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Ranking QB Rooms: #32-25
21 Plays1 year ago
PD and Padhi discuss the 32nd through 25th ranked QB rooms in the NFL, their projections for the upcoming year, their styles of play, and how their play would be related to the offenses they're in.
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Transcript
Introduction and Overview
00:00:09
Speaker
What's going on everybody welcome back again to the passing downs podcast I'm your host Rahul and I'm here with my co-host PD PD say what's up? What's up And today we're back with another series that we did last season again we're bringing it back cuz We feel like it's important to go year in year out talk about every team and their quarterback rooms and kinda the state they're in now what we expect out of them moving forward and mainly just projecting what we think is gonna be
00:00:44
Speaker
each QB rooms position going into next season and what we think it'll be pretty much by the end of the season as well.
Worst QB Rooms: Unproven Potential
00:00:53
Speaker
um most Most of these quarterbacks at the at the start obviously with as with all our series we're gonna start at the bottom talk about the worst QB rooms and go with the first fourth of the league or the bottom eight teams today. Obviously a lot of these guys are gonna be unproven guys starting to play for the first time in their careers right now They definitely have a lot of time to improve especially the younger quarterbacks But many of these people given the lack of experience will probably end up here And this is where we think the rankings lie right now With that being said PD if you want to add anything ah to the description but with that being said we can start with our first team and
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, so the criteria that we're going to be looking at today is the way that these guys will fit on their teams, how we project them to play this year. We're going to be talking about a game that they played last year at that highlights their strengths and one that highlights their weaknesses where um it's applicable. So for guys who played multiple games, which is a problem here.
00:02:01
Speaker
um in this bottom tier where there's a lot of new starters and guys who are fringe backup, fringe starter type material. We'll talk about that as well and then we'll talk about how we project further development of their strengths and weaknesses to go. So with that being said, let's jump right
Raiders QB Dilemma: O'Connell vs. Minshew
00:02:15
Speaker
into it. Number 32 for us will be the Las Vegas Raiders. And this situation has received a decent amount of buzz, especially around the draft, um because they chose not to do anything.
00:02:26
Speaker
at quarterback during the draft. um Choosing to roll in with a quarterback room with Aiden O'Connell and Gardner Minshew. After a lot of deliberation, as of right now, we still aren't certain who's going to be the starter, week one. But as of right now, yeah it looks like Aiden O'Connell is leaning towards being the starter, but i mean either way, like these these guys are not guys who you would expect to be full-time starters beyond one season. i mean I'm sure Potty doesn't disagree based on where we ended up as a consensus ranking them. um But it's not looking too good for yeah it's not looking too good for this quarterback room. So starting it off with Aiden O'Connell.
00:03:08
Speaker
because he does look like the guy we would expect to be the starter at this point. O'Connell has um a healthy amount of aggression to where he will just attack one-on-one matchups, particularly outside the numbers, when he sees an advantage. um That's his main selling point. um He has decent touch.
00:03:27
Speaker
and aggression to put the ball into tight windows. um The problem is basically everything else. um it's it's It's not a great situation here. Connell's movement skills are limited. He puts the ball in harm's way at a healthy the amount, doesn't have very good fuel in the pocket, I would say, tending to take a lot of sacks. We remember the seven sack game that he had in his first game against the Chargers. um Yeah, not someone I would describe as an unequivocally bad quarterback, but he has severe weaknesses that I think are difficult for an offense to deal with. um I think that he's best equipped running some sort of play action, which seems like
00:04:10
Speaker
where the Raiders want to lean with a run heavy approach. So I think that's a good scheme fit
O'Connell's Development Needs
00:04:16
Speaker
for him. But um he needs to do a lot of development in basically every area, just but aside from the aggression and certain components of the arm talent. Just kind of everything needs to improve. Yeah, I don't disagree much with your breakdown of O'Connell's game. I also think he's obviously one of the weaker starters in the league, as we mentioned, in fact,
00:04:39
Speaker
And I guess we'll probably get into this in a second anyways, but I think Gardner Minshu should be the starter in this situation. ah Given how he played last year, I think in that Colts team...
00:04:49
Speaker
ah He was kind of thrown into it I think he wasn't really expected to play much given it being Anthony Richardson's rookie year and them trying to kind of Feel things out with him and he was thrown into that makeshift situation Where they had to rebuild the offense a little bit to suit him and he still made that cold steam a pretty positive offense I feel like he's a better quarterback than O'Connell here because I agree with a lot of your breakdown of his game He's just one of those big brute kind of quarterbacks who uses the arm strength he has to his advantage as much as possible. He's good going outside of the numbers. He can fit the ball into tight windows if you want ah because of the just power and velocity he has on his throws. And because of that, you can kind of make some sort of a vertical game happen with him because he's just able to get those balls downfield.
00:05:45
Speaker
But like PD mentioned, there isn't much more going on with him. He's definitely got no playmaking or ah even scrambling ability whatsoever because of his limited movement. Even in terms of flexibility and like PD mentioned, movement in the pocket. It's just too clunky and limited for me. And the because of that, he takes a lot of sacks in general.
00:06:08
Speaker
And I feel like a lot of that also messes with his accuracy, his footwork overall. He's not necessarily the most fundamentally sound quarterback in the first place. And then when you see a lot of pressure get in his face and mess around with him, I think mistakes start a pile and he tends to struggle that way. So definitely a weird quarterback to go with as a starter, for sure, in my opinion in Vegas, but not much more to say about him.
00:06:37
Speaker
All right, looking at the backup real quick and then we'll quickly touch on a good good and bad game for O'Connell. Gardner Minshew, he has some strengths in that he can amplify a system to a certain degree. um He has some veteran veteran experience, um not the most inaccurate quarterback in the world, um has some playmaking outside of structure with decent mobility and sack avoidance.
00:07:00
Speaker
um The biggest problem I have with Gardner Minshew is that his arm is pretty limited and the thing that's consistently irked me when I've watched games of Gardner Minshew film is that he's turning down opportunities that higher level quarterbacks would see. I would say that his vision is more limited than O'Connell and A reason that I could understand the coaching staff favoring O'Connell is that he just kind of doesn't want to throw things that are kind of there. um I do appreciate some of his playmaking out of structure and his ability to kind of stay on time and in very simple concepts, but Minshu kind of lacks the high-end aggression and vision for me to view him as a high-level starting quarterback.
00:07:44
Speaker
Yeah, you kind of hit it on the money for me with Minshu. I think that's kind of been the issue with him with whichever situation he's going to. He's the type of quarterback that normally you would expect to get more starter opportunities because verily very early in his career he had somewhat success, was able to be the starting quarterback of ah not necessarily winning teams, but be a ah starter and then a decent player. And he still never really got the opportunity to play again.
00:08:14
Speaker
and I think it is because of that his ceiling is very very limited because he's not able to make a whole lot of high-end plays no matter which way you look at it he's not really the type of guy who can throw down field and make big plays that way he's not super athletic in the way where he can play make and stretch things out make something happen in that sense he doesn't have a insane level of accuracy anticipation or timing rather to where he can just pick defenses apart. He just doesn't excel in any way and he's ah mainly a plug-in play piece in an offense. He can keep you afloat kind of like how he did last year with the Colts. He's able to run a lot of simple concepts. He's going to hit you on time on target for the easy throws, your slants, your simple in routes, but he's not going to make those extraordinary plays that you kind of expect out of NFL quarterbacks in this day and age.
00:09:09
Speaker
I just do think because he's so fundamentally sound he gives a bit better of a floor than a guy like Aiden O'Connell does who tends to blow up and we've seen Gardnerman should do it in multiple situations even bad situations rather but It really, like we said earlier, doesn't matter. It's kind of pick your poison at this point. And with that being said, I guess I can lead straight into Gardner Minshew's games last year, kind of talking about those strengths and weaknesses. And oddly enough, the game that I found that maybe wasn't his best game, but kind of ah highlighted his strength was actually against his current team. The Raiders last year, I feel like that game he showed the type of offense he can run to
00:09:55
Speaker
maximize his game necessarily. He didn't really take many risks in that game. There weren't too many splash plays except for ones where his playmakers kind of made things happen. He was making a lot of conservative passes, but he was very accurate. He was placing the ball in perfect positions for his receivers to make things happen and get plenty of yards after the catch. And because of that, he led his team to multiple scoring drives and a win.
