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Making the case for Lamar Jackson


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On 3/26/2018 at 5:19 PM, Blokestradamus said:

 

I'll go as far as saying this. Lamar Jackson is a quarterback. If his film says anything but that to you, you're doing it wrong.

 

His mobility is a plus in theory. PFF put out a stat about 70% of his rushing yards being on designed runs, not scrambles. If you watch the games, you should tell the difference between a scramble and a zone read or inverted veer play.

 

Does Lamar need work? Of course. His feet get too narrow, causes accuracy issues. He can look to escape pressure but he does a good job of keeping his eyes up against the rush. I think the biggest difference between him and Tyrod is that Lamar wants to be a passer and will stick with his reads longer. He's more intuitive and aggressive as a passer.

 

Narrow feet isn’t his biggest issue,it’s his release that causes velocity issues. He also throws an “ugly” ball,which is also caused by his odd release.  There’s only a forward wrist flick with no wrist follow through, which is akin to a pitcher throwing a screwball. That is why his ball spins awkwardly and wobbly passes seem to be the norm. That could be a reason his receivers dropped so many passes,or they just suck.

 

Tack on a professional pass rush, with the necessity of quick reads and you’ve got a huge project QB.

Can he learn to change all this? Maybe if he has time to throw,but once the bullets start flying he will revert to his comfort zone.

 

I agree,he appears to be a much better passer than Taylor, mostly because he doesn’t have to find throwing lanes as often and will complete his checks.

Running for a QB is a last resort and shouldn’t be done often for the obvious health reasons.

 

The Bills are not drafting this kid. They’ll draft Rudolph before Jackson.

Pass.

Edited by dlonce
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I like to watch all the top qbs during interviews and I can’t say that I am surprised by his low score. Jackson seems like a nice kid but he was the least impressive qb to me during interviews. If I had not known better, I actually would have thought Jackson was CB and not at QB. 

 

He still is an incredible talent as a runner but I would have serious concerns about him as a long term answer at qb. NFL defenses are fast and throw complicated looks at qbs every week. Only those  qbs that are able to figure out the puzzles being thrown at them each week remain at the top for long periods.

 

It’s possible he is more football smart and could still work out like a Kelly or Marino. But I think the game has evolved more toward the thinking player. Players need to process lots of info quickly and solve defensive riddles being thrown their way. I think that is why the Bills would end up taking Rudolph over Jackson if they can’t trade up.

 

 

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Lamar Jackson is a project but honestly, if he is there at pick 22 I wouldn't mind taking him there. They can fill 4 other needs on the roster at picks 12, 53, 56 and 65 while having AJ game manage a team that suddenly can add 4 possible starters via the draft along with depth in the mid rounds. The Bills have already filled needs this off-season and 2 or more quality starters plus some useful depth acquired in the draft are enough to improve the team to a point where AJ McCarron as a game manager can win the team games. Then throw in a windfall of cap space in 2019 and you could be comfortable with a project QB for a couple of seasons. 

 

Jackson to me has the most tantalizing potential of any QB in this draft. He could be Michael Vick like with his freak athleticism and raw throwing ability. But Vick was coming into replace Chris Chander at the very back end of his career and Vick didn't have the right environment in Atlanta where they failed to develop Vick as a player and person. Maybe the Bills with McCarron hold down the fort and do well enough to actually allow for a project QB to develop for 2-3 years. 

 

If Jackson secures his fundamentals (Which are not nearly as bad as scouts make them out to be but certainly need work) and learns to operate an NFL system by sitting for 2-3 years he can actually develop into his potential while learning from a smart QB (McCarron played under a notoriously demanding coach in Saben and a respected coach for 4 years in Marvin Lewis.)

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Same question as Allen thread(s), for same reason: College football is now Live Action Techmo Bowl, but I think I found a way to cut through its BS.

 

How many different receivers does Jackson target per game? (Forget stats, forget defenses, because its all relative, and, because, again, Techmo Bowl. Also, forget completions, because I don't wanna get into coulda/shoulda RE: drops, bad routs, defender fell down, blah)

 

I figure if he targets lots of different guys/game, he must have to see them to target them, and that might tell us if he can do what is required in the NFL.

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There just seems to be a lot of shade being thrown at Jackson here as though the wonderlic is icing on the cake.

 

Yeah, you want your QB to be smart, but football smart. Why is it important for a QB to be able to quickly do arithmetic or solve analogies or state what's the 8th month in the year?

 

It's been debated whether the Wonderlic is racially biased or not. I don't know and don't want to debate that. But what I do know, from professional experience as a teacher: standardized tests are being weighed less and less by colleges, which are looking at the all-around student.

 

Jackson has incredible natural physical talent, but is he football smart and willing to work? I think so:

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2662128-the-education-of-lamar-jackson-how-louisville-qb-went-from-project-to-superstar.amp.html

The Education of Lamar Jackson: How Louisville QB Went from Project to Superstar

 

He picked Louisville, knowing coach Bobby Petrino's history of developing QBs. Then Petrino delivered the playbook.

