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When you are just beginning to learn something for the first time, there’s always going to be room for hiccups. Some of the world’s greatest athletes have all experienced a time where they are forced to adjust to something new. The early struggles during this adjustment period, shouldn’t create much panic for onlookers.
For Ole Miss quarterback and New Orleans Saints draft prospect Jaxson Dart, it’s just a part of the process.
After an impressive senior season down in Oxford, Dart has quickly followed up his rise with some exceptional days during Senior Bowl week. Dart’s play has many now wondering whether or not he should be considered as a top-ten selection in this year’s draft. As impressive as Dart’s arm has been over this past week, there have been some concerns about his ball security, specifically under center.
Dart fumbled at least three times under center to start the week. From the outside looking in, many will see this as very concerning for such an experienced player. However, when you take a deeper dive into Dart’s collegiate career, something like this should come with little surprise.
In Dart’s last two seasons at Ole Miss, he took a total of 943 snaps for the Rebels. Only nine of which were taken under center.
Going back even further, to get an idea of his exposure to under center I even checked out his high school tape. If you take a look at Dart’s high school highlight reels, you will find that he was in the gun just about 99% of the time. It doesn’t tell the entire story, but definitely gives some perspective.
In addition to his inexperience, Dart’s also receiving snaps from multiple different players and all for the very first time. Not a single center, or offensive lineman at that, on the American Team has past experience with the quarterback.
Putting all this together, it’s quite easy to see why there could be speed bumps along the way.
As a former Division 1 quarterback prospect at the FCS level, I’m able to share a similar experience with Dart in terms of the limited reps and early troubles in my first camp.
Taking a snap under center is much more than just saying “hike,” taking the ball and being on your way. In fact there are a multitude of factors that go into receiving a snap successfully.
One of the underrated aspects of taking a snap is your relationship with the center. Every center has their preference for hand placement, whether they prefer the quarterbacks hands closer to their midsection or just below their backside. This most of the time depends on whether the center likes full arm extension or just a slight bend when sending the snap. Without the proper relationship here, comes the risk for fumbles at the line.
Another that is very important is the top hand pressure of the quarterback. When the quarterback places his hands under the center, he places his throwing hand on the top and his non-throwing hand on the bottom. Before and while receiving the snap, the quarterback is to place an ample amount of pressure underneath the center’s back side allowing him to move with the center post-snap. If this doesn’t happen, when the center goes to move after the snap the quarterback could end up missing the ball. Ensuring this also indicates your readiness to the center to receive the ball as well.
The last thing here also plays a factor into ball security, and that’s thumb placement by the quarterback. There are two ways that quarterbacks will connect their thumbs under center. The first and most common way is to cross their thumbs completely creating an “X” with the two. The other way is to place the thumb of your throwing hand into the groove that connects the palm and the thumb of the opposite hand. This aspect of receiving a snap will come more as a preference for quarterbacks, with neither being more effective than the other.
From being in these same cleats as Jaxson Dart in terms of the quarterback position, there are so many factors that are at play when it comes to ball security under center. Many of which will come with time on task and finding a level of comfortability. Dart’s talent speaks for itself, throwing for 81 touchdowns and almost 12,000 yards over his collegiate career. His work ethic has also never been questioned, being characterized as “contagious” by his former teammates.
With an inspiring performance in Saturday’s Senior Bowl game, Dart will be able to be this talk to bed and hopefully push himself even further into the top-ten conversation by week’s end.
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