00:10:26
Speaker
All right, and quickly touching on Aiden O'Connell's best and worst game. Both games against the Chargers highlight both sides of the coin. It's great in O'Connell pretty well. The second game against the Chargers at home, where they absolutely slapped the Chargers to the tune of a 63-point performance. um That game highlighted some of Aiden O'Connell's strengths, working off play action with a good game script, being aggressive down the field, things of that nature. um His first game, where he got sacked seven times, a lot of them courtesy of Kubomak was a good indicator of his inability to move and create out of structure when things are going wrong. So yeah, I'm curious to see what the coaching staff decides on this one, but regardless of situation, we think this is gonna end up pretty low, no matter what happens. All right, speaking of...
00:11:13
Speaker
situations that don't have much upside.
Broncos' Rookie Bo Nix: Fit and Potential
00:11:15
Speaker
Let's move to the one that might have some upside with the Denver Broncos and dropping in a young rookie quarterback in Bonaix who isn't listed on this as as a starter on the depth chart right now um but certainly provides more upside I think than someone like Aiden O'Connell or Gardner Minshew. First focus and him because he's listed as a starter. Stidham is a pretty large quarterback who has some strong some strong traits in terms of arm talent. He has good velocity, doesn't have great ball control, and his accuracy really suffers as a result of that, but can make throws with both touch and power. um But like I mentioned, um the the arm strength is the only factor that I really think stands out as a true plus ah for his arm talent. The rest of the the tools are where it starts to bleed over into negatives, and his accuracy tends to suffer as a result of
00:12:11
Speaker
Poor ball control, not great footwork. um Doesn't have the greatest decision making in terms of being able to keep the ball out of harm's way. um Not very mobile, but is able to execute a system and be aggressive as needed. So those are those are the strengths of Jared Stittem and I could understand why the coaching staff likes Jared Stittem in terms of just keeping him as a system quarterback who will execute the offense and kind of be aggressive when needed.
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, Stidham is definitely a solid bridge quarterback to have here as you introduce Knicks into that offense. But I agree with most of your points and for that reason being why we chose Knicks to be the starter in this situation. And I think more than likely the Broncos will also go with by even week one.
00:13:02
Speaker
Because Thitham is simply your typical backup quarterback who, like PD mentioned, is going to be able to run an offense, execute some simple packages, and very, very basic passes, but he's not really going to be able to make things happen more so than that. He's a little similar to Aiden O'Connell in the sense where he's also one of those bigger brute force type of quarterbacks where he's going to rely a lot on that big arm and his size to make plays happen. He's going to be able to power passes and be able to may ah make any pass on the field really in terms of having a lot of arm power, but like like PD mentioned, that's kind of where the positives in his traits finish. ah finish
00:13:50
Speaker
the skills aspects and a lot of the touch aspects of playing quarterback, Jared Stidham simply isn't up to par with any starter in the league really. And that's why you have to really run a limited offense with them. And that's why the Broncos went out and drafted on the other quarterback. Obviously, Stidham was never going to be the answer. He was always going to be a temporary solution. And for that reason, they're bringing in a guy in Bo Nicks with a lot more upside.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, speaking of Bonex, so Bonex, I'm a fan of his strengths. He's accurate, is able to get the ball out quickly, um has some athletic traits where he can kind of run around and be a playmaker. um He showed that a lot at Auburn, but was kind of defined to be more of a screen thrower who kind of attacked outside the numbers as a counter. I think that his ability to play make on the move has been a little subbed on because of the way that he was forced to play.
00:14:45
Speaker
at Oregon. um I think that maybe a situation like Denver where they might emphasize bootlegs like they did last year with Russell Wilson, getting him out on the move, throwing in the screen game, and then countering with a deep, deep game off of that. I think that could be a good fit for Bonix. He's also very strong avoiding sacks and interceptions, which I think will benefit Sean Payton a lot more than Russell Wilson did last year with so many errors.
00:15:12
Speaker
i frustrated Sean Payton to a great degree. um So I do kind of buy Sean Payton's love for bonyx and I think that yeah he could see the field reasonably quickly.
00:15:24
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree that Bo Nix is probably gonna end up playing sooner rather than later. And I think Bo Nix is a style of quarterback that definitely suits more PD's preference than mine. I'm not a huge fan of his ceiling in terms of what he can do.
00:15:42
Speaker
on that Bronco's ah offense, but I do think he'll probably be one of the rookie quarterbacks to get to a decent level faster and adapt to the NFL game more so. Not only because he's a little bit on the older side, has a lot of experience as a starter.
00:15:58
Speaker
in college as well and those guys typically do tend to transition sooner but also because of what PD mentioned with this game he has very sound fundamentals I think in terms of timing in terms of accuracy and the basic passes that a quarterback makes whether it's a slant in route go route the fundamentals is always there with the bow nicks as well as the footwork and I think because of that you're always going to have a solid floor with him He does have a little bit of athletic ability. We've seen it, like PD said, a little bit more at Auburn because of the adventurous nature of their offense. But he definitely can move around, make things happen as a playmaker. Maybe not so much a scrambler as much, but
00:16:44
Speaker
Definitely great. ah Definitely can make something happen there. And I think he's a great fit for Sean Payton's offense. I think he can do exactly what Russell Wilson couldn't last year. Sean Payton's offense doesn't necessarily need the quarterback with the biggest arm in the world. and You even saw someone like Drew Brees who even in the later parts of his career didn't have the strongest arm and they were still able to operate that offense.
00:17:10
Speaker
at a very high level and I think they can do something similar with Nix because it's a lot of very simple route concepts that are based off timing and creating separation and getting the ball out to your playmakers which Nix is great at.
00:17:25
Speaker
and they take shots off the play action which I think with Nix's skill set is something he can very easily adapt to. I'm only worried a little bit about the limited nature and how he played in that Oregon system. I feel like Oregon typically doesn't play so conservative and to have Bo Nicks throw so many screen passes and slants and very simple kind of ordinary vanilla offense ah on that team seemed very weird to me and I'm not sure how much more he can expand his game but at this point in time he's definitely even with his basic traits I think
00:18:02
Speaker
ahead of the curve above a guy like Jared Stidham and definitely could be one of the better rookie quarterbacks as the other guys may struggle a little bit to get to a solid level. Alright, so like we mentioned, Jared Stidham's not going to qualify for ah the amount of games that we can look at to decide a good game and a bad game to represent his game. um But for Bonix, I will cite um his game against Cal as his best game of the year just absolutely shredded him to the tune of 386 yards and four touchdowns with one interception that ended up not being his fault when I watched it back um just an absolutely dominant performance where his accuracy really came through he was pushing it down the field more aggressively than he had all year
00:18:47
Speaker
And yeah, no sacks, just extremely clean game, kind of a dominant performance. For a game that wasn't as good, um I'm actually going to pick a little bit more of a controversial one, um just to kind of talk about it with Oregon's offense. um So the game against USC, he threw for 412 yards and four touchdowns, um but he has a turnover they play in there.
00:19:09
Speaker
um With a fumble um and a dropped interception um And I think that that kind of gets thrown away because they just absolutely shredded USC um But yeah, those two turn over the plays combined with the fact that he was really dinking and dunking that game Just most of his explosive plays came off very easy completions to his receivers. um And the USC defense had a horrible time trying to tackle all of those Oregon receivers. So yeah, just just kind of a contrast in how he played versus the stat line there that I wanted to highlight. But yeah, I have hope for Bonix having some sort of ceiling, which is why we put
00:19:49
Speaker
ah The Broncos quarterback room over the Raiders a little bit higher and though I didn't get to see you Much of bonyx's season last year one game that I did watch that I think stood out to me and what I could see a working bonyx Look like is the bowl game. They played against Liberty even though that is a little bit of subpar competition for a team like Oregon and I think in that game we saw a very accurate Bo Nicks, and even though he wasn't making any passes that are necessarily out of the ordinary or creating big time plays, he was very crisp and precise with every pass he was making. He was on time, he was accurate, and I feel like he was anticipating well ah too. And I think that's also a pretty strong trait of his compared to some of even the other better quarterbacks in his own draft class.
