Some of the most uninformed conversations every NFL Draft season center around quarterback mechanics. Many NFL quarterback coaches will even concede they aren’t experts in mechanics; their job is more centered on installing the offense and game plan.
Mechanics are important because they affect how well and consistently a quarterback throws. Every quarterback should continue to refine their mechanics throughout their careers, and some must make major changes early in theirs. Naturally, mechanics will be a major talking point every year when evaluating quarterback prospects.
Even if you’re not a coach or scout, if you have watched football for a long time, you have an ingrained idea of how mechanics should look. Sometimes a prospect’s mechanics look different, but it doesn’t mean they have to be corrected. But mechanics are difficult. The science behind throwing a football hasn’t been developed and researched as much as the science behind a golf swing or pitching in baseball. A lot of old-time assumptions are passed off as truths. To work on their mechanics, quarterbacks will go to private coaches who are committed to the science of throwing the ball and how to teach it.
Scoop City Newsletter
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign up
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign up
Buy
To add some informed opinions about the mechanics of this year’s top quarterback prospects, I got some of the top private quarterback coaches in the country to rate and comment on how Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, J.J. McCarthy, Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix and Spencer Rattler throw the ball. They will remain anonymous because they have worked with some of the discussed prospects in some capacity and could in the future.
They graded efficiency, speed, adaptability and overall mechanics on a scale of 1-5. I averaged their overall grades for a final grade. Efficiency is the ability to transfer force from their hips, speed is how quick their release is, and adaptability is how well they can adjust their mechanics to overcome external factors. The overall grade isn’t a cumulative score of the other three categories but just a grade on the quarterback’s overall mechanics that could include factors outside of the listed categories.
These grades are strictly for mechanics, which doesn’t correlate with an overall grade for a quarterback. Playing quarterback involves many factors other than mechanics. This article focuses on only one element of quarterback play, one often rife with conjecture.
• 1 – Problematic
• 2 – Will take a lot of work to fix
• 3 – Fixable
• 4 – Good
• 5 – Excellent
Caleb Williams
Efficiency: 4.8
Adaptability: 5
Speed: 4.25
Overall: 4.9
Williams is hailed for his off-script highlights, but his mechanics make him special. The overwhelming consensus is that Williams is a uniquely efficient thrower. One coach compared his mechanics to Aaron Rodgers’. Another said he’s one of the most efficient back-hip rotators he’s seen, which is the speed at which his hips rotate into the throw combined with his ability to quickly stabilize his front to create a great amount of force into his throw.
“Regarding NFL readiness, no prospect has a foundation for throwing and movement efficiency like Caleb,” one coach said. “Although his arm strength is the first percentile, he can throttle and adapt his throw at a similar level to (Patrick) Mahomes.”
“You’ll see guys like Caleb and Mahomes; they have crazy external rotation,” another coach said. “So what I mean by that is when they start their throw motion from the horizontal L. When they get to this vertical point and start going forward, their arm is able to go so far past 90 degrees that it allows them to change arm angles with their spine angle. If you notice, C.J. Stroud, who’s a great thrower of course, doesn’t have that same external rotation.”
This comment wasn’t meant to be a dig at Stroud but rather to differentiate and highlight Williams’ special ability to change his arm angles and still throw accurately. One criticism of Williams’ mechanics is that he tends to slow his arm too much when he’s trying to layer throws, which can affect ball placement, but that can be fixed.
GO DEEPER
‘Energetic, charismatic’: Why Caleb Williams checks the ‘person’ boxes for the Bears
Unsurprisingly, Williams’ mechanics were rated by far the highest, but don’t let that skew how the others are graded. No other quarterback finished with an overall grade above 4.0, which is more realistic for young quarterbacks entering the league.
Drake Maye
Efficiency: 3.6
Adaptability: 3.5
Speed: 3.3
Overall: 3.75
Maye’s mechanics have been the subject of much debate among analysts. There seem to be wide-ranging opinions about his release, accuracy and footwork. Maye will miss layup passes occasionally, but most of the coaches who participated in the article agree it’s mostly because of correctable footwork issues.
“However his accuracy diminishes as he moves through progressions, (it’s) a very fixable issue,” a coach said. “However, in a non-developmental league, it needs to be fixed immediately, and this can only be done through on-field reps.”
This coach’s observation is that when Maye is throwing on rhythm to his first read, he’s accurate. But as he has to move to his second and third reads, he struggles to consistently get his feet set correctly. Footwork has proved to be correctable at the next level.
The consensus is that Maye can overcome some inefficiencies with his mechanics because of his raw talent. One coach said it takes him some time to ease into a game and get loose. He can be stiff early in the games, which leads to sequencing problems.
Another issue commonly brought up by analysts is Maye’s windup. The term coaches use for the action of bringing the ball back or loading for the throw is “layover,” and most coaches agree it isn’t a problem. They say Maye’s layover is ideal for generating power and they wouldn’t mess with it. Maye doesn’t have the fastest release, but the quarterback coaches agree it’s still good.
“He’s just a bigger guy. Sometimes those levers just take a little bit longer. I don’t see anything glaring in terms of his release time. People may say it might be a little too slow. I would disagree. I think that it’s proficient in order to be successful,” one coach explained. “Not to compare him with Josh Allen, but I would say that Josh Allen is someone who’s not lightning-fast with their release, but you can still be very successful.”
