Rookie QB Chronicles #8
“Preseason Week 1”
Before I review the pre-season performances I would like to put a few things in perspective. These are practice games. The opponents of our rookie quarterbacks were in most cases, not first teamers. Also, these young quarterbacks are following different introductory coaching philosophies. While some coaches are choosing to let them loose and play their full game, others are choosing to work on specific parts of their game. For that reason, I am not making decisions about any of these players based on their performance this week. I am focusing on the evidence of what makes them exciting prospects, and evidence of what may justify concerns these young men have to address. But regardless of who the opponent is, this was an exciting first look against other teams with different defensive schemes. And overall, our young crop of quarterbacks did not disappoint.
Mac Jones excited the New England fanbase with his performance in his first exhibition game this past Thursday evening. He completed 13 of 19 pass attempts and protected the ball with no interceptions. But should they celebrate finding the next Tom Brady? There are a few things that are not quite negative, but need to be kept in mind when evaluating Mac’s performance. His yards per attempt was 4.6, leaving him with a passer rating of 78.2. He also played many of his snaps versus Washington’s 2nd and 3rd teams. Cam Newton finished his limited action completing 4 of 7 pass attempts, but with 7 yards per pass attempt and a slightly higher passing rating of 78.9.
Again, it should also be noted that this is just pre-season. Dwayne Haskins Jr. completed 16 of 22 passes with a touchdown and a passing rating of 108.3 against the Eagles that same night. But you will not hear the Pittsburgh fan base calling for him to be given the starting job over Ben Roethlisberger because of this performance. While it is encouraging to see the former first round pick perform well after being cut by Washington after only two seasons, he has a lot more to prove. All fans need to keep perspective this time of year. This is not the regular season.
So what does this mean in New England? I think it means things are going to plan so far. In spite of what some of the fan base is hoping for in terms of who will start the season, plans have not changed. Cam Newton will be the team’s starter at the opening of the season…barring injury. Mac Jones is developing nicely and is being groomed to take over the team in the future. The only real question is how long in the future? I believe the answer will be determined by the play of Cam Newton during the season, more than Mac Jones performance in practice.
Meanwhile, with less playing time, Zach Wilson had a similar day. He finished with an efficient 6 of 9 for 63 yds and avoided throwing any interceptions as well. He did finish with a higher yards per attempt at 7 yards per pass and a 86.8 passing rating. However, he only played two drives. The most impressive part of his outing was going 3 of 4 on third down action. Zach looked poised and made good decisions in his short time on the field. He was also protected with a run-first game plan that was clearly designed to avoid having too much placed on his shoulders. The Jets fanbase will look forward to seeing more of him next weekend against Green Bay.
The two young quarterbacks Shaun King predicted to be better than Zach Wilson, Kyle Trask and Kellen Mond, did not fare as well in their first opportunities. Kyle Trask finished 4 of 15 with a whopping 35 yards and a 39.6 passing rating. Kellen Mond finished 6 of 16 with 53 yards tallying a 47.1 passing rating. Maybe Shaun King is as good an evaluator of talent as he was as a player: Very below average and lacking any relevancy, Davis Mills out of Stanford did not fare much better completing 11 of 22 for 112 yards. This was accompanied by an interception leading to a passer rating of 46 in his first live action.
Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence had a similar day to Zach Wilson statistically finishing 6 of 9 with a passing rating of 90.5. However, he did look indecisive at times, and the hesitation to throw the ball did contribute to him being sacked twice. He did make some very nice passes as well, and did nothing to make the Jacksonville fan base panic and fear he is not the future franchise quarterback they have believed he will be since selecting him in the draft. With two nice completions to Marvin Jones Jr., Trevor showed glimpses of what is to come. This talk about him battling for the starting job is complete nonsense, and I do not think anyone is taking it seriously; the job is his to lose.
The legitimate quarterback controversies are building in Chicago and San Francisco. Both teams insist veteran quarterbacks will start the season, but that gets harder for the fan base of both organizations to swallow each passing day. Especially after the performance of both rookie quarterbacks this past weekend. Neither disappointed or failed to make their case for stepping into the starting role by week one of the regular season.
Justin Fields got off to a slow start his first couple of drives, but to be fair, it was his supporting cast that was more at fault for this early struggle. The first two drives were littered with penalties and were just plain bad football. Justin Fields kept his composure and did not appear fazed. I appreciated his second drive where he clearly worked on staying in the pocket in order to focus on the development in that area of his game. But, after that drive, we got to see what makes Justin Fields the dangerous player that is sure to create major problems for defenses across the NFL.
At the end of the day, Justin finished 14 of 20, with a TD and a passer rating of 106.7 helped by a healthy 7.6 yards per pass attempt. He also showed off his athleticism, rushing for 33 yards and adding an additional touchdown to his day. This performance will certainly lead to more fans questioning the decision to have Andy Dalton begin the season as starter. It is hard to believe Andy has the ability to make the Bears a serious contender for a Superbowl appearance. But with Justin Fields it is at least a possibility. And even if he is not enough in his rookie year, why not make the shift now and give the kid the reps to learn and grow right away?
While Trey Lance did not have the day Justin Fields had, he did throw an 80-yard touchdown pass in a play most NFL quarterbacks would not have made. More importantly, it is not a play most fans believe Jimmy Garoppolo could have made. This is why the San Francisco fanbase is adamant about Trey Lance taking the reins of this football team right away. While Jimmy did fine in his one drive, completing 3 of 3 in his pass attempts, the fan base is tired of his limitations and inability to do the things their new draft pick can do.
Apparently that one big play made the fans forget Trey’s numbers were not that impressive otherwise. Outside of that one monster, he completed only 4 of 13 pass attempts for 48 yards. Now that is a very small sample, and there is no reason to be concerned about the young player at this time, but it is something to watch. The coaching staff is unlikely to change their plans at starting quarterback unless Trey can show more consistency. Also worth noting is Trey made no rushing attempts. This leads me to believe his coaching staff had him focus on specific elements of his game.
The Sactown NFL Report (Jeremy Krevat)