A rare skill set

He can get away with it.

You hear so much about teaching quarterbacks proper throwing mechanics and footwork, and the importance of those things.

And so often when you draft quarterbacks out of college, quarterback coaches and offensive coordinators spend a lot of time on the practice field working with signal-callers to hone their mechanics.

While Gregg Knapp, Mike LaFleur and Rob Calabrese will work with Zach Wilson on mechanical issues, the Jets also know that his players arm talent is so unique, that sometimes his mechanics don’t matter as much as other signal-callers.

Just listen to Knapp, who has been coaching NFL quarterbacks since 1998, describe in a nutshell, what most quarterbacks need to do to, to have good accuracy.

“I’m a big believer in lower half of your body dictates your accuracy for most quarterbacks in the NFL,” said Knapp. “If you feet are in the right place, you rotate your hips right, you deliver the throw with your feet in the right direction, you are going to be pretty accurate.”

So there are a lot of moving parts in the world of throwing accuracy.

“[Wilson] is like a few who play this game that don’t need [all that stuff listed above] necessarily,” Knapp said. “He has a very natural arm talent that can change slot directions to improve his accuracy.

“He has a natural throwing motion where he can change the arm slot to improve his accuracy, even if his feet aren’t ready, and that really stands out to me. He doens’t need that clean pocket or has his feet set the right way, he can adjust a throw, during the throwing motion, pretty quickly.”

That is what are called “off-platform throws.’

“It’s been well-documented that the off-platform throws is something you really can’t coach,” Knapp said.

And honestly, while throwing mechanics are very important, sometimes you don’t want to mess with them too much with them, because of a player’s muscle-memory being pretty well established by the time they are in their 20’s.

“I’ve tried at some point in my career to change [throwing motions] with some young quarterbacks and it’s really hard to do at this level,” Knapp said. “By the time I get my hands on them, they have already created that habit of throwing motion, whichever quarterbacks you want to talk about.”

So there is a balancing act here.

Obviously, there are some things about Wilson, being such a young player, that Knapp, LaFleur and Calabrese need to tweak, but you don’t want to mess with the natural magic, that elevated him to being the second pick overall in the 2021 draft.

Former Penn State and NFL QB Matt McGloin, who now is broadcaster, recently said on ESPNU Radio that Wilson needs to work on his footwork.

And we know that Wilson will put the work into improve this.

But with his rare arm talent, there are times he’s going to make throws that go against the throwing textbook.

While a guy like a limited athlete like Mac Jones needs near perfect mechanics to succeed, Wilson doesn’t.

July 7, 2021

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