QuarterBack ~ Luke Falk ~ Washington State Cougars ~ 6036/216
Regarding QuarterBacks
It has been fashionable, since Fran Tarkenton's time, to imagine that Scrambling QuarterBacks are the Wave of The Future and are going to revolutionize the Game, disrupt the competitive LandScape, and render Pocket Passers obsolete.
But I believe not only that Pocket Passing remains the Heart & Soul of successful QuarterBacking, but that the capacity of Speed QuarterBacks to master Pocket Passing can be and often is crippled by the Siren Song of Scrambling: A QuarterBack who has always had that "out" is far less likely to develop the skills that really matter.
Power QuarterBacks ~ The Men with the Golden Arms ~ are equally susceptible to falling Prey to the seductive allure of their own physical Talent: The more powerful their Cannons, the more likely I believe it is that they persistently depend upon that crutch as a Get Out Of Jail Card, and thus fail to develop a more comprehensive Skill Set.
And thus I perceive a Great Irony, one that continues, astonishingly, to elude most: The more explosive a Scrambler that a QuarterBack is, or the more powerful an Arm he boasts, the less likely that he is to achieve Greatness.
Conversely, it's the boring guys who consistently Move The Chains that give you the best Chance to win.
After New Year's Day, when The Only Games That Really Matter are played, History has been relentlessly savage to Power QuarterBacks and Speed QuarterBacks who failed to develop their Games: Once the weaker Teams have been eliminated, the PlayOff Defenses have invariably proven far too much for The Unprepared.
And if you're not prepared to compete after New Year's Day, why play at all??
In consideration of these thoughts, which, like many of my thoughts, fly in the face of what is amusingly considered to be Conventional Wisdom, this is how I break down the Criteria that I focus on, when evaluating QuarterBacks:
1 ~ Processing Speed
2 ~ Precision
3 ~ Pocket Presence
4 ~ FirePower
Processing Speed or Diagnostic Velocity is about how quickly and effectively one Reads & Reacts to the Rapidly Roiling Tactical LandScape. It's crucial at all 22 Positions, but utterly vital for a QuarterBack to succeed...or to even survive. Reading Coverages, working through Progressions, and selecting the best Receiving or Running Option.
Precision speaks above all to Mechanics: A QuarterBack's consistency with his Stance, his Set Up, and his Delivery. I refer to consistent Accuracy in the Short & Intermediate Zones, where the best Offenses all make their Bread & Butter. In breaking it down, I'm looking at Timing, Touch, and Trajectory: Leading Receivers to DayLight.
Pocket Presence & Poise Under Pressure is about Poise, or how one's Processing Speed and Precision stand up Under Pressure, and about one's Temporal & Spatial Instincts in navigating an often chaotic Pocket.
FirePower is a Category that I value, though not as much as others. I refer to Velocity and to DownField Precision, which I don't consider as crucial to Success as Short & Intermediate Precision. DownField Precision makes for tremendous HighLight Footage, but it's Short & Intermediate Precision that Moves The Chains and wins Championships.
Please note, if you will: I don't list 40 Speed among crucial Attributes at all.
Broken down into SubCategories, it'd go something like this:
Processing Speed
* Please Note: This is entirely about how rapidly the QuarterBack scans the Field and makes successful Decisions.
* Many College Offenses feature simple Offenses that make this challenging to evaluate.
* It is, nevertheless, far and away the most crucial Aspect of QuarterBacking.
Precision
* Accuracy ~ Placement that maximizes the Receiver's Advantage and minimizes that of the Defender.
* Timing ~ Being temporally In Sync with the Receiver. The Ball arriving precisely when the Receiver does.
* Touch ~ The right Speed for the right Play. Only throwing FastBalls when FastBalls are warranted.
* Trajectory ~ Being spatially In Sync with the Receiver ~ enabling him to catch the Ball In Stride.
Pocket Presence
* Processing Speed Under Pressure.
* Precision Under Pressure.
* Spatial & Temporal Instincts.
FirePower
* Velocity, irregardless of where he's throwing it: How fast is'is FastBall?
* DownField Precision ~ can he through the Bomb accurately?
But I believe not only that Pocket Passing remains the Heart & Soul of successful QuarterBacking, but that the capacity of Speed QuarterBacks to master Pocket Passing can be and often is crippled by the Siren Song of Scrambling: A QuarterBack who has always had that "out" is far less likely to develop the skills that really matter.
Power QuarterBacks ~ The Men with the Golden Arms ~ are equally susceptible to falling Prey to the seductive allure of their own physical Talent: The more powerful their Cannons, the more likely I believe it is that they persistently depend upon that crutch as a Get Out Of Jail Card, and thus fail to develop a more comprehensive Skill Set.
And thus I perceive a Great Irony, one that continues, astonishingly, to elude most: The more explosive a Scrambler that a QuarterBack is, or the more powerful an Arm he boasts, the less likely that he is to achieve Greatness.
Conversely, it's the boring guys who consistently Move The Chains that give you the best Chance to win.
