QuarterBack ~ Joshua Rosen ~ Los Angeles Bruins ~ 6040/225
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?
Precision ~ 80, and also trending speedily towards 100. Sensational Mechanics. Tremendous Touch, Timing, and Trajectory. An excellent and improving sense of the entire process.
Pocket Presence ~ 75, and once again trending towards 100. Abysmal on Opening Day, he nevertheless improved rapidly over the course of the season. Sometimes he waits too long, perhaps, working deep into his progressions while the Pocket collapses, but give me that kind of guy every day over the guy who bails at the first sign of trouble. Offensive Lines can be improved. Rosen had to acclimate to’is 3rd Offensive Coordinator in 3 years in 2017, which reflected in the Opening Day debacle, and which has impeded the progress of his Processing Speed ~ which of course is most evident under Pressure, when he’s working deep into those progressions…But he improved enormously in this aspect of his game over the course of the season, despite acclimating to yet another new system, and that bodes incredibly well for the future.
FirePower ~ 90. Upside to 100? Probably not. Even so: Excellent raw Arm Strength, enhanced by awesome form.
I’ve been doing this long enough to fairly consistently correctly anticipate whether’re not I’m going to like a Prospect, after reading up on’m. After my preliminary research, I was eagerly anticipating writing a scathing Scouting Report ~ I annually poor gallons of red ink on my QuarterBack Scouting Reports!! ~ and figured that I’d probably end up writing’m up as a Contender with a 4th/5th Round Value ~ vastly overrated!! This was based on voluminous reports of his allegedly toxic personality and prima donna Work Ethic…But after googling “Josh Rosen” and “arrogant prick” I have to admit that I came up empty. I ended up watching several interviews, and I gotta tell you: I am absolutely blown away by Joshua Rosen. Mature. Thoughtful. Focused. Engaging. Wildly ambitious and driven, yet focused on Team.
He’s also focused predominantly on the right things as a QuarterBack: Rapidly Reading through Progressions.
He has clearly done tons of work in that regard.
As far as his having had 3 Offensive Coordinators in 3 years, that always splits both ways, doesn’t it? On the one hand, it has to’ve stunted his growth, because he had to spend so much time learning a Scheme’s fundamentals, rather than developing expertise. On the other hand, going through that can develop those fundamentals to a razor-sharp point, potentially enabling one to develop an advanced level of adaptability that can hasten one’s future acclimation to new Schemes. It depends on the prospect, of course, and Rosen seems to've emerged from that challenging, grinding process mentally toughened, sharper, and better prepared for the next level than virtually anyone's ever been.
I have never emerged from a CyberScouting project with a larger gap between what I expected to see...and what I saw.
Joshua Rosen has top shelf talent, a brilliant mind, and in my judgement an awesome work ethic and the makings of an outstanding Leader, both on and off the Field. He's already developed an amazing combination of Processing Speed, sensational Mechanics, and FirePower, he's focused on the right things in every aspect of the game, and he's astonishingly mature. He's not only worth the #1 Pick. He's worth trading multiple 1st Rounders to get!!
Thank you so very much, Draft BreakDown, without whom my Work would be virtually impossible.
Bargain!!
Market Value Top 3 | Yankee Grade *** 3 1st Rounders!! *** |
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!!