00:20:40
Speaker
And he showed in that Liberty game that he's able to slice and dice defenses when they try to sit back in his zone and just let him pick the defense apart. He's able to see the holes in those defenses and find his receiver in open space, very in a very consistent way. And we saw him just tear apart that Liberty defense in that way.
00:21:04
Speaker
Alright, let's move on to the next quarterback room with another French starter type and a rookie quarterback and that's going to be the Minnesota Vikings.
Sam Darnold's Challenges with the Vikings
00:21:11
Speaker
to start off with Sam Darnold who is going to be the starter Darnold obviously with a ton of draft pedigree still getting him starting roles like this one around the league similar to the one he got with the Panthers i' I'm curious with Darnold he probably kind of suits this type of system he was playing better down the stretch with the Carolina Panthers last time we saw him in long time starting action
00:21:36
Speaker
um An Undersender type run game with play action pushing it deep down the field is kind of what I see for Donald because he still has the arm talent that got him drafted third overall. It's just kind of everything else that's been a weakness for Sam Donald which includes taking sacks and throwing interceptions. The accuracy has been really sporadic. um He does have mobility unlike some of these other guys I've mentioned. He can really move for a guy his size. but It's kind of just the physical tools and the so-so vision that are keeping him around in the league in my opinion. um Yeah, I'm curious to see what Kevin O'Connell can do for Sam Darnold's career. I feel like I should give Sam Darnold a little bit more credit here because I feel like he's done a little bit more than just the
00:22:27
Speaker
draft pedigree that's gotten him to this point. I think obviously as a starter in multiple places, he failed ah pretty miserably as well. But I think, and maybe it's the Niners bias in me, but I think ah watching him as a backup on this Niners team, I feel like he was almost the perfect backup because of many of what you mentioned. He still all got that high end talent of a top tier prospect.
00:22:53
Speaker
You still got a very great arm talent out of him. He's still a big quarterback who can make a lot of passes. He's decent at reading defenses. It's just certain traits that make him not starting level, but he's a perfect mold for a backup quarterback, someone you can kind of throw in and run very simple offense.
00:23:12
Speaker
because he has those traits that make ah he he has the traits of a quarterback that can always keep an offensive float even if he's not necessarily making something great happen. I think the end of the year Sam Donald got his one opportunity to start against the Rams and I think in that game he showed that he wasn't a necessarily adventurous in any of the offense he was playing when he was able to keep it simple simple get passes out to all your good weapons in space and when you have a team like the vikings that have very very high-end weapons like a justin jefferson jordan adison pj hockinson etcetera if you have a guy like darnold who can just get it out there to those guys in spells here and there when jj mccarthy might not be playing or maybe early in the year when he's not ready i think he's
00:24:06
Speaker
He'd be great for that. And I think he's shown that in recent years as well in the little spells he has played.
00:24:14
Speaker
All right, so let's move on to JJ McCarthy. So JJ McCarthy, interesting prospect, a ton of hype surrounding him before the draft, even projections that he might go as high as number two overall. But I think going to the Vikings will help them a Very run heavy offense at Michigan, playing a lot out of play action.
00:24:35
Speaker
relied ah They relied on him a ton on critical third downs and such. It's very interesting for me to see what JJ McCarthy could do if Sam Donald gets benched at some point. I like his arm talent a lot, puts a lot a ton of zip on the football, is able to make throws on the run, has decent flexibility in his arm. His accuracy has taken a sizable jump from throughout his college career where last year in 2022. It was quite poor and then in 2023 it took a solid jump up to a very strong status. He's willing to push the ball down the field, use tight windows. um The issues with JJ McCarthy are that he's very very skinny. um Listed at 202 pounds but I wouldn't be shocked if he kind of plays closer to 200. He's also ah gets a 10. He tends to be a little reckless with the football. um Trying to try things
00:25:30
Speaker
um that he probably shouldn't. But those are the only two things that I think are serious red flags for his career, um as well as his accuracy issues that I've mentioned from the past. So I have some excitement for JJ McCarthy. I think he could also benefit a lot from playing with or playing for Kevin O'Connell as
McCarthy's Inexperience: Potential vs. College Record
00:25:48
Speaker
a head coach. And I hope that we get to see him sometime soon, because at this point, I would say he has more upside than Sam Darling does.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah, I'd absolutely agree. I think it's a very similar situation to the Broncos where McCarthy has a very clear upside more so than the current starter and it's a more so of when he's gonna take over rather than if And I think McCarthy's also one of the quarterbacks where you maybe prefer his style of play more so than me I think someone like McCarthy who was already so reliant on the run game and the team around him in a college setting where You're already seeing talks of him getting carried or ah so some or that sort of thing in a college setting. I'm so surprised i'm confused to how he's going to come into an NFL team and carry the load of an offense that has all these high level weapons when in college we saw plenty of games where
00:26:46
Speaker
they didn't The Michigan offense didn't even utilize their receivers because j j mccarth because they were just running the ball and not really putting the ball in JJ McCarthy's hands. I think there definitely is some value to getting a lot of reps as a passer in college being put in plenty of different situations when something in Bonix's favor was the fact that he played for so many years and got so many opportunities as a high volume passer.
00:27:14
Speaker
And to see JJ McCarthy come in with a lack of experience is a bit concerning. But he is a younger quarterback, so definitely something he can gain through playing in the league itself. And trades-wise, I agree with a lot of what your concerns are. He definitely has a bit of a smaller frame than you would like out of an NFL quarterback. I think he's a bit too rash with his decisions, like you were saying. And with the inaccuracy combined there, I think it's a little bit of a weird combination for a guy who's considered to be a quote-unquote game manager when the average football fan looks at a quarterback like JJ McCarthy, you would call him that.
00:27:55
Speaker
But when you want a game manager, you want someone who's not putting the ball in harm's way as much, a little bit less over-ambitious as he is sometimes. So that also concerns me as well. But there's definitely a lot of upside there. not a Even though I led with a lot of the downsides, I do like the fact that he's a raw talent at this point. There's a lot to mold with him since he's so young.
00:28:20
Speaker
He's got a huge arm that's something that ah that many teams can utilize for sure. He's very mobile. I think in the league can end up being a bit of a scrambler and even a little bit of a playmaker depending on how much freedom he's given.
00:28:35
Speaker
Early in his career and I think off the play action if his team can have a good run game He can be a decent quarterback to pick Defenses apart at the right times like he did in Michigan one Definite big factor in his game in Michigan was how clutch he was and how he would always show up at the right moments for them even when they didn't call his number a lot and It is as much as someone like PD may not like the whole clutch fart factor side of things. That's definitely something on JJ McCarthy's side here. He's played in a lot of big time games with this Michigan team, won a lot of big time games, and that experience, even though he may not have gotten as many snaps with a lot of those other guys,
00:29:22
Speaker
that big game and big time experience may make up for it. So definitely a lot of upside there with McCarthy still. All right, let's get to the next team on our list. That's going to be the Pittsburgh Steelers. um And again, another situation where we don't know who's going to be the starter for the entire year. Right now it's listed as Russell Wilson, but it could end up being Justin Fields. Russell Wilson, we have a good idea of his strengths by now. He is a strong thrower of goal balls outside the numbers.
00:29:50
Speaker
His strong working off play action has he still got a pretty good arm and pretty good touch um Even if those have declined pretty significantly post hand injury in 2021 Weaknesses are very pronounced um ends up taking a lot of s sacks because he runs himself into pressure a lot um Has poor vision over the middle of the field um and just generally doesn't work the intermediate area very well. So just very, very de defined strengths and weaknesses. And I would honestly say the same thing, skipping ahead to Justin Fields. He also has very defined strengths and weaknesses, but the big thing that separates Justin Fields
00:30:27
Speaker
from Russell Wilson as a player is that his accuracy is far less consistent, but he has a lot more of the explosive rushing ability that Russell Wilson doesn't have anymore. So kind of similar areas of the field that I think that they will end up attacking as passers when either one is in the game, no matter who it who it is. but I think that the run game has more potential with fields, whereas the check down and the passing game, in terms of a complete game, it has more potential with Wilson. Of course, he also has better pre-snap ability because of his experience in the league, so that can give you a little bit of an advantage as well. But regardless, this team is going to be running the ball a ton, so I'm not sure we get a ton of pass attempts either way, whoever is the starter.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, this quarterback room is a bit unfortunate. I'd argue is one that may be a little bit more cooked than some of these other situations we've talked about.
