STRENGTHS
Jacob has exciting arm talent to go along with excellent size, and solid overall athletic talent that goes along with becoming a franchise quarterback for the team that selects him. He shows on film just enough foot speed to run for first downs on third and short situations. He is very accurate and has the arm strength to make any throw on the field with excellent velocity or touch. Jacob does a solid job understanding defenses. He has good overall decision-making abilities and is smart enough to extend plays by manipulating the pocket to keep his passing lanes open. Jacob still has tremendous upside, understanding his athletic passing talent and in increasing his football IQ.
CONCERNS
Jacob has to continue on the path of improvement that I have seen him on since he played for Georgia. He still has more upside to his game. He needs to improve and get a better understanding of defensive blitz schemes. The ability to continue to move in the pocket against the blitz will be the key to success for Jacob at the next level.
BOTTOM LINE 1.75
Jacob has Dan Marino type arm talent. That’s right… I said former Dolphins great, Dan Marino! The catch is, I don’t think Jacob knows that or understands that he hasn’t tapped all of his arm talent abilities. Add to that, the normal football IQ of a quarterback coming out of a college system, and you can now understand how I believe there is excellent potential and upside to his overall game. His improvement has been dramatic this year and from the year he played in Georgia. His ability to handle pressure in the pocket, make plays from a muddy pocket and manipulate the pocket to extend plays has been the biggest improvement. His accuracy and arm strength and ability to stand strong in the pocket remind’s me a lot of Dan Marino and yet he has a totally different arm motion than Marino. That being said, his accuracy and velocity are the same and his ability to throw players open is also the same as Marino’s. Jacob learns best, playing on the field and although he might struggle at first, sitting on the bench and not getting use to the speed of the NFL quickly will be detrimental to his ability to improve his arm talent. I least that’s how I see it. Some young QB’s need to sit to improve and some have to be thrown on to the field to improve. Jacob responds to repetition and you do not get that sitting on the bench behind a veteran QB.
