Man I forgot what a heartbreaker that Virginia Tech vs Marshall game was. Marshall scores three touchdowns in the 1st half, all of them Rakeem Cato. But they get a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown. They let up another touchdown on defense. Then in the 4th quarter on Virginia Tech's final chance to tie the game, Logan Thomas manages to convert a 4th & 10 inside the red zone with 5 minutes left. But then Marshall's defense holds and forces a 4th & Goal from the 2 yard line, Logan Thomas throws a pass to right front of the end zone, CB Darryl Roberts makes a tremendous play jumping in front of the receiver and deflecting the football, but the ball serendipitously ends up deflected right into the receiver's hands for a touchdown. This with 3 minutes left in the ball game. Marshall should've won that game 21-14 without overtime. But it really does get worse. On the ensuing drive with only about 3 minutes left, Cato hits Devon Smith perfectly in stride down the left sideline for a 47 yard gain. That was against Kyle Fuller, too. But then they run the football two straight times and Essray Taliaferro actually LOSES five yards on the two carries, putting them at 3rd & 15 on the 40 yard line which really isn't in field goal range even at the NFL level. Cato throws a perfect deep ball to Devon Smith into the hole between the CB and S...but Kyshoen Jarrett came over from safety in time to make this a 50/50 outcome and Devon Smith was just flat out intimidated by the contact. They both converged on the ball and Jarrett came up with it. Wasn't a bad throw, nor was it a bad idea on a desperate 3rd & 15 when you really are 15 yards away from both the 1st down AND makeable field goal range (Marshall kicker Justin Haig missed a 41 yard FG earlier in the game). You just watch Devon Smith and all that happened is he heard the footsteps, and you could see him start to crouch, slow down and cower rather than go up and attack the ball at its highest point. Jarrett walks away with the pick. Ok, so you go into overtime. But then it gets even worse! Yes, worse! Virginia Tech gets the ball in 1st Overtime and I think Logan Thomas took a sack which got them to 4th & 18 trying to make a 50 yard field goal. The conditions aren't very good and predictably, they miss the kick. So Marshall gets the ball and what is Doc Holliday thinking? He's thinking well, all we need is this field goal. That's it. What does he do? He runs Essray Taliaferro three straight times, not giving Rakeem Cato a single chance to do any work on the drive. They gain a mere 3 yards and line up for their 39 yard field goal...BLOCKED. Marshall should've won that game 24-21 in single overtime. In 2nd overtime Marshall gets to a 3rd & 13. Not a great down. Rakeem Cato drops back in rhythm trying to set up his pass. His blind side protector gets beat right off the snap though and Cato has the ball stripped from his hand from the blind side. But LUCKY for Marshall, the defense forces a 32 yard field goal which Virginia Tech MISSES. Virginia Tech should've won 24-21 in double overtime. But it gets worse! We go onto 3rd overtime and the Marshall defense gets Virginia Tech into a 3rd & 3 from the 6 yard line. The pass goes incomplete but there's a flag, the officials call pass interference on Corey Tindal. That gives the Hokies a 1st & Goal from the 2 yard line and they make good. They get the touchdown AND get the 2-point conversion (now forced to go for it in triple overtime). So Marhall gets the bal back and first thing they do is complete a 10 yard pass to Tommy Shuler to the 15 yard line. But then they run the ball for only 1 yard, and passes intended for Tommy Shuler and Demetrius Evans fall incomplete. Now it's 4th & 9. Rakeem Cato steps up and delivers a DIME along the left sideline to Davonte Allen. We're talking PERFECT throw 21 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, probably at least a 30 yard throw through the air, in stride to a receiver that has two steps on his man coverage, with plenty of room remaining for Allen to get as many feet down inbounds as he wants. Davonte Allen puts out his hands and cradles the football over his shoulder like a baby delivered by the angels...and then he drops the damn baby. Game over. God damn what a heartbreak. Virginia Tech by the way had one of the best defenses in college football in 2013, in my opinion. They were full of talent between Kyle Fuller and his brother Kendall Fuller, Kyshoen Jarrett, Tariq Edwards, Jack Tyler, Luther Maddy, James Gayle and Dadi Nicholas. [video=youtube;7gxrkai_anA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gxrkai_anA[/video]
Wow. Those were amazing throws in crappy conditions in the clutch. Any question to how he responds to high pressure situations? I don't think so.