After New Year's Day, when The Only Games That Really Matter are played, History has been relentlessly savage to Power QuarterBacks and Speed QuarterBacks who failed to develop their Games: Once the weaker Teams have been eliminated, the PlayOff Defenses have invariably proven far too much for The Unprepared.
And if you're not prepared to compete after New Year's Day, why play at all??
In consideration of these thoughts, which, like many of my thoughts, fly in the face of what is amusingly considered to be Conventional Wisdom, this is how I break down the Criteria that I focus on, when evaluating QuarterBacks:
1 ~ Processing Speed
2 ~ Precision
3 ~ Pocket Presence
4 ~ FirePower
Processing Speed or Diagnostic Velocity is about how quickly and effectively one Reads & Reacts to the Rapidly Roiling Tactical LandScape. It's crucial at all 22 Positions, but utterly vital for a QuarterBack to succeed...or to even survive. Reading Coverages, working through Progressions, and selecting the best Receiving or Running Option.
Precision speaks above all to Mechanics: A QuarterBack's consistency with his Stance, his Set Up, and his Delivery. I refer to consistent Accuracy in the Short & Intermediate Zones, where the best Offenses all make their Bread & Butter. In breaking it down, I'm looking at Timing, Touch, and Trajectory: Leading Receivers to DayLight.
Pocket Presence & Poise Under Pressure is about Poise, or how one's Processing Speed and Precision stand up Under Pressure, and about one's Temporal & Spatial Instincts in navigating an often chaotic Pocket.
FirePower is a Category that I value, though not as much as others. I refer to Velocity and to DownField Precision, which I don't consider as crucial to Success as Short & Intermediate Precision. DownField Precision makes for tremendous HighLight Footage, but it's Short & Intermediate Precision that Moves The Chains and wins Championships.
Please note, if you will: I don't list 40 Speed among crucial Attributes at all.
Broken down into SubCategories, it'd go something like this:
Processing Speed
* Please Note: This is entirely about how rapidly the QuarterBack scans the Field and makes successful Decisions.
* Many College Offenses feature simple Offenses that make this challenging to evaluate.
* It is, nevertheless, far and away the most crucial Aspect of QuarterBacking.
Precision
* Accuracy ~ Placement that maximizes the Receiver's Advantage and minimizes that of the Defender.
* Timing ~ Being temporally In Sync with the Receiver. The Ball arriving precisely when the Receiver does.
* Touch ~ The right Speed for the right Play. Only throwing FastBalls when FastBalls are warranted.
* Trajectory ~ Being spatially In Sync with the Receiver ~ enabling him to catch the Ball In Stride.
Pocket Presence
* Processing Speed Under Pressure.
* Precision Under Pressure.
* Spatial & Temporal Instincts.
FirePower
* Velocity, irregardless of where he's throwing it: How fast is'is FastBall?
* DownField Precision ~ can he through the Bomb accurately?
Luke Falk ~ Scouting Report
Processing Speed ~ 40. Had I gone digital before writing my CyberScouting Report on Faulk last year, I would’ve gone far higher, like 75 or 80, had I not downgraded’m due to my intense concerns about Air Raid QuarterBack Prospects. But I feel that he regressed, this year. He looked consistently indecisive in disastrous performances against California and Washington. It seems to me that those Defenses did their homework, made adjustments, and that Falk and Coach Leach had no answers. Falk played commendably well against other opposition, but I believe that these games are, unfortunately, more predictive of how he can be expected to respond to the complexities and general hornswoggling of professional Defenses. Indeed, I’m tempted to go lower, say 20 or 25, but I also believe that Faulk is a victim of narrow training in Coach Leach’s Quick Strike Easy Read Air Raid Offense, and that Faulk has exhibited enough intrinsic Processing Speed ~ although against simpler Defensive Scheming, mind you ~ to suggest that Falk's functional Processing Speed in a tactical landscape could improve dramatically, given the right coaching.
Precision ~ 75. I base that entirely on short and intermediate passing, mind, you, and his Mechanics need work, but his Touch, Timing, and Trajectory are terrific on the short stuff and good on the intermediate.
Pocket Presence ~ 40. Here, too, I would’ve graded’m higher, last year, at least a 60, maybe a 64 or so. But as Defenses adjusted to’m and to Coach Leach’s Offense, Faulk’s Pocket Poise often collapsed, and his efficacy under Pressure collapsed with it. Nor does he seem to’ve developed much in the way of spatial or temporal instincts for the Pass Rush.
FirePower ~ 33. Marginal DownField Precision. Impressive Velocity, though. His Mechanics need some work ~ he doesn’t lean into throws as well as he might, which may be attributable to throwing almost exclusively short Passes.
Precision ~ 75. I base that entirely on short and intermediate passing, mind, you, and his Mechanics need work, but his Touch, Timing, and Trajectory are terrific on the short stuff and good on the intermediate.
Pocket Presence ~ 40. Here, too, I would’ve graded’m higher, last year, at least a 60, maybe a 64 or so. But as Defenses adjusted to’m and to Coach Leach’s Offense, Faulk’s Pocket Poise often collapsed, and his efficacy under Pressure collapsed with it. Nor does he seem to’ve developed much in the way of spatial or temporal instincts for the Pass Rush.
