It hasn’t been a smooth start to the season for the Oklahoma Sooners despite going 3-0 against Tulane, Western Carolina, and Nebraska. They’ve gotten the wins, but aside from their week two win over Western Carolina, the offense has looked underwhelming. The Sooners have dropped in the A.P. top 25 and Spencer Rattler fell back in Bleacher Report’s latest Heisman Power Rankings.
As the struggles to push the ball down the field have inhibited Oklahoma’s offense, Spencer Rattler has looked more indecisive with the football. The offense hasn’t been as explosive as receivers have struggled to separate getting downfield.
In the early stages of 2021, with plenty of time to turn it around, Spencer Rattler is seeing his draft stock take a bit of a dip. In Luke Easterling’s latest NFL mock draft for The Draft Wire, Spencer Rattler has fallen considerably in the first round. Easterling has him going no. 18 overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers as the fourth quarterback off the board.
Ben Roethlisberger is clearly on his last legs (and arm), and that would be the case even if they Steelers didn’t have a terrible offensive line. That unit needs improvement, but finding a franchise player at the game’s most important position will always take precedence. Rattler has been inconsistent so far this season, but his upside is still enough to take a chance on here. – Luke Easterling, The Draft Wire
Much of Rattler’s struggles in 2021 have landed on his willingness to hold onto the football a bit too long. Zone defenses have stumped him this year, as was evident in the Nebraska game. At the same time, his skillset still makes him an intriguing prospect. When Rattler gets the ball out of his hand on time, he’s as effective a quarterback as there is in college football. When he gets his feet set, he’s deadly as a passer. The problem is he doesn’t always throw from a stable platform, instead relying more and more on his ability to throw off-platform.
That strength is a good one to have when forced to leave the pocket and throw in the scramble drill, but when the pocket’s clean and he has time, he needs to refocus on getting his feet set and stepping into his throw. Too many times, his feet are perpendicular to the sideline, when they should be parallel.
As Easterling mentions, Rattler is a prospect with a lot of upside. His stock has taken a bit through the first few games of the season, but he’s still a tremendous talent. It isn’t always about how a quarterback starts the season, but how they finish. For Spencer Rattler, there’s still time to assert himself as college football’s best quarterback.
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