 

"It looked like foreign letters," Jackson remembers. "I came from a high school where I didn't have a playbook or anything like that. Coach would draw it up and get the headset on, and we'd go after it."

 

and

 

 

And so when Jackson arrived on campus, he was not even named among the three guys who might be the starting quarterback. The playbook was still Greek to him, as were progressions, tight ends in motion and blitzes. Darn blitzes.

 

That was a year ago. A few days ago, he threw for six touchdowns and ran for two more.

 

and

 

"At first, I was like, 'Why are they trying to make me do this?'" Jackson says. "'I'm trying to sleep.' It was crazy. I'd watch my bad plays—my good plays, too."

 

The truth is, at first he wasn't even sure exactly what he was watching. Then it started making sense, and he realized he enjoyed it. "When I started getting more into it, I realized, 'This is what I'm here for.'"

 

and

 

Petrino says some of the things usually considered "natural intangibles" need to be worked on, too. For example, last year, Jackson was petrified to talk with the media. So he took a media class and also enlisted the help of a local reporter.

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Lamar is a good and humble guy. I respect him and think he could develop into a good backup but using his legs like in college and Taylor .

 

That is still a good career just not a 1st rd for me.

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The wonderlic score for Jackson (13) is another similarity to Taylor (15). Taylor was able to sit behind Flacco and learn for 4 years before he competed and won a starting job in his 5th year. 

 

Taylor seemed to overcome the low score through hard work and Jackson could do the same. But Taylor never took the next step and developed into the franchise qb and whether the low wonderlic score played a factor in limiting him is not really known. 

 

As a fan of Tyrod, I admired his athletic ability, dedication, toughness and calm demeanor. One area where Tyrod seemed to struggle was situational football, especially 2 minute drives. He did not move fast enough in those situations for my liking and whether that had anything to do with processing speed we don’t know. But there was a vast difference in the way Brady, Wilson, Rodgers etc. ran 2 minutes situations as opposed to Taylor. Some of this might have been coaching but Taylor did not seem to always know the right times to spike the ball to conserve the most time. Again, not sure this is related to an intelligence test but it is possible there is a relationship. 

 

I just think the timing is bad for Jackson to Buffalo with the Bills coming off 3 years of Taylor. This regime clearly made a decision to move on from Taylor to get better and I don’t think they moved on from him to draft a player that is all to similar to Taylor. Right or wrong it does not appear to be a match. 

 

And before we go too far down the rabbit hole of the wonderlic being racially biased keep in mind that Colin Kaepernick (37), Wilson (28), Winston (27) and Newton (21) all performaned at a moderate to excellent level. 

 

I think the wonderlic is probably like most of the other measurables like height, hand size, arm strength etc.  A qb needs a certain amount to be successful but there are outliers and players can compensate for deficiencies in one area by being particularly strong in another. But there is a reason the NFL gives the test and I suspect the size of NFL playbooks has something to do with it. 

Edited by racketmaster
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9 hours ago, kdiggz said:

Nope I'd take Cam or Jameis any day of the week and if you look back you will find posts saying we need to do whatever it takes to draft them. Jameis was my top QB since Luck at the time

I understand trepidations about Lamar or any of these guys especially Allen, but Lamar is not the same as TT.

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23 minutes ago, 4merper4mer said:

I understand trepidations about Lamar or any of these guys especially Allen, but Lamar is not the same as TT.

No two players are exactly the same but it is hard to deny that they share many similar qualities (lower comp. %, explosive runners, big play ability with the deep ball, hard working and determined to be a quarterback (Taylor was also asked to change positions by some teams), similar wonderlic score etc.  There are more similarities and also some differences but I don’t think there is a better current player comparison to Jackson. 

 

We often hear the comparison of Darnold to Romo and they do share many similarities but also have some differences. Overall it seems like a fair comparison and comparing players  is just what evaluators do at this time of year. They rate players in part by what they have seen in the past and what will work and what does not. Those experiences help decision makers get an idea of what a player will be like at the next level. 

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Guest K-GunJimKelly12

I am glad that people are starting to see that Jackson is just not a very good passer.  He misses a lot of throws and has real trouble passing outside the hashes.  I really feel like a lot of people who are high on him, are that way because of Jeremy White and Mike Schopp, who really don't know what they are talking about.  Schopp just wants to go against the grain no matter what it is.  About 6 weeks ago, White was talking about Jackson being a top 5 pick, the guy is clueless.  Then you have Howard Simon who agrees with everything White says, and Bulldog who agrees with everything Schopp says, reinforcing the beliefs among the fan base, much of whom have probably never watched a full game of Lamar Jackson or maybe just his highlights.

Edited by K-GunJimKelly12
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