Steelers' QB Concerns: Wilson and Fields
00:31:21
Speaker
Because at least when you talk about the Broncos or Vikings, you have the hope of a rookie quarterback who could potentially develop into your franchise guy, even if he's maybe not a top prospect.
00:31:33
Speaker
With the Steelers team, you have an aging Russell Wilson who's clearly on the last few ah years of his career and a very, very washed up version of himself as well. And you have a guy in Justin Fields who the Bears clearly showed, where was the he it was he was not the guy there in Chicago. And now he's coming to Pittsburgh potentially getting a second hat chance.
00:31:59
Speaker
in a place where we already saw Kenny Pickett fail and not really develop so I don't really see Justin Fields developing so this situation I don't really understand where the Steelers are going with this maybe if they just plan to throw something at the wall and hope to draft something that someone next year that could potentially be where they go with this but the team seems too good for them to be in a good enough draft position to get someone here but ah In terms of their traits, I agree a lot with what ah with what PD said. I mean, Russell Wilson at this point in his career, we know exactly what he's going to do. He's done it for two years in a row in Denver now. You're going to see a lot of check downs and quick game and then your occasional deep shot of a play action. Uh, just giving a 50 50 gut ball to whoever the best, uh, jump ball receiver on the team is at the time. It's probably going to end up being George Pickens here.
00:32:57
Speaker
in this Pittsburgh team we're gonna see a lot of quick passes and there's a lot going on with the Steelers offense right now obviously with Brandon Ayuk potentially going there by the time this podcast comes out he may even be a Steeler who knows and if he's there that could open things up a lot for a guy like Russell Wilson Ayuk gets a lot of separation and Russell Wilson still does he lot ah have a lot of the timing anticipation and accuracy that he used to so I think you can make things work with IU, but outside of that, I'm very confused as to how Russell Wilson will play in this ah offense. Same thing with Justin Fields. Like Petey said, he's his play style as a passer is very similar. It's just if all the traits were worsened, he's not are as accurate. He really can't anticipate. His timing's a little bit off with everything. ah His fundamentals aren't the best. I feel like he's ah he takes way too many hitches and is a little bit
00:33:56
Speaker
Clunky in terms of his footwork compared to what you would expect out of someone who's athletic as as athletic as Justin Fields But he obviously makes up for it because he's one of the better rushing quarterbacks in the league much much better than Russell Wilson especially at this point and Does that a little bit of that factor? I do think though at this point Justin Fields rushing game is carrying his ability as a quarterback as a whole and and he's kind of been figured out in that aspect. It seems like they're going to have to go with Russell Wilson, who is also very, very limited. So there isn't much upside for the Steelers ah offense and quarterback room. If I had to pick one room that I don't see moving anywhere out of this like bottom four or five type of list, it would probably be the Steelers team. All right. So looking at good games and bad games. So for Russell Wilson, I'm going to highlight his game against the Bears.
00:34:52
Speaker
He made some explosive plays to help Denver win that game, come back against the Bears, um and for his bad game, I'm going to look at his last game against the Patriots. He was just chucking interceptable passes left and right, fumbles all over the place, took five sacks, not a good time. um As for Justin Fields, his best game I think also came in that Denver game, but he was on the other side obviously, making a ton of nice throws, put one ball in harm's way for the interception, also had to put also had a fumble that wouldn't show up in the basic box score. I ended up taking three sacks, but
00:35:27
Speaker
It was aggressive and accurate pushing ball down the field. And I kind of appreciated that. And ah for a bad game, I think we can probably look at his week two game against Tampa. He was just aggressively late on like everything ended up taking six sacks. Accuracy was really scattered shot. Turn over the plays. Maybe it was a bad time. So yeah, just just in field. Not not great.
00:35:50
Speaker
That is hilarious because for my bad game I was thinking exactly of that week 2 Tampa game for Justin Fields. My god was he bad. Six sacks I feel like doesn't even do it justice for how terrible he was at managing pressure. and being in the pocket like you mentioned he was very very late and inaccurate all day long I feel like he probably deserved three or four picks in that one and on the flip side I think another one of his few good games on this season outside of that Denver one you mentioned I'll give him that commanders game he had the very next week he wasn't quite as accurate or in that one but he was a lot more impactful in the rushing game
00:36:33
Speaker
We saw a little bit more of that aspect there and he still was able to produce a couple of monster plays that ended up scora scoring the Bears team so much points, kind of showing how Justin Fields does have that big arm still that could potentially create chunk plays and have an offense with a lot of upside. And in terms of Russell Wilson, there are a lot of bad games to choose from.
00:36:59
Speaker
ah My personal favorite I would say is the Houston game though plenty of inaccurate passes ah Definitely didn't challenge going downfield whatsoever took too many sacks and Overall very bad game and a good game. I would give him the Minnesota game Maybe not one of his best performances necessarily I think that one shows a little bit of what he can be on the Steelers team He was very accurate in that one ah and it's because the Broncos didn't ask him to do too much he was making passes that were very within his comfort zone didn't really have to play make or do anything out of the ordinary the game plan was executing as they would want and he was just making the passes and every now and then he was able to get chunk plays here and there going to sudden duty and as a result it was a somewhat successful day of offense for the Broncos that day
00:37:56
Speaker
But overall, still a very cooked situation for them. All right, let's move on to our next team. This one has a lot more fun and upside to talk
Jaden Daniels: Dual-Threat Potential
00:38:06
Speaker
about. That's the Washington commanders with their number two overall pick. Jane Daniels being inserted into the fold and he will be the starter. So let's get talking about him. I ended up being Luke Warmer, Jane Daniels relative to something like a Twitter consensus. Obviously I ended up lower on him relative to where the draft would have him.
00:38:25
Speaker
But man, Jane Daniels has some very, very pronounced strengths. um His ability to throw the deep ball with touch and accuracy combined with decent arm strength um and his ability to scramble is eye popping to the point where I think he will step on the field as a top two to three rusher in the league at quarterback. He is just an incredible scrambler.
00:38:47
Speaker
um He also has very, very strong accuracy to all three levels of the field. His short, intermediate, behind the line of scrimmage, you name it, he is very, very accurate. The area of weakness that I would say for Jane Daniels is that I wish his vision over the middle of the field would be a little bit better and his aggression pulling the trigger on some of those tight window throws was a little bit better and his, as a result of that kind of, um his sack taking is an area of concern and especially behind this Washington O-line which has um a decent amount of inexperience coming into it. I have some concerns about how many sacks you could end up taking for this team. um As for Marcus Mariota, um Marcus Mariota maybe secretly one of my least favorite quarterbacks to watch just doesn't pull the trigger on anything
00:39:34
Speaker
aggressive at all, um but still manages to end up putting the ball in harm's way a pretty healthy amount. um Doesn't push the ball down the field very well. Just kind of not great accuracy, but he is athletic and can make some plays out of structure. So, you know, that's what you're getting with Marcus Mariota.
00:39:54
Speaker
Yeah I feel like Mariota at this point is that backup quarterback you throw on any team with a young athletic quarterback just so that you can kind of mimic what that quarterback does because I really don't understand how that man still has a job. but talking about the more interesting player in this quarterback room and jaden daniels and i absolutely agree this he's a much more exciting prospect than a lot of these other guys in fact i'm a little bit higher on him than py i think i'm probably closer to what the general consensus is and I do think he'll end up being a little bit better than Mei even though he's lower on this consensus list between us two. I just think overall his rushing ability gives him a much much higher floor than some of these other guys.
