Last Chance at a Pat Devlin Game in 10 Minutes (7pm EST, Jan. 7th)

Playing in the FCS Finals tonight against Eastern Washington.

Being a champion would go a long way toward making the scouts fall in love with him.

Throwing the ball 25 yards through the air more regularly during the game would go even further toward that end.

Strengths: Reads the field quickly, and regularly (and I do mean regularly) gets down to his 3rd and 4th reads on the play. Very accurate. Can have nearly an entire game without throwing a single uncatchable ball. Good placement, although as TedSlimmJr points out as is the case for most right-handers, his accurate is a little less good to the left as opposed to the right. Can drive the football when he gets his feet under him and follows through. VERY good eye usage, looks off zone defenders frequently. Throws with touch, knows how to use it. Gets the ball out quickly, with good timing and anticipation. Has full command of the offense. Quick release, yet unlike a lot of guys with quick three-quarters releases, he still gets the ball very high over top...kind of unique. His footwork in his drop is about as good as it gets, which is curious because he's a shortgun quarterback. But, it makes you think he'll have no issues moving under Center.

Weaknesses: Can have games where the pressure and coverage is getting to him and go turtle in the backfield, taking some sacks. Arm strength not elite caliber, really needs his feet under him to drive the football properly. Accuracy at intermediate and deep depths is tough to gauge, because he doesn't throw very many of those passes, whereas with a Brandon Weeden he throws them on just about every play. When he has thrown bigger passes, I've seen the ball sail at times. Played in the shortgun. And obviously, level of competition is a concern.

 

Reminds me of a more accurate (and experienced) version of Mike Kafka, who I liked a lot last year.

 

Here's a stream if you can't get ESPN2 for whatever reason.

http://www.justin.tv/sportzzworld4#/w/735430032

 

More of the same from Devlin.

EDIT: That's meant as a compliment.

 

Boomer Esiason on the QB Sneak he is not.

 

Just got murdered there on that zone-read! He's like "I don't have the ball!!"

 

Beautiful pre-snap read on that one, wouldn't be surprised if he checked out of a run into a pass to get into that throw to the slot-left receiver, saw the open space, checked to a speed out.

(Oh and the throw over the middle that you're talking about was also really nice, liked the footwork operating within the pocket, stepping up)

 

Incidentally I don't believe he's thrown an incompletion yet, has he? Get used to that. He doesn't throw very many balls that go uncatchable.

 

A better Tight End and that's a TOUCHDOWN. He threw him open, that should have been a super sweet highlight reel play.

Still hasn't thrown an off-target ball. I'm saying we get all the way to the 3rd quarter before he throws one.

 

The height and body isn't a bother to me.

He's shown a couple of critical things to me so far. Disciplined with his progressions, disciplined with his eyes. That ball over the middle was nice but there was a throw on the speed out to the slot-left WR that was just as impressive because he read the defense pre-snap and checked into the play, because he saw what I saw prior to the snap, the spacing and coverage on the left side gave him the easy completion on the speed out.

And that TD he threw was great, very accurate and creative, he threw the guy open, had great timing for the guy to break vertically up the field. He can't help it that particular player isn't very good.

You do want a guy that has a feeling pre-snap what is going to happen, but he's disciplined and goes through his reads regardless, in case anything in the defense surprises him.

 

Hard to fault a guy for taking what a defense gives him to the point of being extremely effective. He sees a lot of umbrella coverage, takes the underneath.

 

There's another show-stopper throw.

 

I disagree. To me the ball comes out unusually high because of his high release point.

 

Incidentally, still hasn't thrown an uncatchable ball.

 

Oh man that's the 2nd near-TD he's thrown.

 

A force-out? Definitely but the NFL doesn't call that anymore. Actually REALLY good play by the defender to move him that much mid-air to get him completely out of bounds.

To me Devlin's accuracy is All-for-All with 2 TDs so far.

 

I don't mind that. His ball location is consistently good to very good because he's a short pass specialist. The high release point, active feet, and ball location are what allows him to be a short ball specialist.