become much more pronounced recently, especially with the hiring this year of Kingsbury as head coach at Arizona, who then used the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft to draft Murray.

“It’s been kind of amazing the last year or so,” said Mumme, who was head coach at Iowa Wesleyan, Valdosta (Ga.) State and Kentucky in the 1990s when Leach worked as his offensive assistant. “We spent 20 years trying to convince those (NFL) guys to stop squeezing a square peg into a round hole.”

By that, Mumme means trying to force an Air Raid QB into the old NFL system, which involved running the ball as much as passing it, if not more. According to the old way of thinking, the quarterback was supposed to take the ball from under center, not several yards back in a shotgun formation. It also helped if quarterbacks looked like former Denver quarterback John Elway – 6-3 or taller, 215 pounds and with a big strong arm.

By comparison, the Air Raid seemed radical. It relies heavily on throws and often deploys four wide receivers as targets. It uses a shotgun snap on almost every play and moves with a quick tempo. In essence, it tries to take advantage of all of the space on the field by making lots of short and intermediate throws, stretching the defense thin by making it defend horizontally and vertically.

Those shorter throws might lead to the perception of weak arms. But Air Raid quarterbacks come with different tools and shapes. Arizona is heavily invested in Murray, who is listed at 5-10. Minshew is 6-1 and last week led the Jaguars to a 20-7 win against the Tennessee Titans.

“We’re all different players and should be evaluated as such,” Minshew told USA TODAY Sports recently. “That’s something I always said. It’s not fair to lump guys in the same category. They should really look at each guy for what he is and watch the film. I think there’s a lot of things that coach Leach does that prepares us for the NFL, and I think I’m very fortunate to have played for him. And a lot of the reason I’m having success is a lot of the things he taught me.”

With success, more are sure to come. Last week, those seven Air Raid disciples posted a 3-4 record at quarterback. Kingsbury’s record so far as head coach is 0-2-1. But beyond the short-term picture, the league has taken on more of an Air Raid look over the past two decades. In 2018, NFL teams used the shotgun 64% of the time on average, according to Football Outsiders, which analyzes football statistics. In 2008, it was half that (32%). In 1996, it was 7%.

Mumme remembers when first starting the Air Raid offense in the 1990s, they had a hard time finding a quarterback who had taken a shotgun snap. About a decade later, “we had a hard time finding a quarterback who had taken a snap under center,” Mumme said.

`I don’t care about impressing the NFL’

Now in the NFL, there are “a lot more opportunities for Air Raid quarterbacks,” Mumme said.

It’s just taken 20 years for some to get a foot in the door. In 2003, Leach even had a 6-1 quarterback who threw for 5,833 yards at Texas Tech, an NCAA record that still stands. His name was B.J. Symons, who was then drafted in the seventh round by the Houston Texans. He never played in an NFL game. But what if he was leaving college now? Would he get a better shot?

“Oh yeah,” Leach said. “Heck yeah, he would. Absolutely he would.”

Before Minshew and Falk started games this month, the last time a Leach-coached quarterback started an NFL game was 2013 when Tuel started for the Buffalo Bills after an injury to EJ Manuel.

“I only had Tuel for a year (in 2012), so positive or negative I really don’t deserve a ton of credit for him,” Leach said.

Before that, the last Leach quarterback to start in the NFL was Tim Couch, who played at Kentucky under Mumme and Leach. The Cleveland Browns picked Couch No. 1 overall in 1999, but he was hounded by injuries and largely considered a bust despite helping the Browns reach their last playoff appearance in 2002.

Leach’s direct coaching disciples have had better success producing NFL quarterbacks. Three were No. 1 draft picks – Goff, who played under former Leach assistant Sonny Dykes at Cal; Mayfield, who played under former Leach assistant Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma, and Murray, who also played under Riley and now plays for Kingsbury. Mahomes also played for Kinsgsbury in college at Texas Tech and is the reigning NFL MVP.

Just don’t try to tell Leach that this family tree of NFL quarterbacks is a vindication to him of some sort.

“I don’t care about impressing the NFL, because I’m selfishly working on behalf of our team trying to get first downs with what we have here,” Leach said. “I don’t care if that helps somebody in the NFL. That’s the NFL’s problem, not mine. I just do my day job.”

That day job includes tutoring his current quarterback at WSU, senior Anthony Gordon, who played behind Falk and Minshew. He might be as good or better. Last week, he threw for 570 yards and a school record nine touchdown passes in a 67-63 loss against UCLA.

After he finishes his season with WSU, the NFL is expected to be interested. The way things are going, it might not be long before the NFL also is interested in Leach as head coach.

“I think an NFL team should have hired him five years ago,” Brandt said.

Follow reporter Schrotenboer on Twitter @Schrotenboer. E-mail: bschrotenb@usatoday.com