00:40:43
Speaker
Uh, but quickly diving straight into that rushing ability, I absolutely agree with you that he's immediately going to be one of the best rushers in the league. Very, very dynamic, very, very explosive, is incredible at making people miss in the open field. Uh, and no real weaknesses as a rusher except for, and I think this is a big weakness that we both kind of agree with, and that's his frame.
00:41:08
Speaker
He's obviously a very tall player, but for his height. I think he's quite undersized and skinny and Like PD mentioned he takes a lot of s sacks He's someone who also runs into pressure quite a bit, and he's also the type of rusher that Puts his head down and runs into tackles a lot of the time you don't see him sliding or running out of bounds off often and obviously it is college and he is more a similar frame to most of the players on the field but from what we saw in the film in college he was very willing to take hits and not really protect his body and when you have someone of such a thin frame as him who is such a dynamic rusher so you know he's gonna rush often and take a lot of hits and including sacks it does worry me a lot about his long-term health and how he's gonna
00:41:58
Speaker
hold up. We've seen a lot of smaller quarterbacks who have come into this league, rushed a lot, gotten injured, and very early kind of stunted their growth as a player because of it. Even someone who's huge like Anthony Richardson last year obviously had some a freak injury that ended his season, but did pick up injuries along the way just running in to come to contact and whatnot and that's definitely something I'm worried about with Daniels. As a passer though, there's plenty to like. He's obviously got a big arm, I think very accurate. He's thrown through for a lot of yards in college and that's because of that ability to just create chunk plays because of the immense arm talent and he's not only accurate short but I think very similar to a guy like a
00:42:46
Speaker
CJ Stroud he's incredible at placing the ball very very accurate ah accurate and with the perfect touch downfield you know his go routes his fade routes are very much on the money a lot of the time and I think that's a big reason why I like him and I agree with his negatives as a passer do come more with the timing and short range passes over the middle of the field he can sometimes ah be inconsistent because He doesn't have the best timing and he's not necessarily the greatest anticipator. But I do think he's someone with a lot of arm talent and given the right pieces around him in the right offense, which I do think this commander's offense gives him plenty of pieces to work with that fit his game. Guys like Terry McLaurin, who is a perfect possession sort of receiver to allow Jayden Daniels to learn to play.
00:43:41
Speaker
potentially a guy like Brandon Ayuk if they trade for him. I think someone like Johan Dotson would be a great deep threat for him. A guy like Austin Eckler is someone he can rely on early in his career to kind of ah ah to dump off to a lot and get rid of the ball for easy completions. I think it's a decent offense for him to ah work with. And if he can kind of rein in the injury risk by being more controlled with his runs, I think he can have a solid rookie season.
00:44:11
Speaker
All right, so let's look at some good games and bad games for Jane Daniels. I don't have anything for Mariota. ah Daniels, yeah I think his best game was either against um Florida or Georgia State. um Just explosive, explosive performances where he was just aggressively pushing ball down the field and looked incredible as a rusher. Just amazing, amazing games. The Florida game, one of the great games I've seen from a production standpoint ever. Just insane runs all over the place, insane passes, just crazy stuff. um One of the great college seasons, of course, that I've ever seen.
00:44:46
Speaker
um And yeah, I would say for a bad game, um maybe his week one game against Florida State kind of I was going to say that was a little in yeah inaccurate. That game took some sacks that I think he probably could have avoided. But even that game, he played OK. So I Jan Daniels had one of the great college seasons I've ever seen in my life. So it's hard to pick out bad games right there. Yeah, very hard to pick apart Jan Daniels Heisman season. I mean,
00:45:12
Speaker
He won the award for a reason and won number two overall for a reason and and that's a big reason why I'm so high on him. I think I would make the firm decision in Florida being his best game purely because of how dynamic he was as both a passer and a rusher. Had almost 600 yards of offense, five touchdowns.
00:45:33
Speaker
and just chunk play after chunk play both rushing and throwing they really had no answer for him because as soon as they loaded the box to adjust for his rushing he just tossed it deep down past all of their DBs and as soon as they laid back a little bit to cover for all the passes he was throwing he just tucked the ball and took off it just It felt like ah watching a video game player almost in that one and I'd have to agree it's either that week one Florida State game or maybe that Alabama game a week prior to that ah Florida game that you saw him struggle a little bit. I think both those teams had defenses a little bit more on the level of that LSU ah offense which was obviously stacked.
00:46:19
Speaker
And is potentially another area of concern for Jaden Daniels, how will he ah adjust to not having a stacked offense, uh, comparative competition like that LSU team was. But going into those Alabama and FSU games, I feel like we saw his accuracy dip a bit because his receivers weren't getting.
00:46:37
Speaker
as much separation and maybe that's an area of weakness that could be exploited in the NFL. We haven't seen him throw to a lot of tight windows because of how good his team was, because of how many chunk plays and just wide open space he was getting ah in the in the plays they were running. He didn't really have to deal with throwing guys open, anticipating people open, so so to speak, by throwing it to the right spot.
00:47:05
Speaker
at the perfect time. We didn't see him do that a lot. All right, let's move on to our next quarterback
Patriots' QB Strategy: Brissett and May
00:47:11
Speaker
room. And in a similar situation to the one that we just talked about, we have another veteran and rookie, um the veteran being Jacoby Brissett, who I am a very big fan of, um as Potty would know. Too big of a fan of, I must say. Jacoby Brissett is a dog. He plays the quarterback position like it was intended to be played. and He is willing to stand in there and take a hit and has a very powerful arm. Honestly, he was considering putting him on our list for arm talents just because of how powerful that arm is as an honorable mention. um He just can absolutely laser that football in there. The touch element of it is on and off. He can make some really nice touch throws but the ball control has been the thing that's evaded him for his career. But I will say one of the biggest reasons that I've been more appreciative of Jacobi Brissett recently is that his accuracy seems to be heading in the correct direction.
00:47:59
Speaker
where his ball control seems to be improving. He's able to take a little bit off his fastball, which was a bit of a concern in previous seasons. And now he's put together three consecutive seasons, I would say, where he's looked like a starter in the times that he played. So I'm very excited to come out and see him play for the Patriots this year, even if the situation is really poor. He has very good strength working off play action, has a good drop, strong footwork and is able to fire that ball, like I said, and he's pretty aggressive pushing that ball down the field. And like I said, he's also willing to stand in there and take a hit. So hopefully they lean into the run game and work off play action for Jacoby, but I understand that they're gonna be playing without a lead for a lot of this year. So we'll see how that goes yeah for Jacoby, but I'm excited to see him get a starting opportunity again.
00:48:48
Speaker
man you would think yeah you were talking about josh allen the way you described jacoby reset and how much you love watching him but i do think uh your depiction of his game was quite accurate i also would agree even though i'm not quite as high on beset as you are he is probably one of the better quarterbacks you could have in this league in terms of backing up and I think he is the perfect bridge quarterback here for May. I do really think he's going to struggle in this Patriots offense, I guess going right into his traits. Obviously, ball control is a big issue for him just in terms of ball placement in general. I rarely see him be able to get as much as possible out of the play.
00:49:33
Speaker
being able to fit the ball into the right zones to his receivers in space. And I feel like this New England team is already going to struggle with creating space, getting the right timing, getting people out in the open because they have such few playmakers. I mean, you have a guy like Brissette who can be a little inconsistent with getting the ball in the right spot. I think that could cause that offense to struggle a lot.
00:49:59
Speaker
But he does have a lot of positives to his game. I agree that year in, year out, I think at this point in his career, the game is slowing down for him. And with that, the accuracy is improving a lot. He's always been kind of those big stalwart quarterbacks that, like you said, likes to stand in the pocket, doesn't shuffle around a lot, but never is really bothered by the pressure because he's just able to just strong and kind of power through the ball.