Here's his total work against Virginia Tech last year: [video=youtube;ieGgEkUceP0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieGgEkUceP0[/video]
They talked about him on Fox Sports during halftime of the Rice game. Another nice canned piece about his rough background in Liberty City. This time they interviewed Luther Campbell who was the one coach at Miami Central that voted to keep him on the team after an outburst during a game. He also took personal responsibility for him and vowed that it wouldn't happen again. Luther said that a lot of his outbursts were Cato thinking about his mom, and Luther knew he was going to have a bad day after that, and sure enough he would have outbursts at teammates saying they're all being kids and he's the only one that is a grown man. Luther said the thing about that was, he was right. He'd been responsible for himself since he was 13. After the canned segment Dave Wannstedt discussed his pro prospects. He said he went and talked to Ron Turner who coaches at FIU and has to play Cato. Ron I believe is Norv's brother, and so that's how Wanny and he know each other. Ron Turner brought up a lot of the same things I have about him. He said he's a lot like Teddy Bridgewater. He said he's not a big guy but he's accurate, has a very quick release and very quick feet, and probably the most notable thing is how when he gets pressured and has to scramble around, he's got the ability to run for 1st downs but more times than not the thing you can't coach is he keeps his eyes up looking down the field and makes a lot of big throws and plays that way. Ron Turner has a lot of pro coaching experience. He sounds sold on Cato.
Man he's such a great kid, I so want him to be successful, he lives for this game, it's what made him who who he is and he doesn't let a second go By that he takes for granted, the intangibles are off the chart as any Wilson or Tebow or Prescott. My goodness what a story, what a testament to this kids will, he's so damn original. Ugh, he's a small kid man, this isn't gonna be easy, his quickness to anticipate pressure is incredible his precision to evade pressure is hi hi level stuff, he has that in spades, but his arm strength from the pocket isn't great, he really needs to wind up to Get that mustard on there, and that wristy delivery is always worrisome when it comes to accuracy.. He's someone I would love to give a shot to, but not in the first round.
People usually make funny .gifs out of it, but anytime you see something go wrong on the football field, Philip Rivers is emotive. It's comical on the surface, but you see a guy who doesn't tolerate when his team beats itself. Rivers will slam the ball to the turf on a false start because it means they lost that snap. The guy played in the AFC Championship game a week after totaling his knee.
Potential upset in the making today. Some things not working in Marshall's favor. He came out like usual attacking deep down the field with high difficulty throws, but none of them fell. Then Devon Johnson got hurt. He's not looked the same since the 2nd quarter. In this half now the receivers are dropping the football. They also went for a 4th & 2 and Bill Legg made a bad call running a gimpy Devon Johnson up the gut instead of giving to Cato. Incidentally Craig Bolerjack and especially Ryan Nece are HORRIBLE. Absolutely atrocious.
Welp, ok. Guess you can't keep them down forever. Credit Cato for continuing to be aggressive even after he had missed some long throws. Hits a big deep ball to McManus and then pulls a "Cato" for a touchdown to Shuler. By the way DJ. You need to see this touchdown throw to Shuler. I don't know how anyone can watch this throw and question his arm. I get what you're saying with the wristy delivery and accuracy. But I think you're wrong about arm strength being an issue.
I hope a 35-16 victory is enough to impress the committee. I'm really worried they will put ECU in ahead of Marshall.
Rakeem Cato threw a TD in his 40th consecutive game today. And he still has quite a few games to go. He could legitimately write a record that is never broken and that's pretty cool.
just a serious question, who was the last successful qb that had a wrist like delivery?..mike vick?..it scares the hell out of me because I believe in order to achieve true accuracy, the follow thru has to finish with the arm and hand finishing towards the target. as far as the arm strength goes, its not bad, jmo, I can't deny he can set up in the pocket and wing it 55 yards, but theres something there when he's not at full wind up that seems a bit weak. what I do believe is that he will always elevate his teammates to play at a high level, and you just might be able to win with that, and his great playmaking ability. his skill set reminds me off a player who I had higher than most comin out and that was tyrod taylor.
