The Indianapolis Colts felt it was the right time to grab a quarterback in the fourth round of the draft, opting to select Washington product Jacob Eason—the highest-graded player on their board at the time.
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Eason is the prototypical pocket passer. He brings elite size and the best arm talent in the draft according to the Colts. But there are several areas he will need to improve in order to make his way up the depth chart.
In a conference call on Monday, head coach Frank Reich detailed where the focus of Eason’s development will be.
“I think his accuracy is solid. It can get better and it has to get better. That is usually a byproduct of footwork and how you think in your progressions and how fast you can get to the right guy,” Reich said. “We’ll work hard with him on that. The fundamentals and the technique of the footwork that we want – how to sync that up but also the mental part.”
Improving his footwork was one of the biggest detractions from Eason’s scouting profile. His pocket mobility is inconsistent and his lack of sound footwork hinders his ability to deliver consistent ball placement.
But working on the mental side of throwing the ball is also an area the Colts are working at, hoping it will also lead to an improvement in accuracy.
“Accuracy is not just physical, it is also mental,” Reich said. “You’ve got to be going to the right place with the ball. That helps your completion percentage. So, we will work with that.”
While those areas will be at the forefront of Eason’s development, Reich also touched on the fact that they will be working on his pocket awareness—improving his footwork when working around pressure but still staying calm enough to go through his progressions.
“The other area that we’ll continue to work on is just pocket awareness,” said Reich. “When you’ve got the arm that he has and you can throw from the pocket the way that he can, you just want to continue to work on those little subtle movements in the pocket and the pocket instincts and awareness that you have.”
Eason has a very high ceiling. There is no denying that. But the Colts don’t view him as an immediate contributor. He will be sitting for at least a year behind Philip Rivers and Jacoby Brissett while working to get to the point where the team can trust him to lead the offense.
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