00:50:25
Speaker
Uh, he's very fundamentally sound and I think he can make a lot of passes on the field. It's just, I think the lack of ability to move around and make things happen is very limiting in this day and age in the NFL. And I think for a pocket passer, his timing anticipation and anticipation is just not good enough to make things happen on a consistent basis. You have too many three and outs with the guy like Jacobi Brissett, because if the first or second read isn't getting open,
00:50:55
Speaker
nothing's really going to happen when you have Jacoby Resett because he doesn't really have something to fall back on as a quarterback, whether it's his playmaking ability, his insane accuracy anticipation, and insane touch. He doesn't really have any superpower to rely on when plays break down. And on this New England offense, when your best receivers are like Kendrick Bourne and DeMario Douglas, maybe Juju's, if his knee repairs, like ah you You're not really gonna get a whole lot of chances and I don't know if Jacobi Brissett is the best guy to capitalize in the situation. On the other hand though, someone who maybe can make a lot of things happen and capitalize on these situations on a very poor situation is ah his backup right now and the guy who I think we both think is gonna take over much like the Broncos Vikings and commanders positions and that is Drake May.
00:51:51
Speaker
obviously being one of the more hyped prospects in this year's draft, has plenty of positives obviously with him being one of the more flexible prospects we've seen, one of the better playmakers we've seen in recent memory. He can really make a lot happen out of nothing. He's someone who's used to playing with poor supporting cast coming from a North Carolina team that especially last year did not have a whole lot of talent around him and he was still able to make plays. He has incredible, incredible arm talent. One of the, I'd say the biggest arm in this year's draft and a lot of power and velocity in that arm as well. I think where he can struggle is a lot with the footwork and fundamentals of things. I think timing routes underneath definitely can be a problem with him because he can be a little antsy and a little like
00:52:45
Speaker
kind of happy with his feet, not really ah quick and to the point and ah a very disciplined like a guy like Daniels or even a Caleb Williams is. His fundamentals are simply aren't there and because of that a lot of the easy simple plays can struggle but he is able to make up with it for it by being just such an athlete being able to release the ball in any angle really. He could have defenders draped over him. He'd still make things work.
00:53:15
Speaker
He's great at shuffling out of pressure in the pocket or even running away from it. And in general, he's just kind of a gunslinger and a playmaker. He's someone who can definitely be a spark plug to an offense, so to speak. And maybe he can do it on this New England team. Like I mentioned, the the roster is looking very dry at the moment. there He might play a lot off the play action, which I think could be beneficial for him, break make the game a little easier for him early in his career, and let him ah play a little bit off that athleticism that is a positive for him. But overall, it's going to be a struggle for him. and
00:53:53
Speaker
I think because of that, he may end up being closer to some of those other rookie quarterbacks than the high end guys like Daniels and Caleb. Yeah, I kind of have some concerns about me adapting to speed of the game. I think that his accuracy kind of got overplayed as an issue in the draft process. I didn't think that was a specific issue, but I do think that his ability or his and inability to keep the ball control on intermediate throws was something that bothered me and like you said the thing that bothered me the most was how antsy he was in the pocket and just like always itching to get out of the pocket and try to make a play which is yeah a little too excessive at times. Alright, so let's talk about some good games and bad games. So Jacobi Brissett didn't really play enough last year for us to talk about it, but I will I do want to say when he stepped in against the Rams for a Sam Halal who got benched and of course he looked fantastic man he was he was awesome in that game um it came out the next week and put together a good performance against a stacked jet defense as well so uh we'll see and i hope for your sake he plays this year man he he will play it's just about how how much he plays all right so let's talk about drake may um we've um we've discussed this on an episode so i don't want to belabor the point but the georgia tech game was
00:55:05
Speaker
one of the best games I've seen from any prospect to be honest. He was absolutely dominant that game and to look at a game that was a little bit worse we can go towards the end of the year like against Clemson um the accuracy the inability to keep control of the football just kind of continue to show up that game seemed like his timing was very off ended up taking four sacks in that game so yeah could have definitely played better in that game but yeah a little bit up and down um towards the end of the year overall Drake may was Yeah, I'd agree with you that the Georgia Tech game was probably the best game we saw, as we ah ah mentioned on the Drake May episode, breaking down his college games. I guess to highlight another game I thought is Syracuse game. He was fantastic as well. Maybe not quite as good in terms of his accuracy and precision, but volume wise, he was making chunk play after chunk play in that game. If you want exciting highlights, that Syracuse game absolutely is the one to watch.
00:56:01
Speaker
of many monster passes crazy a lot of playmaking there as well really showcasing what I think he will look like as an NFL player and he was very good last season so I also don't think there were too many bad games I'd agree that the NC State game was probably his worst and he did end off the year kinda on back-to-back stinkers I'd say because the second horse was probably that Clemson game where we saw him take plenty of sacks that kinda happy feet that we see where He gets a bit ah too excited and tries to make too much happen, kind of came to play there, led to all those sacks happening, and that also ended up kind of stockpiling and making him inaccurate and a little bit even less fundamentally sound than he normally is. Which I guess as we transition away from May, I'll say as a final negative point, I do think with him, more so than any of these other prospects, I think mistakes can kind of stack.
00:56:58
Speaker
maybe mccarter McCarthy is in a similar boat with him but May is definitely the kind of guy that when you psych him out early in a game get uh kind of his confidence out of whack he definitely can stockpile those mistakes and make a bad game into a really bad one. All right so let's move on to our next team that's going to be the Carolina Panthers um Started off with the starter Bryce Young.
Bryce Young: Strengths and Weaknesses
00:57:25
Speaker
Bryce's strengths are in terms of accuracy and anticipation, or at least that's what we hope that it will be this year. It didn't really show up last year because of and an atrocious situation that was one of the worst in the NFL.
00:57:38
Speaker
Rice also has good mobility for the position and can make plays out of structure. He has good vision over the middle of the field and is willing to test windows with that anticipation. um And he is pretty decent in the quick game I would say. um But again, like I said, the the receivers generating quick set quick separation would be a bit of a pipe dream.
00:58:00
Speaker
So yeah, we didn't really see a lot of the the traits that make Bryce young great that we saw in college. we Those did not translate to the NFL quite quickly. In terms of weaknesses, Bryce's size is always going to be something to talk about. But I wanted to more so emphasize something that I think is easily, or not easily, something that is potentially correctable for him. And that's the footwork.
00:58:23
Speaker
He takes a very long time to get to the top of his drop with ah one and a half false steps. Essentially, he starts with his right foot back. um It takes kind of a half step and then a false step with his left um and then goes into the standard dropback, which is kind of throwing off the timing, I think, of the offense. And I hope that Dave Kanellis is.
00:58:41
Speaker
offense can kind of work that into the way that the structure works because Baker Mayfield kind of had some similar issues with the fall steps and what naturally worked for him as a thrower. So would be interested to see how Canales incorporates that. And then the other thing that bothered me about Bryce Young in terms of weaknesses last year was that um the the ball control on his deep ball just was not there. It looked really bad when he was throwing the deep ball on a number of occasions. Of course,
00:59:09
Speaker
some of those deep passes like the hand-eye coordination that you need to throw into some of the some of the windows that the receivers were creating with separation the standard is quite high there but I would have liked to see some of those passes be less uncatchable than they were um yeah helping for a better situation this year with one of the better separators in league with Deonta Johnson and whatnot so we'll see how it goes with a brand new situation for Bryce I think brand new is a bit of a stretch because they did add guys like, I guess Deontay Johnson, but I think it is still a very, very similar situation to what we saw last year. Maybe not as bad, but still definitely one of the worst situations in the league. But I think I am getting to the point where that's starting to no longer be as big big of an excuse for Bryce Young as
01:00:02
Speaker
ah It should as people may be making out to be now I am absolutely on board with how his rookie season was massively affected with him being ah ah Surrounded by one of the worst rosters in the league, especially on offense but I think at some point we're going to need to see some of those traits that we saw out of him in college and I I don't know if all of it is just coming down to the fact that the offense sucks because I I think at some point we have to blame Bryce Young as well and you didn't talk about it but I'll jump into I think his biggest negative trait and it'll always be his biggest negative trait. It is his size. I mean we hammered it home last year with the rookie pods and throughout the season so I won't go too deep with it but Bryce Young's size is always gonna limit him. I think the injury concerns showed up a little bit last year.