GO DEEPER
NFL coaches, execs split on which QBs Commanders, Patriots should take at Nos. 2 and 3
Overall, Maye has to clean up his footwork when moving from read to read, and he must continue to tweak his mechanics and be more consistent from snap to snap, but wholesale changes don’t need to be made. He’s only 21 — the coaches believe there is plenty of optimism that Maye can fix the issues that affected his accuracy.
Jayden Daniels
Efficiency: 4
Adaptability: 3.5
Speed: 3.6
Overall: 3.8
“Jayden has drastically improved his style of play and efficiency as a thrower and QB,” one coach said. “He possesses elite traits as a thrower and athlete but has inefficiencies still visible in the game and on the field. For Jayden, I see his ascension as an NFL player heavily linked to offseason development, and the staff supports his training and gives grace to improve consistency.”
Most agree that Daniels made a lot of improvements as an efficient thrower and has strong mechanics. One coach said it’s nitpicking, but when he puts a lot of heat on the ball, he tends to get overaggressive with his arm, leading to breakdowns. Daniels is an excellent touch thrower, but he didn’t have to force a lot of bullets into tight windows because of how good his receivers were as vertical threats and the system he played in. He also had clean pockets with one of the best offensive lines in the country, and when he broke the pocket, he would look to run rather than set up for a pass. Will he be able to maintain his mechanics in tighter pockets and smaller windows?
Though it’s not a mechanical issue, one coach said he wants to see Daniels keep his eyes up more when he’s forced to move in the pocket.
GO DEEPER
Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels? What film shows about 2 of the draft’s top QB prospects
“When Daniels leaves the pocket, as much stress as he can create on the defense with his legs, I would love to use that to his advantage when he is moving and being able to throw the football on the move after he escapes the pocket. Overall, his mechanics are pretty solid.”
J.J. McCarthy
Efficiency: 3.8
Adaptability: 4
Speed: 3.1
Overall: 3.75
“He seems to throw the ball at one speed: very hard,” one coach said. “Although he has a playmaking style when presented, he needs to have a little more variation in his base throws in terms of pace and velocity.”
McCarthy has a strong arm and throws with a lot of zip, but he doesn’t throw with a lot of touch, which is a skill that requires different mechanics than when he’s throwing line drives. Another concern is that his accuracy dips when throwing to the left. Coaches believe it’s a combination of footwork problems and a tendency to overstride.
“I just don’t think he’s fully aware where his lower body’s supposed to go and get to, to set up the type of misses that he was having,” one coach said.
GO DEEPER
J.J. McCarthy’s draft ceiling: What film shows about Michigan QB’s NFL potential
When throwing to the left, he doesn’t align his body correctly with his feet and then overstrides, trying to rip passes in. This is seen as a correctable issue. One coach said when he starts working with quarterbacks, one of the first throws they’ll work on for a right-handed quarterback is throwing left off of five-step drops.
“Typically, the hardest area for guys to get right early,” the coach said. “Once you get it and you know how to hack it, it’s easy.”
Michael Penix Jr.
Efficiency: 4
Adaptability: 3.3
Speed: 3.3
Overall: 3.8
Penix’s delivery might look awkward, but multiple coaches said it could be because he’s a lefty and we aren’t used to seeing many left-handed quarterbacks. Penix does have room for improvement, but even with his inefficiencies, the coaches agree he’s an elite thrower, especially without pressure. His biggest issue mechanically is maintaining consistent posture when throwing.
“It’s like lateral tilt, and then that looks like that puts the arm in that three-quarters slot where it’s, like, not fully where it should be,” one of the coaches said. “So to me, that ends up being potentially a lower-body inefficiency.”
GO DEEPER
Michael Penix Jr.’s draft ceiling: What film shows about Washington QB’s NFL potential
He tends to lean back, which one coach compared to when a golfer pulls his head out and ends up slicing.
“Penix is still tremendously accurate because he has the ability to pull so many things with his arm,” another coach said. “So I think that he could take his level of consistency up if he maintained his posture a little bit longer.”
Another issue brought up is that when he does miss, he isn’t opening up his front foot enough toward the target, which doesn’t allow his hips to fully open. That causes him to overcompensate with his arm and slash unnaturally.
Bo Nix
Efficiency: 4
Adaptability: 4
Speed: 3.8
Overall: 3.9
Most of the feedback on Nix’s mechanics is that they’re solid, polished and consistent. He’s almost robotic. He has a natural layback, throws on the run accurately and does a good job of rotating even when his feet aren’t set or aligned.
Spencer Rattler
Efficiency: 4.3
Adaptability: 4.25
Speed: 3.5
Overall: 4
As a pure thrower, Rattler got high praise from the coaches. One coach said he has followed him since high school and he has one of the most natural strokes he has seen. Another coach said Rattler has the best mechanics in the class.
“If I was like, ‘I want my guy to throw like this,’ he’ll be like Spencer Rattler,” a coach said.
Rattler has a strong arm. He can make all the throws, navigate the pocket and throw from unique angles. Because he has such a short stroke, he’s comfortable throwing from tight pockets. There are other concerns about Rattler, like his size and ability to read defenses, but his pure ability to throw the ball makes him an interesting project.
(Photo of Caleb Williams during USC’s pro day: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
2024-04-09 15:03:59
#NFL #Drafts #top #QBs #mechanics #Experts #grade #passer