The first example that came to mind was Michael Vick, but I don't suppose that's going to satisfy your concerns about accuracy as Vick has a career 56% completion. But I forgot about Aaron Rodgers. Which is why later in the thread it came to me that Cato actually reminds me a lot of Rodgers, who has always had that wristy, gunslinging, mostly-arm look to his throws. It is part of what allows him to throw the ball on the run so well and I don't think it's a coincidence that Cato makes so many big throws on the run. The only real difference is that Cato hasn't been coached to carry the ball up high at chin level like Rodgers had been coached at Cal. But that's not a bad thing. That was one of the things scouts didn't like about Rodgers, as they referred to him as a quarterback that was "manufactured" by Jeff Tedford. Here see for yourself. Notice the wrist-snap in Rodgers' delivery: [video=youtube;V48DlitkTSg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V48DlitkTSg[/video] Like I said the only real difference is that Rodgers had been coached to keep that ball high at his chin by Tedford. He had to be coached out of that in the NFL, while maintaining a quick delivery. Cato never got coached into it and already has a quick delivery, so he's ahead that way. EDIT: I probably should've just linked some Aaron Rodgers NFL footage because that ends up looking even more Cato-like than the college footage, as Rodgers dropped the starting point of his delivery in the NFL to something more similar to Cato. I just wanted to link the college footage because it's a bit more apples-to-apples in terms of the timeline. Very similar way that the two players move, carry themselves, and throw with that wrist-snap delivery. [video=youtube;e9mCwxqPMG8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9mCwxqPMG8[/video]
And now that I've looked at his Virginia Tech 2013 game as well as all the video I've compiled from 2014, there have been some pretty distinct improvements in Cato's weight transfer. If I were coaching Cato I would probably have him focus on Rodgers film a little bit, maybe get him to shorten up his steps to something more similar to Rodgers. Different coaches coach that differently. Some (and most likely Cato's coaches) like that initial long step back after the shotgun snap. In fact it looks like Cato was specifically coached INTO that compared with some of his earlier footage and his natural insticts to have a bit of a narrower base. Tough call. Coaching him this way could improve his accuracy, but letting him have the narrower base and shorter steps may allow him to be more himself.
The running criticism of Cato aside from size is probably going to be about his accuracy and completion percentage. He's completing 58% of his passes right now in 2014, completed only 60% in 2013. The "new normal" for completion percentage is around 65%. This is because of the evolution of the west coast oriented short passing game. Teams are using quick passes as an extension of the running game. Marshall did this too in 2011 and 2012. That's why even as a 150 lbs true freshman he had a 60% completion in 2011. And in 2012 that was up to 70%. They didn't have as much of a ground game in either of those year so they used a lot of those shorter passes, averaging 11.3 and 10.3 yards per catch. But starting in 2013 their RBs started to average 180 yards rushing per game at 5.9 yards per carry. And the passing game was getting more explosive as well, as Cato started averaging 13.1 yards per completion. They kept the same overall offensive success at about 40 points per game (pure offense, rushing & receiving touchdowns plus FGs), but yards per play went from 5.9 to 6.4 so they were doing their damage in fewer plays. They've continued that route in 2014. Through 8 games they have scored over 44 points per game pure offense, at 7.9 yards per play. And Cato is averaging 16.1 yards per completion. It's very evident on film as you see a lot of Cato's throws are vertical down the field, or off the scramble drill. He has no lack of confidence in his ability to get the football anywhere on the field and he tries a lot of high difficulty throws. You don't see a lot of dink and dunk with them because they don't need that. The running game is averaging 7.0 yards per carry. They already have an effective dink and dunk passing game in the form of their rushing attack. What they need out of the passing game is big chunk plays and that's why Cato completes "only" 58 percent for a whopping 16+ yards per completion. But again I point to 3rd down. This is where you find out what kind of accuracy a quarterback has. I don't think it's possible for a quarterback to consistently convert about 50% on 3rd down, including about 1 out of 3 on 3rd & 10+, if he's not accurate. And this time that's not including runs or scrambles, that's just what he's doing with his arm. For reference, his final two seasons at Florida Tim Tebow was more like 40% on 3rd down (passing only) and 1 out of 4 on 3rd & 10+. And he worked in a pretty favorable offense for converting on 3rd down. But he was not an accurate passer, bottom line.