01:00:56
Speaker
It's gonna continue to be a problem as we see him take more and more hits. But also simply, I think he himself is not strong and commanding enough in the pocket to be a consistent pocket passer at his size. We rarely see him stick in the pocket and deliver passes when things get a little muddy. ah He is constantly trying to peek around and find lanes rather than stay, stand strong and deliver passes.
01:01:26
Speaker
kind of like your favorite Jacoby Brissett loves to do. And at some point he's going to be ah have to do that because he's not the play a playmaker. He's not the type of guy who can consistently go out of structure out of the pocket and make things happen. Bryce Young is at his best when he's in the pocket using that anticipation and accuracy that we saw at Alabama. And I don't know if he's ever going to be able to do that simply because his size doesn't allow him to be commanding and powerful enough to deliver those passes. And I agree with you on the footwork. I think for someone as small as him, for someone as limited as him,
01:02:05
Speaker
even athletically for someone one of his size, the biggest thing should be his footwork, where he is the best at. And I think with that being a little bit, ah not at it's that not being at its best, probably being ah due to a little bit of a lack of confidence because of how much the offense struggled that year, because I feel like coming into the league, he was a lot more fundamentally sound out of Alabama. And it seems to be a little bit with his dropback,
01:02:33
Speaker
He lost it a little bit, he's not as confident, he's a little bit more lackadaisical, and that's throwing off the timing of everything. And in terms of his deep ah passing ability, I would cut him a little bit more slack about the control going downfield. and I think that'll come more with repetition. He really wasn't throwing the ball downfield much at all last season because of how bad that offense was. They didn't have receivers to throw the ball downfield to, so he wasn't doing it a lot.
01:03:02
Speaker
and naturally with that you're not gonna have the best downfield passes but I think that's something when he does have a downfield threat which I don't even think he has this season but I do think with how accurate he is how great of a touch he has and how much of an anticipator he is I think his deep passing is gonna get there once they get the right personnel around him to me that's not an issue and it's more so what he does before he even passes the ball. I think once he passes the ball, he's amazing. But to get to that point, I don't know if he's good enough pre-snap. I don't know if he's good enough in the pocket. I don't know if he's good enough reading the defense and finding the pass that suits his play style. I don't know if he's good enough at that yet.
01:03:49
Speaker
All right, let's go to his backup, Andy Dalton. I'm a big fan of Andy Dalton. I'm sure Buddy will know about that too. But Dalton, very strong arm, has ability to move around in the pocket, is aggressive throwing down the field, has vision that he's kind of developed over time.
01:04:06
Speaker
but his experience in the league and the biggest area that has made me like Andy Dalton more than earlier on in his career is that his accuracy has improved a ton to where now I would say he's solidly in the top half of guys in the league among starters and backups in terms of his accuracy and yeah I really do think that um if he was in a different situation and was able to get a starting job he would perform admirably And I and I really would be excited to see him in a starting situation much like we mentioned what you could be preset. So Hopefully we can get that one more day one day again Yeah, you can continue hoping because I could care less if Andy Dalton's ever a starter again He can continue being a backup and it won't affect me. But as as a player, I do agree He has massively improved. He has stuck around a lot longer than I'd expect
01:05:03
Speaker
ah And I never thought he'd really develop into this backup role because of mainly the accuracy issue When we did see the red rifle Andy Dalton when he was in his prime throwing the ball to AJ Green You saw a lot more of a sporadic passer in terms of accuracy He was a lot more of the gunslinging type, and he has massively ah transformed his game to be much more of a game manager or someone who's very accurate, makes the right passes, perfect timing, and a solid anticipator as well. And I'd maybe even argue that he's probably similar to Bryce Young at this point in terms of
01:05:44
Speaker
level of quarterback. Last year we both agreed he was better. I think ideally Bryce Young ends up being better this year. If he isn't that's really really scary down in Carolina. So I do have Bryce Young projected to be better but at this moment in time Andy Dalton might be the best quarterback there. He's certainly more accurate. I definitely trust him a lot more in the pocket. He definitely doesn't have the anticipation And big play ability with his arm that Bryce Young has, you're not really gonna see him challenge the passes downfield the way that Bryce Young still can do. But I think in terms of creating ah offense, Andy Dalton's still probably better because he's more consistent right now.
01:06:29
Speaker
And I think in this Carolina offense, though, neither of them necessarily have what it takes to develop and improve. I mean, you do have a guy like Deontay Johnson, like PD said, who is a good separator, but you have an aging Adam Thielen.
01:06:46
Speaker
younger guys who may or may not break out in Jonathan Mingo, Xavier Laguette, Terrace Marshall, all of those are really depth guys. You have a very questionable offensive line still at this point, even with a couple of new signings. And the run game really is ah ah absent at this point, unless Jonathan Brooks takes a massive jump early in his career. I don't see much happening with Hubbard and Sanders. So very, very weak Panthers offense.
01:07:17
Speaker
all Alright, so to wrap it up for the Panthers, um Andy Dalton didn't play enough for a good and a bad game, but he was good in the one game that he did play. As for Bryce Young, the good game I have highlighted is the one against the Packers. He ended up making a number of explosive plays in that game, not really the style of play that you would expect for him to follow going into next year, but made some awesome throws outside of structure. One in particular to DJ Chark when he was sprinting full full speed to his right and nailed it in the right corner of the end zone. and um Just a very strong game. um And then for a bad game, I went with week one against the Falcons. It just looked very, very maladjusted to the speed of the game. Came out through two bad interceptions, suggested baits, plus another fumble. The offense just did not get going at all in that game. Looked like a rookie in his first start. So what can you say? Yeah.
01:08:11
Speaker
I mean, for me, that game definitely was bad. But as you said, it was a rookie in his first game. So I cut him a little bit of slack. The game that worried me even more and I think shows a lot of the concerns I have for him going into next year and why I'm so low on Bryce Young overall is the final game of the season against the Buccaneers. I feel like in that game, he necessarily wasn't as mistake prone as we saw in some of the other games this season, like the Atlanta game or even The Panthers game, I believe it was in the middle of the season or, uh, no, I might not. It may not have been the Panthers or, uh, who was it? It was the Colts game, uh, in the middle of the season that, uh, I felt like he made a lot more mistakes, but in that Tampa game, I feel like we really saw Bryce Young kind of capitulate and blow up as a pastor. I mentioned how Drake May does have that tendency of letting
01:09:08
Speaker
mistake stack and just having his offense get completely out of the game because of how much he psyched out. I felt like that happened to that Buccaneers game. He was extremely conservative to the point where their offense could do nothing simply because things weren't working out early in the game and he became ultra conservative. He wasn't really trying anything. And when you see Bryce Young get to that point where he's not really taking risks with his anticipation,
01:09:36
Speaker
utilizing that accuracy and that superpower ability he has to make plays happen by just throwing the ball with pinpoint accuracy and getting it to the right spot. When he's not taking those risks, you really see him do nothing on the field. And I don't know at what point he's gonna get to where he's confident enough to make those passes at all times.
01:09:58
Speaker
And for a good game, I'll probably just piggyback off PD's game because that Packers game I think was far and beyond the best game of the year. Definitely the most chunk plays we saw out of him. ah Very, very accurate and it honestly caught most people by surprise. I thought most people believed that Packers team that was pretty hot at that ten time was just going to blow the up Panthers out of the water.
01:10:22
Speaker
And the Panthers came out firing with a very strong first half and Bryce Young played very well.
01:10:31
Speaker
Alright, so let's move on to our final quarterback room of the day. and That's going to be the Titans with Will Lewis and Mason Rudolph.
Will Levis: Strong Arm but Incomplete Game
01:10:40
Speaker
Potty ended up higher on this bunch than I did because he likes Will Lewis more than I do, apparently. But to start off with Will Lewis' strengths and weaknesses, Lewis has an absolute rocket launcher for an arm. In terms of max distance, he would probably be up there among the top guys in the league. Just an absolute nuke.
01:10:57
Speaker
key Also has very good velocity, pushing it down the field and outside the numbers. um His touch could use a lot of work. His ball control could also use a lot of work. And I think most parts of his game beyond that could also use more work. He just kind of has the arm talent and the aggression to play the quarterback position, but the rest of his game feels pretty incomplete to me. His accuracy is extremely shoddy. His ability to avoid s sacks is a big area of concern.
