Last Chance at a Pat Devlin Game in 10 Minutes (7pm EST, Jan. 7th)

Yeah I agree. Got it in there though.

I meant the ball to Nihja White (how cool is that name it's like three extra pixels away from Ninja White) in the end zone. He caught it elevated, the defender threw his all into White and moved him like 2-3 yards in the air to where he couldn't get a foot in bounds.

 

Damn, 3 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter. Didn't quite make it to the 3rd quarter before he threw an uncatchable ball.

 

Apparently your stream got switched over to the Bowl game that's on tonight. I'm looking for an alternate for you.

 

Try http://www.justin.tv/sportzzworld4#/w/735430032

 

That Sports Science segment on Cam Newton was mind numbingly awful. It's like "NUMBERS!!!!! WE'RE GOING TO TURN EVERYTHING INTO NUMBERS BECAUSE THEY LOOK SCIENCY AND SIGNIFICANT EVEN THOUGH THEY MEAN NOTHING AND AREN'T SPECIAL!!!! LOOK AT OUR VIDEO GRAPHICS!!! DON'T THEY LOOK BABYLON 5-ISH OR SOME KIND OF FUTURISTIC HIGH TECH WHICH MEANS WE MUST BE SMARTER!?!"

 

That's his 3rd interception of the year I believe, and it wasn't even close to his fault. Hit the target literally on the breat plate on the slant, bounced right off the guy and picked off. That was even worse than the first near-pick which was also a slant that bounced off the receiver's hands.

 

Well, that's tit-for-tat...same thing just happened to Eastern Washington, but it was a more inaccurately thrown ball.

 

New channel is http://www.justin.tv/keado3448#/w/735786640

 

Healthy amount. Maybe in the 20's. Has games where he takes a bunch of sacks...William & Mary, the FCS Quarterfinal game...

 

Announcer says that deep vertical ball was too far inside but Nihja White gave Devlin like zero amount of space between the receiver and sideline to work with. Still catchable.

 

And there you catch a glimpse of my biggest fear about Pat Devlin...his ability to stand strong and make throws in a cluttered pocket.

 

Here's a GREAT opportunity to catch how Devlin performs in a clutch, game-on-the-line moment. Eastern Washington just scored to go ahead 20-19 with 3 minutes remaining.

I've just been thinking that Devlin's game is patterning a lot after Mallett's game in that Devlin's receivers are REALLY letting him down with dropped balls...some of which they're popping up for interceptions or near-interceptions. Devlin is by no means mistake-free though. Now we'll see if Pat can overcome that sort of thing and make one of "those" drives. Extra brownie points if he scores a TD.

Will Devlin's game track fully the same as Mallett's bowl appearance? Will he make the critical error that loses the game in the face of immense pressure? We'll see. Exciting.

 

That was a bad sack to take. They were banging on the door of FG range and he lost them a lot of yards. That was a blitz and he should have seen it coming.

 

Well, there you have it...couldn't get it done. Went down fighting, but a yard short.

 

The final play of the game epitomized my two biggest criticisms of Pat Devlin. Blitz on, 4th & 10, high pressure situation, blockers actually pick it up pretty well but he's not great with pocket pressure, gets dominated by the physicality, hit a little bit, tries to sling the ball where it needs to go with just his arm, and doesn't have the arm strength to do it. And of course he got into that 4th & 10 because he took an unnecessary sack off I think it was a safety blitz...the guy came in unblocked but it was a delayed blitz and he should have felt it coming and had somewhere to go with the ball, been able to slide, shift, or be physically strong enough to do something with the ball...but instead, he got sacked.

Crystalizes what I do not want him to play immediately in the NFL. He's going to have to sit for at least one year, probably more like two years, and absorb a lot of coaching. If sharpens the tools in his tool box, he can prevent himself from getting into situations where his weaknesses overcome his strengths. And the way he plays football, I see it taking a few years to really sharpen the tools in his tool box to the extent that he needs.

 

He's the one you like the most? Which QBs have you taken a look at?

 

I knew about it. It's a toughness thing and it's good to see him play with it, but I don't think it affects the negatives in his game to where I'd be comfortable saying he has arm strength issues on certain throws becuase of his broken left wrist, or he goes deer-in-headlights when faced with pressure because of the broken left wrist, etc.

 

Based on what I've seen, and yes the Senior Bowl will count a lot, but no I do not see a Joe Flacco type rise out of Pat Devlin.

It's one thing to have an arm that you know can make all the throws. It's another thing to play like you know you have that arm, and he doesn't. The concerns about him being another potential John Beck are not unfounded. He has problems that John Beck had, very similar. He needs to raise his average throwing distance, his 'comfort zone' by about 5 yards, and he needs to throw with better velocity. He CAN do that, but the question is, will he be COMFORTABLE and ACCURATE if he's doing that?

What I'm sensing from him is a potential serial mistrust in his own arm. He has great eyes and anticipation and yet he seeks out the 15 yard throw instead of the 25 yard throw. That's a head thing, that's not an eye thing and it's not a lack of understanding of defenses. His lack of pocket presence is a symptom of the same problem. When you absolutely need your feet to drive the football, you get nervous about players violating your personal space, and for good reason. He can't just arm a throw in there. He tried a couple of times last night and he failed, pretty miserably. At the NFL level you don't want to be throwing off balance if you don't have to, but you WILL have to at times, and you have to operate with the knowledge that you can get the ball out and into the right guy's hands under any circumstance. Devlin doesn't have that.

I'm not concluding anything on the guy's career and I still value him, but I'm not targeting him...because this franchise needs more. It doesn't need a 3 year project that you hope starts to develop more confidence in the pocket and more aggressiveness down the field.

I value Yates slightly ahead of Devlin because even though most of what applies to Devlin negatively SEEMS to apply to Yates...there are small signs that Yates has that confidence in his arm, the will to throw it deeper, but he may have been reined in by John Shoop's conservative play-action system. One of the things that make me wonder if Yates can make that change to his game is the fact that he's a deep vertical specialist, probably the best in the Draft at the deep ball. He takes pride in that deep ball. I don't know if you can consider yourself an awesome deep ball thrower if you, in your mind, are not comfortable with throwing the ball 30 yards. Another sign is the fact that when the offense is forced situationally into throwing the ball deeper down the field, not the deep vertical but to the perimeter of the field and further up the field, we're talking about two minute drills...he seems to do really well at that. He might be the best two minute man in the Draft.

There are four guys in this draft that if you take the mile high view for a second, they have GREAT size, GREAT arms, really good accuracy, GREAT confidence levels, GREAT production, and they're WINNERS. We can talk and nitpick about other things but those six things are undeniable. Those guys are Blaine Gabbert, Brandon Weeden, Cam Newton and Ryan Mallett. These are guys that are potential franchise players that you consider betting a lot on your ability to harness them and teach them. Do they have questions? Of course. But they also have size, arms, accuracy, confidence, production and winning records.

So my question is, if you have four guys that have all that...why are you playing around amongst the guys that don't, and hoping to get lucky? Because you don't think the right one will 'fall' to us? So what? Trade up and GET the one of those four that really speaks to you. Or in the case of Weeden, realize that age is just a number and make your pick. This "too expensive" mentality with respect to the quarterback position has to change. There can be no "mortgaging the future" when you don't have a future, and until you have a franchise quarterback you don't have a future.