You want to know why he doesn't get his passes batted down at the line? Because he's got the awareness to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1VVf4Ntsvw&feature=player_detailpage#t=217 He's trying to hit a slant and a defensive lineman gets into the passing lane and jumps up. Cato goes through his motion, feels the threat, pulls the ball down and moves to his right, reloads and then fires the ball in. The ball was incomplete, but it was on target and catchable. The defender was flagged for pass interference and Marshall gets a 1st down. Other quarterbacks (Tannehill being one of them) let that ball go anyway, it gets batted at the line, and there's no pass interference call because the ball is tipped. It's a subtle thing but if you watch enough of his film you have to keep track of the number of times you see him start his throwing motion, stop it, and then reload. Most of the time that's because his passing lane is threatened either at the line of scrimmage or out in coverage. He does this a lot. It's an awareness thing.
Discretion is the better part of valor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1VVf4Ntsvw&feature=player_detailpage#t=256 Watch him roll to his right on this play, drawing a zone linebacker in pursuit. He's got a receiver #8 or #9 (can't tell) going with him looking for the ball. But this linebacker that is pursuing Cato is DIRECTLY between the two. Draw a line, and he's perfectly in the way. If he line drives that ball, that linebacker could pull a J.J. Watt and take it back for 6 points. On the other hand if Cato lobs it over top of the linebacker to make sure he can't get his hands on it, what happens? I'll tell you what happens. Linebacker #46 is waiting for that, reading the quarterback the whole way and getting set to react to the ball. If he throws a lob pass in his viscinity that's an even more sure-fire pick than a bullet right into #43's facemask. Further up the field there are two defenders bracketing the other receiver by the sideline. If he throws that, another sure pick. Cato pulls the football down and runs out of bounds for a 2 yard loss. A sack. But that was fine. You punt the ball, you live to fight another day. Force one of those throws and you hand points to the other side.
Great example of Marshall's downfield focus resulting in undesirable outcomes at times (sack, incomplete pass). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1VVf4Ntsvw&feature=player_detailpage#t=279 On this play Cato is going to read the safeties and then work the right side where he's got three guys out on routes versus three defenders. Based on the coverage he sees, he knows the innermost slot is going to run an out/corner route splitting the space between the perimeter corner and the flat coverage. This route pops open nicely and should've been a big gain. But the line couldn't hold up on their end, and Cato gets caught between two defensive linemen crashing on him before he could throw the out/corner route. This was 1st & 10 and is a perfect example of the kind of big chunks Marshall is generally looking for on 1st & 10 as opposed to teams that are focused on short routes that get them closer to moving the sticks.
Ron Turner (former NFL offensive coordinator, Norv Turner's brother): His offensive coordinator, Josh Conklin: Also a nice gem here: Terry Bowden:
Devon Johnson's touchdown runs of 58, 62 and 66 yards essentially won Marshall the game against Florida Atlantic. Asked whether Rakeem Cato called any of the runs that Devon Johnson popped for big scored against Florida Atlantic, Doc Holliday said yes he did. At least one of the big runs for sure he changed to the run at the line, but he thinks more than one.
Ohh man it drive me nuts with tannehill, it could be a wide frekin open pocket where he could have lunch, sure enough dude doesn't move his feet, no sliding at all, and just releases it like he's been programmed to just release and not worry about deflection, like someone told him don't focus on changing yourangle last second, just trust your online has done their job. The whole passes batted down thing with Tannehill, is all tannehill.
When you see short guys that don't get their passes batted down you know that it's got to be more than just height and release level. There's probably something to be said for the predictability of the offense, but the quarterback has to open himself up a passing lane.