01:11:29
Speaker
tends to run himself into pressure a lot and thinks that he can bail himself out of any situation with his athleticism, which to be fair, he is he is someone who can make big plays under pressure, but it's greatly outweighed by the negatives that he gets under pressure with interceptions, fumbles, sacks. Yeah, just kind of a very volatile type of quarterback, very up and down. i'm Interested to see if any of those issues are fixable, because those are things that kind of tend to stick around for quarterbacks in the long term.
01:11:57
Speaker
Yeah, as a player, I don't necessarily disagree much about what you said about Levis, and I wouldn't even say I'm necessarily that much higher on you than you on Levis. We are, I think, ever since Levis was drafted pretty consensus against him as a player, and I think I've turned a little bit ah on him for the positive.
01:12:18
Speaker
But still I still have a lot of concerns with them for sure I think where we disagree is where he is in comparison to some of these other guys I think you have guys like the people we mentioned recently with Andy Dalton Jacoby Brissett Russell Wilson Daniel Jones guys like that above him and I simply don't see how I could have guys like Levis below those guys because I no none of those group of quarterbacks necessarily scream to me guys I can rely on to not put the ball in harm's way a lot or ah consistently be like good quarterbacks whereas ah Levis even though he does have those negatives he has the upside of being such a aggressive quarterback with such a massive arm that he can make plays happen out of nowhere make chunk plays happen that
01:13:11
Speaker
these other guys like a Brissett or a Dalton can't and obviously if some of those guys were good enough in the pocket and did have the volume of a whole season of picking apart defenses from the pocket without putting the ball in harm's way they would be a little bit higher but a lot of these guys like Daniel Jones or even guys like Bryce Young I feel like have a lot of the negatives that a guy like Will Levis does in terms of inconsistencies with accuracy, in terms of lack of ball control, in terms of kind of struggling to utilize any version of anticipation. I think all of those guys have that. But Levis has just sewn those high-end games that we'll talk about in a second that these other guys haven't, where he does make those chunk plays. He does get like a 60-yard touchdown that can turn a game around.
01:14:00
Speaker
because of that kind of X-Factor I have Will Levis maybe not as one of the worst starters in the league but just in that next bunch above because he has that kind of random X-Factor to his game.
01:14:14
Speaker
All right, let's talk about the backup Mason Rudolph really quick. Mason Rudolph has very similar up and down tendencies to Olevis, but without any of the arm talent. Just not a player that I'm very excited to watch in general. Just really like very inconsistent in terms of accuracy. Not too much playmaking. He has good size and a decent arm, but that's kind of about it. So I just, yeah, I kind of struggle with Mason Rudolph.
01:14:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think you were pretty generous on your evaluation there, too. I'm honestly, and I maybe say this with a lot of guys, but with Mason Rudolphs, I'm really surprised he's still gotten a backup role here. I think the Titans really didn't have many other options with Malik Willis I guess flaming out as early as he has in his career but yeah Mason Rudolph outside of size really not much else he can do I don't really trust him going underneath or downfield ah doesn't really have much accuracy doesn't really have any athletic ability to rely on to get out of sticky situations so very very poor quarterback and honestly if he skewed more for backups I feel like that would have
01:15:28
Speaker
ah lowered where I ranked this Titans room overall, but because it was more starter based, I am gonna give the edge because I do believe a little bit in Levis compared to some of these other worst starters, but I'm not particularly mad at the Titans of being around here.
01:15:45
Speaker
And I guess talking about both these guys in the context of their teams and how we expect them to play, I do think Will Levis will be in an offense that suits him a little bit more now that they've added a guy like Calvin Ridley who can be a little bit of a downfield threat and also so someone who can get a little bit of separation for him over the middle. he can't he I don't know, we we didn't see it much in Jacksonville but In Atlanta, we saw him run a lot of crossing routes, a lot of things over the middle of the field ah to get separation and go east and west with the ball. He has a guy like DeAndre Hopkins, where I'm not really sure what's going on with him in terms of injuries. I heard he got hurt recently or something, so I'm not sure about his availability. But if he is playing, I guess he's still kind of a downfield threat. He can win some 50-50 balls. But we are looking at a cooked version of DeHop.
01:16:39
Speaker
I think Tyler Boyd is a huge addition for ah a guy like Will Levis. He's someone who can be a kind of reliable possession receiver, get you a lot of, ah out of a lot of third, fourth down jams. Someone that Will Levis can just fire it into, into tight windows whenever he needs to and can rely on to catch. He has some big targets like trailing Berks and a Conquo as well. So I do think this is a solid offense to put around Levis. Obviously not the best.
01:17:08
Speaker
They have a lot of aging players and Pollard, Ridley Hopkins, but at least there's some talent around him so that he's not completely flailing for himself like Bryce Young has to.
01:17:21
Speaker
Alright, let's look at some good and bad games. So if for Will Lewis, I'm gonna go to his first game um as the best game. Just explosives left and right, off play action, just throwing bombs after bombs. It was awesome to watch. And one of the better rookie debuts I can remember in a while. For his worst game, I'm gonna go with the next week.
01:17:39
Speaker
immediately after against Pittsburgh, where he was trying to throw as many game endding and interceptions as possible before his wish was finally granted at the end. um Not a great performance in terms of his accuracy, sack-taking, but he did, as usual, make a ton of explosive plays, which is kind of the thing with Will Levis. And then for Mason Rudolph, um his game against Seattle kind of stood out to me. um making some nice explosive plays down the field, only taking one sack, but bet the rest of his games I didn't think were particularly impressive. um And to kind of touch on his game against Baltimore, um they barely threw the ball past the line of scrimmage, um and he still managed to managed to end up with three turn-a-worthy plays on his 20 pass attempts. And none of them were reflected in the basic box score, so not a great performance there from Rudolph, but yeah.
01:18:27
Speaker
Yeah, in terms of Levis, I would agree that Pittsburgh is probably in my bottom two. The other game in my bottom two would be the following week against Tampa Bay, where I feel like he struggled a lot as well. He showed kind of a little bit of lack of pocket presence, which is weird for someone of his stature. And I think in general, he is the type of guy who is pretty strong in the pocket, but he was bailing a lot in that game. I think the pressure got to him and he was consistently taking bad sacks. And I think that blew head into His passing as well because he was extremely inaccurate. I think the lack of fundamentals really showed in that game And I think the Bucks defense really got in his head because he was making a lot of errant passes with very very weird sort of footwork one of ah his most inaccurate games by far and I'll probably just have to piggyback off your best game because there weren't that many good games for him and
01:19:21
Speaker
And that makes to to make it abundantly clear, I don't have a lot of up so hope and upside for Will Levis based off his rookie season. Because like I said, I was very low on him. And rankings wise, he'd be probably pretty low on my rankings for last year. I just do feel he makes that jump because of the traits he possesses in comparison to some of these other guys. And that's what he showed in the Atlanta game.
01:19:48
Speaker
ah in that game he was able to get a clean pocket and when he had that he had guys getting open downfield he was able to make those passes and you saw multiple chunk plays you saw a very great play action game as well overall that is probably the will levis that would be successful and maybe they can replicate it again I think they did a little bit later in the year with the Miami game but You really still didn't see it in its full effect since that Atlanta game. And in terms of Mason Rudolph, I'll probably just agree with the UPD, either that Ravens game or even that playoff game against Buffalo. Both were absolutely horrific watches. I mean, neither did he even try to go downfield until I'd say later in the Buffalo game when garbage time happened and the Steelers had no choice but to make something happen. He went downfield. But other than that, he really showed no
01:20:45
Speaker
kind of semblance of trying, and I refuse to give Mason Rudolph a good game, because other than maybe that Bangles game, he really didn't have many ah impressive showings. All right, that'll be all from us for this one. Make sure to like the rating, do what you need to do, and remember the platform that you're listening on. Make sure to follow me at p34 underscore, and Potty at River Ho Potty 2. That'll be all from me, that'll be all from Potty. We'll see you guys in the next one. Peace. Peace.