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If you are going to be an elite
NFL QB, you have to be a full field reader and be able to go through your progressions smoothly.
Sam Darnold, who gave it his best shot, struggled in this area, and often telegraphed passes to his first read. This is a problem for a lot of young quarterbacks (and many older ones as well).
And this is a big reason why it made sense for the Jets to move on from Darnold, and give Zach Wilson a whirl.
Wilson was good at going through progressions in college.
“[Wilson]Â gets quickly through his progressions,” said former NFL scout Daniel Jeremiah before the draft.
Of course going through your progression against NFL defenses is tougher than in college, but let’s not forget, Darnold wasn’t great at going through his progressions in college. So Wilson arrives with an advantage over Darnold.
In film breakdown segment for the team’s website, Jets offense coordinator Mike LaFleur broke down a play from a BYU game against Coastal Carolina, that showed how Wilson is good at going through his progressions. Wilson got to his fourth read on this play.
“On this particular play, he had the halfback as #1, he had this shallow cross as #2, and then there is a guy over here (deep middle) as #3, and then all the way over here, there is going to be the fourth in the progression (Wilson is looking left to right),” LaFleur said.
He hit the fourth option on his short right side for the completion. LaFleur says you don’t see this very often in college.
“When you are watching guys coming out of college, you don’t typically see quarterbacks going through that progression very often, because they usually don’t have to get off a one or a two,” LaFleur said. “He’s saying ‘no’ to one because there is a zone defender, then he gets his eyes to two, that’s not there, and how fast he’s able to get to the fourth in his progression before a pass rush can even get home, that’s an NFL-type rep there of him fluidly going through that progression. That was something big for us to see and you could see it all over his tape.”
This is huge. Huge.
A big reason you see a lot of young quarterbacks not work out after getting picked high, like Mitch Trubisky (who was over-drafted) is they can’t do this. And often no amount of coaching can get them to do it. Even if it’s discussed in meetings endlessly, and practiced all week, when the bright lights are on, they seem to go back to their comfort zone, and fixate on their first read, hoping to make it work.
The top-shelf quarterbacks in the NFL, like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes, are good progression guys.
So the fact that Wilson looks like a guy who can smoothly go through his reads, like on that play against Coastal Carolina, which LaFleur highlighted, that has to give the Jets and their fans great hope, that this guy can be special.
June 25, 2021
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