For those that care, the FAU game: [video=youtube;YSwy3_IzmEE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSwy3_IzmEE[/video] 1. Keep in mind several of those big Devon Johnson touchdowns were Cato making a call to run the football, and where to run the football, at the line of scrimmage. Wouldn't be surprised if that very first big TD run was a call by Cato because the spread left only 5 defenders in the box which meant Marshall could get a hat on a hat and it would be up to the two deep safeties to crash down and tackle Johnson. 2. There's only one defender on FAU, a corner, that MAY have been running faster than Devon Johnson on that first breakaway touchdown. And if he was, it was by a very slim margin. Devon Johnson is 6'1" & 243 lbs. Yet he's that fast. Heck of a prospect. 3. Cato missed several deep throws in the first half. You won't see them on this video. They started to fall in the second half. But receivers also started to drop the ball in the second half, so the whole passing offense didn't heat up together until a bit through the 3rd quarter I think. The rookie receiver McManus should have gotten down so that Marshall could call a timeout to try and kick a field goal, but he's young and doesn't have the awareness. Also I believe there was a 4th down run call that should have been a Cato play because Devon was banged up...wasted a possession. 4. Went after FAU deep and kept going after them deep even when a few deep balls didn't fall right in the first half. Stayed aggressive. 5. I thought CB Darryl Roberts (#7) had a heck of a game and I think he could be a good prospect. 6. Check out that out/corner route that Cato hits with TE Eric Frohnapfel on 3rd & 6 at 1:36 in the game. Really just a beautiful route, excellent footwork and throw, and good catch. That's a 6'7" tight end right there and he runs really well and has nice, soft hands. And look at the zip and accuracy on that throw. Both should be pros. 7. The play 9:34 is an example of something I don't know if Cato gets enough credit for especially as people will stigmatize the spread offense in which he plays. I have him with 4 reads on that play. His eyes and head are all over the place. This is a fairly common thing for him. I think probably the only time I see him stare a guy down too much is when he's got man coverage on Tommy Shuler or another receiver in the slot, who is running an out. At that point he keeps his head oriented toward that side where there's usually a perimeter receiver running vertically and Shuler running the out from the slot. I think defenses know he likes this throw so they don't buy the vertical as much. But then he throws the a lot too, so tough call. 8. Who the hell else makes this play at 11:34? Two free pass rushers before any of the receivers have made their breaks. He dekes one, turns up his eyes and instantly hits the man on the comeback. He not only knew the receiver was there but he knew what kind of coverage the corner was playing because it was the first thing he checked after the ball was snapped. THEN he read the middle of the field, THEN he checked his left side, THEN he deked the pass rusher, THEN he came back to the right side where he knew he had a comeback route being run versus press-man coverage. The processing speed being displayed here is insane. 9. This is throw I was talking about DJ where I said I'm not sure how anyone can watch this and question his arm strength, starting at 15:34. This is a 38+ yard throw through the air. But it's the KIND of throw he makes here. This ain't no deep ball floater with touch. This is a FASTBALL. And my preliminary findings on the average speed of that fastball...well let's just say for that distance, it belongs up there with anyone you can name. Anyone. Bar NONE. It is a SICK throw. You might get a better appreciation for the distance if you wait until 16:43 for the wide angle replay.
Something you just can't quantify that is so important in a potentially elite quarterback prospect...PROCESSING SPEED & ACCURACY. I remember when Russell Wilson went to the Senior Bowl with Brandon Weeden, Nick Foles, Ryan Lindley, Kirk Cousins and Kellen Moore. My friend Eric Galko somehow managed to finagle access to the practice footage and he decided to tally up the number of reads that each quarterback got to on each of their throws, to put together an average. I remember that Russell Wilson's average was far higher than all of the rest of the guys. And that's why he's an elite quarterback, because of his processing speed.
By the way it's worth noting that on that boner-producing touchdown throw with such incredible zip on it, he made three reads before throwing that football. It wasn't just two. First thing he did was read the left safety. That guy was rotating to the deep middle which meant Rakeem Cato knew that he had McManus on the left side in single press-man coverage with a corner. So then Cato flips over to look at McManus and his coverage. Here he's going to make a decision that McManus really isn't open against this corner. He could've thrown it anyway. A lot of quarterbacks would have thrown it anyway. But the guy was pretty well covered so he continued hunting. That's when he flips his eyes over to the right side of the field. What does he see? He sees the corner staying with the outside receiver who is running a post, and the safety is too deep and late to cover up Tommy Shuler who is running the deep out from the slot. The flat defender of course is occupied by Eric Frohnapfel's flat route. It was really three reads on the play. Just a great example of his total array of skills between his presnap knowledge of the defensive look, presnap knowledge of the offensive routes being run, post-snap processing speed, post-snap processing accuracy, his feet which were perfectly in tune with his eyes (notice he's sliding toward McManus on the left when he wants that throw, then changes up and starts sliding toward Shuler when he decides on that throw), and his pure arm strength to throw that fast ball at such great distance...not to mention the throw accuracy at distance which was right on point.
