2020 NFL Draft Quarterback Rankings: Jacob Eason scouting report

Jacob Eason has an astoundingly strong arm, but his pocket presence needs work.

I’m going to try my best to say only nice things about Jacob Eason. Here we go: Eason is tall and his arm is very strong. He can fit the ball into windows that very few QBs would even dare to try. And, um … oh, here’s a good one: Eason can get through a progression in a timely manner. If his first read isn’t open, this dude will — are you sitting down? — look to his second read. Crazy, I know.

Now, is he accurate enough to get the ball to his target consistently? No. Is he willing to hang in the pocket and go through his reads when there are bodies around him? LOL. Not a chance. But that arm. It will be enough to convince some team to waste a Day 2 pick on him, but it’s unlikely that any team will ever see him as a viable answer at quarterback. The good news: NFL backup is a pretty sweet gig. (I guess I failed at only saying nice things.)

+ Exceptional arm strength that allows him to fit throws into the tightest of windows

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+ Can hit deep out-breaking routes from the opposite hash

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+ When he does stand in there and make throws in the face of pressure (it’s rare) he can still make the throws

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Goes into panic mode against any kind of pressure

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A big, strong quarterback who is afraid of being in the pocket for more than a couple seconds isn’t necessarily what teams are looking for

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These numbers line up with what I saw on tape. Eason was excellent on deep in-breaking routes and mediocre-to-bad on just about everything else.

Eason was “meh” in just about every statistical category. For a quarterback who is somewhat conservative, Eason did throw the ball into coverage a lot.

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Glossary of advanced stats

PFF

Adjusted Completion Percentage:

“Adjusted completion percentage considers factors outside of the quarterback’s control in terms of completing passes. It accounts for dropped passes, passes thrown away, spiked balls, passes batted at the line of scrimmage and those passes in which a quarterback was hit as he threw.”

Average Depth of Target:

The average distance a quarterback’s throws travel past the line of scrimmage.

Big-time Throw Percentage:

“In its simplest terms, a big-time throw is on the highest end of both difficulty and value … Therefore, the big-time throw is best described as a pass with excellent ball location and timing, generally thrown further down the field and/or into a tighter window.”

Turnover-worthy Throw Percentage:

“For quarterbacks, there are two ways to achieve a turnover-worthy play: throw a pass that has a high percentage chance to be intercepted or do a poor job of taking care of the ball and fumbling.”

SIS
On-target Throw Percentage:

“The number of accurate throws a quarterback makes divided by the total number of pass attempts”

Catchable Throw Percentage:

“The number of catchable throws a quarterback makes divided by the total number of pass attempts”

EPA:

“Expected Points Added; the total change in the offense’s Expected Points that came on passes thrown by the player”

Total Points:

“The total of a player’s EPA responsibility on passes using the Total Points system that distributes credit among all players on the field for a given play. For passers, this includes accounting for offensive line play, sacks, off-target passes, dropped passes, and dropped interceptions.”