FirePower ~ 33. Marginal DownField Precision. Impressive Velocity, though. His Mechanics need some work ~ he doesn’t lean into throws as well as he might, which may be attributable to throwing almost exclusively short Passes.
Luke Falk ~ Prospectus
Luke Falk regressed alarmingly when Defenses threw schematic monkeys wrenches at’m last year, but he was impressive enough in 2016 ~ and in spots in 2017 ~ for me to believe that there is substantial cerebral capacity, there, once he gets better coaching to learn schemes well enough to react quickly and effectively enough.
And he exhibited plenty of Precision on the short stuff and to a lesser extent on the intermediate stuff.
However, we’re talking about a marginal arm, functional Processing Speed that is almost entirely theoretical, and the incredibly daunting process of learning how to play professional QuarterBack after years in Air Raid Hell.
And indeed, Optimum Scouting reported that while Falk’s Timing and Trajectory impressed at Senior Bowl Practice, his FootWork, after years in the Air Raid ShotGun, was “wobbly.” Acclimating to dropping back from Center after years of ShotGuns is one Hell of an undertaking...And the vast majority who've tried have failed abysmally.
I do give’m a chance to succeed, mind you. Falk is by all accounts obsessed with success and fanatically focused, but considering the astronomical Casualty Rate with Air Raid QuarterBack Prospects, combined with a marginal arm and shaky Processing Speed chops, I cannot justify placing a very high value on this Prospect’s prospects.
Thank you so very much, Draft BreakDown, without whom my Work would be virtually impossible.
And he exhibited plenty of Precision on the short stuff and to a lesser extent on the intermediate stuff.
However, we’re talking about a marginal arm, functional Processing Speed that is almost entirely theoretical, and the incredibly daunting process of learning how to play professional QuarterBack after years in Air Raid Hell.
And indeed, Optimum Scouting reported that while Falk’s Timing and Trajectory impressed at Senior Bowl Practice, his FootWork, after years in the Air Raid ShotGun, was “wobbly.” Acclimating to dropping back from Center after years of ShotGuns is one Hell of an undertaking...And the vast majority who've tried have failed abysmally.
I do give’m a chance to succeed, mind you. Falk is by all accounts obsessed with success and fanatically focused, but considering the astronomical Casualty Rate with Air Raid QuarterBack Prospects, combined with a marginal arm and shaky Processing Speed chops, I cannot justify placing a very high value on this Prospect’s prospects.
Thank you so very much, Draft BreakDown, without whom my Work would be virtually impossible.
Yank Rank: Long Shot ~ OverRated!!
| Market Value 3rd ~ 5th Round | Yankee Grade 6th/7th Round |
Please do Note, Fellow FootBall Fiends: This and all CyberScouting Reports issued by this Site are produced by a ludicrously unqualified Amateur, privy to not even the tiniest fraction of Coach's Tape, Scouting Expertise, Face to Face Interviewing, Experience, or Inside Information enjoyed by the Professionals. As such, anything put forth is certainly misinformed, euphonious, derivative Tripe, and should be rejected out'f hand and indeed shunned by all men and women with even reasonable levels of intelligence or Good Will!! I'm trying to discern Power, Agility, Combat Skills, and far more abstract, esoteric Concepts such as Processing Speed and Motor, and Intelligence and Drive, and I'm trying to do so based almost entirely on a fascinating fusion of Tape, Combine Numbers, and Pro Days, while trying to attenuate my findings based on making Allowances for Competition Level, Scheme, Concept, Context, and, above all: Trajectory!!
Please also note, Fellow FootBall Fiends: These CyberScouting Reports are not intended as predictions of success or failure, but as assessments ~ ludicrously amateurish assessments ~ of potential success. FootBall is a rough and often unfair business, and many a worthy Prospect has fallen far short of his potential, sometimes not because of his own failings, but because of those of coaching, scheme, timing...or because huge investments were made on other Prospects.
In other words: If any of my Super Dooper Deeper Sleepers ever fail to fulfill their vast potential, I’m confident that it goes without saying that it wasn’t their fault…or mine!!...Yes, I think that I'm being funny.
In other words: Caveat Emptor, Fellow FootBall Fiends!!
Enter at your own risk!!
Please also note, Fellow FootBall Fiends: These CyberScouting Reports are not intended as predictions of success or failure, but as assessments ~ ludicrously amateurish assessments ~ of potential success. FootBall is a rough and often unfair business, and many a worthy Prospect has fallen far short of his potential, sometimes not because of his own failings, but because of those of coaching, scheme, timing...or because huge investments were made on other Prospects.
In other words: If any of my Super Dooper Deeper Sleepers ever fail to fulfill their vast potential, I’m confident that it goes without saying that it wasn’t their fault…or mine!!...Yes, I think that I'm being funny.
In other words: Caveat Emptor, Fellow FootBall Fiends!!
Enter at your own risk!!
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