agreed!
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27% of Mac Jones's passes last year were behind the line of scrimmage or at the line of scrimmage. That led the country by over 5 percentage points. And would have led in 2019. That is a crazy stat.
Interestingly, you'd have to go back to 2018 to find a comparison in guess who, gardener minshew.
But yes, he is better than will Rogers.
Who is to say that Will Rogers can't progress into that. Mac Jones wasn't out their slinging it around as a true freshman, or true sophomore he didnt start until most of the way through his junior year. I swear I don't get how yall count players out at such a young age. I'm not saying Will is the best qb around but to say he doesn't have the tools to be a legit QB is dumb
Alright, I'll chime in and give my 2 cents..
I think a little bit of everything y'all are saying is correct.
-Will has a below average to average arm
-His pocket awareness isn't great
-He limits this offense to what it can do, but he can still be functional in it with quick decisions and good football IQ
BUT
I don't think Leach is helping him out. As C34 pointed out, Will is having to squeeze passes by 8 defenders. While other QBs in the country are only having to beat around 6. We've got to be able to run the ball EFFECTIVELY to make this thing work. Not necessarily more (even though more would be better), but effectively. Our OL sucked in this area Saturday night because they didn't get any push whatsoever, but we literally only have 2 running plays. No creativity. We don't run many counters, we run zero sweeps, we practiced a read option in practice.. where the hell is that? I know I'm asking Leach to do something he's never had to do, which is to adapt. But until we take some of the pressure off Will, his weaknesses are just going to be magnified and we'll continue to dink, dunk, and pray we don't have a negative play that derails the drive. This air raid in its current form is not going to work in the SEC. You can write that down. But if we take the air raid and add modern concepts like many Leach disciples have done, then it'll have a chance to work.
I keep checking this thread to see if BuckyisaB*tch has responded yet, but nothing so far...
I have no idea what Mac Jones has to do with any of this. ..and I don't care to know.
I used 2018 and Minshew because unlike Mac Jones, he played in Leachs offense. Which is what I thought was the subject of conversation. Also I use Minshew and 2018 because that was a damn good year for WSU. Also I think we can agree Minshew is a talented QB. Maybe..... maybe.
My whole point in chiming in on any of this, is to defend Rogers. Rogers is a good QB and will get better. Even if the offense calls for -5 to 5 yard passes.
It?s comical. I guess most of these posters forgot that arguably the best player to ever wear a State uniform wasn?t going to start at QB in his THIRD year on the team until Tyler Russell got hurt. But these same posters want to write off Will after a handful of starts in his 2nd year.
"If only I was HC things would be perfect"
Skill set wise? No. But making the better decision, more accurate throw, better footwork, and making the right read with more experience? Yes. Which is improvement.
I can think of at least three plays off the top of my head where if Will throws the ball just slightly more accurately we blow them out. And I do think Will is likely going to make that adjustment as he gets older. That touchdown pass he made to Heath was good enough for anything else in this offense. He needs to do that more often and consistently. Like that pass to Polk where it was slightly off- it had plenty on it distance wise- but he has to make that pass. It was a similar pass he made to Walley to get the go ahead TD the week before.
He can throw the ball downfield about 50 yards and that's good enough for the SEC for what we're doing to be good enough to succeed. Now it's more about consistency and reading defense better and mastering the system. Leach's Air Raid is a YAC system it's not a downfield passing system like what LSU did a couple of years ago with Brady. We just need someone to get the ball in space to guys like Walley accurately and then they use the space to make an explosive play.