This might be the most well-crafted piece of prose I've ever seen written on the subject of evaluating quarterbacks:
Imagine Cato on some of the play-action bootlegs that you saw Russell Wilson run at Wisconsin, or that you see him run in Seattle. Talk about untapped potential. The only movement plays you generally see for Cato are either zone-read keepers, or plays where he chooses to move out of the pocket due to pressure. But you'd have to think with his skillset he could be dangerous as hell dropping back, executing play-action and rolling out. Think about how good he is at keeping his eyes up, scanning the field and looking for targets whenever he's on the move. This isn't just a "decent" area for him, it's an exceptional one. Rolling out off the play-action is all about that. It's all about how well you keep your eyes up scanning the field and making sure you've got your throw, then hitting it while moving. And Cato seems pretty good at hitting targets while on the move.
Jim Rome had Cato on. I think Rome is pretty intrigued with him as well, judging from some things I've seen in the past: [video=youtube;zIRqD5mGrGU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIRqD5mGrGU[/video]
Can I just say that this scene was pretty hilarious to watch during the game itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfA7RwRVMBg&feature=player_detailpage#t=811 I mean, Rakeem Cato...you're tiny. Let's face it. You may be 6'0" or possibly even 6'1", but you're 190 pounds at best. He doesn't care. This linebacker gets up from the ground and for some reason comes to get right in Cato's face, so what the heck...throws up the guns. Tiny guns.
Marshall really caught a break this weekend. One could argue their destiny is in their own hands (not as far as playoffs go, but as far as being picked to play in one of the Access Bowls). I knew East Carolina was begging for a loss and I was upset they kept being ranked (even by the playoff committee) ahead of Marshall. They've been playing down to their opponent and not really playing great football. They beat UNC but UNC is terrible, and they were just good enough to lose against a South Carolina team that hadn't gotten into their groove yet. I don't see how that ranks above an 8-0 team that beats everyone by 30+, no matter what the schedule says. This is still FBS football, not FCS. Well this weekend ECU went out and blew it against Temple. Now Colorado State is in a dogfight with San Jose State, and if Colorado State loses there should be ZERO question that an undefeated Marshall University gets the Group of Five bid to an Access Bowl. Not that Colorado State should've superceded an undefeated Marshall in the first place. Because their loss was to Boise State, if Boise doesn't lose another game then CSU wouldn't even have played in the Mountain West Championship Game. So how could a team that didn't even play for its conference championship get chosen as the "best" team from the Group of Five conferences over an undefeated conference champion from the CUSA? That should be downright unthinkable. Marshall controls its own destiny. On College Gameday Live they had Rakeem Cato into Morgantown to talk about Marshall and they asked what team he'd most like to play. He said he didn't have a team but he did have a conference, the SEC. He wants to play a team in the SEC to prove themselves and if Marshall stays undefeated they just might get that wish in the Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl or Chik-Fil-A Bowl.
The throw at 15:34 has good velocity, you have to look at the momentum of his body, the clean pocket and the time to fully wind it up.. Theres more to evaluating arm strength at the next level than when those circumstances happen..off balance, changing platform, not a clean pocket, the discrepancy can change and be quite different and effected.. I'm not sure what the debate us, are we talking about what his grade is? I don't have him as high as Wilson coming out, do you?.. I know you were high on Wilson.
Chris, my bad for only bolding this. This really was a great post. Can we just change the name of this thread to evaluate Marshall? Hahaha. Anywho, I posed it earlier, but I think Darryl "Swagg" Roberts has a chance. He's always lined up in single coverage, on an island, every week. And every week he wins. Again, it's a cake schedule, but it was the same last year when he went up against some solid prospects at WR.
