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Want to continue what we why got into a little yesterday . . .
It might seem strange to be evaluating what comic Larry David had to say about the Jets, but the two things I think were debate-worthy.
“I did call Mike Maccagnan before the 2018 and I recommend that he draft Lamar Jackson,” David said on ESPN Radio. “I have a witness. I have a witness.”
I got into a few things yesterday on why Jackson might not have been as successful with the Jets as he has been with the Baltimore Ravens.
Just want to add one more thing. While he’s done a terrific job over his year and change as a starter, you have to wonder how sustainable his run-heavy style is long-term.
First of all he’s taking a lot of hits. Jets linebacker Neville Hewitt had a big-time hit on him in the Jets’ loss in Baltimore. Jackson was scrambling, and Hewitt nailed him pretty hard in the chest area.
“I caught him pretty good,” Hewitt told Jets Confidential.
The game before the Jets-Ravens contest, Jackson took a big hit on his quad against the Bills, and was listed as questionable for the Jets game.
Aside from taking too many hits, you also have to wonder if opposing defensive coordinators will come up with better schemes to stop Jackson moving forward, especially with an entire off-season coming up to break down film on him.
You saw two games, one late in the season, and the other in the playoffs, where a pair of opposing defenses did a nice job of containing him with extra guys in the box – Buffalo and Tennessee.
But while what Jackson did this season, and late in the 2018, was very impressive, you can make a strong argument you still need your QB to “win from the pocket” for long term success as a team.
“The bottom line is that I believe the one thing is that you’ve got to be able to win from the pocket,” said John Elway last year, not about Jackson specifically. “No matter what you do, I think the one thing that I’ve learned is as a quarterback you’ve got to be able to win it from the pocket. You can win games but you can’t win championships unless you have the ability to win it from the pocket.
“Then if you can get out and move around and create, and do those types of things, then that’s an added bonus.”
Well put.
Something else David said I thought was pretty darn smart, even though he might have been trying to be funny.
He said most NFL personnel guys aren’t very good at evaluating college quarterback prospects.
“What does anybody know?” David said. “They don’t know anything.”
He’s on to something. It’s the worst evaluated position in the scouting process.
“Very few people can coach the quarterback, and even fewer can evaluate them,” said the late, great Bill Walsh.
The problem is pretty simple.
You can break down every second of their college tape, you can work them out individually and at the combine, but how can you possible know if they can read NFL defenses, until they play in actual NFL games? College defenses are much more simplistic and the defensive backfields aren’t as good.
So how can you know if a QB can truly succeed on the NFL level, until he plays actual games against sophisticated NFL defenses. with much smaller window to throw into than on the college level? You can’t.
January 16, 2020
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