What a great weekend, right? If Colorado State is taken over Marshall, it's a complete hose job and I'll be pissed.
I think I'm pretty aware of the different methods of evaluating arm strength. I'm also aware that the velocity he got on those throws at that distance is rare, completely regardless of how cleanly he was able to get into his throwing motion. I'm also aware that his throwing motion in both cases of the throws that I've highlighted was still very quick. The debate is about arm strength. You criticized it. I personally don't see an arm strength argument to be made about Rakeem Cato. Do I have him as high as Wilson? To this day I'm not sure I had the wrong grade on Wilson. I had Wilson as a 2nd round pick, and about as good as you can grade a QB without making him an "all eggs in one basket" kind of prospect (which is what 1st round quarterbacks tend to be, unfortunately). I thought, and said many times, that the Seahawks were brilliant for going out and diversifying their risk between the free agent signing that they thought could play in their system (Matt Flynn) and the ultimate boom-or-bust quarterback prospect whom you can't watch on film without getting excited about (Russell Wilson). It was just a great way to go about things. If I say that I should've had a 1st round grade on Russell Wilson then it's almost like I'm invalidating that strategy, and I thought it was a brilliant way to go about business...so I'm reluctant. The height was a serious issue, not to be discarded lightly. The cat wasn't just 6'0" which is Brees level. He is 5'10". I mean, imagine how the criticisms of Dree Brees' height would've disappeared if he were 2 inches taller like Matt Stafford and a dozen other quarterbacks whose height is not viewed to be an issue. Now subtract an ADDITIONAL two inches from Brees and that's how you get Russell Wilson. Some people were saying that there were no issues on film related to his height and that just was not accurate. There absolutely were signs of limitations on film due to his height, but he was overcoming them with his playing style. So now you've gotta figure out, are those ways in which he overcomes his height deficiency going to work at the next level, or will they not? If not, he's not even a guy you put on the field. If so, he was going to be as wonderful in the NFL as he was in college. That is what I mean when I say he was the ultimate boom or bust prospect at the position. My thinking this way is the reason I found it easy to refer to him as an elite quarterback as early as his rookie season. I knew it was going to be all-or-nothing with him and after watching him in his rookie regular season you could certainly see that it wasn't "nothing" so the other choice is "all"...and from there all I needed to see was how he did in the playoffs before I could declare just how special he is. So getting back to Rakeem Cato, there are some things that are Russell Wilson-like, and then there are things that are not. Ultimately I'm not sure his ACCURACY is Russell Wilson-like. And, while admitting this may be the result of my own ethnocentric and possibly even subconsciously racist temperament, I also keep wondering if he has the intellect to completely absorb an NFL playbook and gameplan to where he can have a firm grasp on all of the decisions on route variations that will take place in the 10 seconds prior to the snap to the 3 seconds until he releases the football. I did not wonder these things about a Russell Wilson. My perception of Wilson's intelligence level, leadership and persona were all pretty much 10 out of 10. Additionally, Wilson's experience was leveraged toward two offenses he would have a high likelihood of seeing in the pros...the WCO at North Carolina State, and more of a play-action oriented dropback offense at Wisconsin. But going back to Wilson's being experienced in NFL type systems, we are now living in an NFL where Marshall's offensive principles are not at all unheard of anymore. There is really not much difference for example between what Rakeem Cato is used to running at Marshall, and what the Miami Dolphins are running under Bill Lazor. Or the Philadelphia Eagles, obviously. And this trend will only continue. There are also some things going in Rakeem Cato's favor that Russell Wilson did not have. First I go back to the height thing. It's still almost unfathomable that a 5'10" player is playing quarterback so well in the NFL. We've seen 6 footers before like Drew Brees, Michael Vick, etc. I think Rakeem Cato fits that mold. He's over 6 feet in height, I just don't know if he's going to get to 6'1". Given the change that is definitely happening in how the NFL views height in quarterbacks, I would say that the biggest issue standing in Russell Wilson's way from being a 1st round pick just doesn't fit that well on Cato. Either way, Cato doesn't have as pronounced tendencies as Wilson did to back away from the line of scrimmage and/or get outside of the tackle box in order to produce more clear vision. Rakeem Cato also has multiple years of extraordinary and consistent performance, whereas Russell Wilson was good at NC State and then made a big jump when he transferred to Wisconsin. I mean, in RW's final year at NC State he had 58.6 percent completion but only a 6.8 yards per attempt. And he threw interceptions at a 2.7 percent rate which is a little on the high side if we're to judge him as a potentially elite quarterback prospect (which he ended up being). He was only 35.6 percent converting 3rd downs, which is low. He was only 27 percent converting 3rd & 7+ which is also low. I remember watching him and thinking he has great highlight plays but he's not very consistent, not like he was in 2009. On the other hand, Rakeem Cato hasn't had a bad or even mediocre year passing the football since he was a 150 pound true freshman. So there are some things going in Cato's favor, it isn't just all about the disadvantages. Whether I get Cato as high as Wilson may come down to the All Star performance. If Cato isn't invited to the Senior Bowl then Phil Savage can expect me to spam his twitter account til the end of days. I want to see how Cato does there. It's a venue where the POTENTIAL issues I mentioned about absorbing a playbook could really start to show up. But if he's no problem in that way then I'd be very gung-ho on him.
Chad Pennington been doing a rip-off of Jon Gruden's QB School videos with Rakeem Cato. This is a relationship though that has been going on for years if I'm not mistaken. Cato meets and speaks with Pennington regularly in order to get tips, advice and coaching. It's stuff like this that should be under the most scrutiny with Cato I think, because the biggest question about him is can he hack it mentally at the next level. [video=youtube;Boo7c-DGbBc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Boo7c-DGbBc&list=UUqtg0FdNZ5cTGELBGyCBgsw[/video] I think the video was actually shot a while ago. They're using all 2013 tape from the ECU and VT games. I actually remember seeing a part of this video a few months ago, they played a few minutes of it during halftime of one of Marshall's early games I believe. This is the full version of it. The final play is interesting in both good and bad ways. Pennington notes that ECU did a great job really disguising what they were going to do. You could tell it was cover zero but you couldn't necessarily tell who was blitzing and who was dropping. Pennington wants to know what Cato saw in this play, and finished by asking, was this a pre-snap play or a post-snap play? Did you have an idea what you were going to do pre-snap or did you just read this post-snap. Cato made it pretty clear that this was post-snap. He knew the zero coverage, and he was looking for individual matchups. But he felt the pressure from the blitz and knew he had to step up into the pocket and from there, he just found the open man. The bad from that is you know that a guy like Tom Brady (not every elite QB does this the same way mind you, but Brady does it this way) is deciding before the snap where the ball ultimately ends up about 70+ percent of the time. Obviously this was more of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants play from Cato. The good is...holy crap, this was all just field-processing under live fire?!? I mean really take a look at this play. http://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...Wop5Qb-0&list=UUqtg0FdNZ5cTGELBGyCBgsw#t=1350 So he checks his left then moves his head to scan the middle and that's when he FEELS the blitzer and knows he needs to move his feet if he wants to avoid danger. From there he's just doing a total Dan Marino. And boy did he ever do that. While running up and to his right, he actually sees Devon Johnson break his route by floating more vertically while his man defender kept cutting shallow. He sees this through a crowd that includes DL #55 that is looping around and looking to cream him, the defender in man coverage #35, and the official who is right in harm's way. Then he throws the ball on the move with accuracy and especially TOUCH to float the thing over the defender who cut too shallow while man covering Devon Johnson. Jesus.
Another good video just put up in the last few days. ESPN U did an All Access special on Marshall: [video=youtube;NTm4qAwl9lo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTm4qAwl9lo&list=UUqtg0FdNZ5cTGELBGyCBgsw[/video] I think this may also be from 2013 though. EDIT: Nope. I was wrong. This is a fresh video. They're talking about Cato's 39th consecutive game TD to Ryan Yurachek.
Huh. So Mike Furrey is Marshall's wide receivers coach. That's interesting. He was always Mike Martz' pet, brought him from St. Louis to Detroit and for a year was actually a 1000 yard receiver for Martz. Obviously regarded as a very heady player, because physically he was nothing to speak of. But he really understood Mike Martz' complicated offensive schemes. Wonder what his view on Cato would be.
