Article about QBs getting ready for draft - Fitzgerald included

[cedog]

https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/02/11/nfl-draft-quarterbacks-trace-mcsorley-nick-fitzgerald

One blurb:

It’s fun to watch Fitzgerald and McSorley break down one another’s college offenses because both played for Joe Moorhead, who was Penn State’s offensive coordinator before he became Mississippi State’s head coach.

 

[coach66]

That "just get open offense" claims another victim. Tamu does throw a good ball

and I bet he sticks somewhere.

 

[patdog]

Very interesting article. Thanks.

 

[615 Guy]

Fitz will never see a snap as a QB in the league. Glad he got an invite to the combine and maybe he can steal a roster spot at WR or TE but he has no chance to play QB at the NFL level.

 

[josebrown]

I was watching the Senior Bowl practices and they were talking about the 6'7" QB Tyree Jackson, I think his name. But I thought about Nick and the comment Joe made about cleaning up his mechanics when he got here after watching gamefilm of Nick. The Senior Bowl guy talking QBs was equating taller QBs' accuracy to the cleaner the pocket they have to throw the ball. He said offenses that don't provide a big, clean pocket for the tall QBs make it very hard for them to throw with good mechanics and it shows in their accuracy. All I could think of was every time Nick tried throwing against a good to great pass rush...Against UK, LSU, Bama n UF he never really had a pocket, but everyone else he threw pretty well against.

 

[615 Guy]

Passing doesn't get easier at the next level. Both the quarterback whisperer and the guru couldn't turn him into a serviceable passing QB. Maybe Fitz can make it as a QB in the AAF or CFL but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Thing is, they don't invite hamburger to the combine.

So somebody sees something there.

 

[DancingRabbit]

Fitz will never see a snap as a QB in the league. Glad he got an invite to the combine and maybe he can steal a roster spot at WR or TE but he has no chance to play QB at the NFL level.

He could be a Taysom Hill type player and take a snap.

 

[kired]

One thing about Fitz's career stats - his home / away splits are significantly different. I guess you'd expect some difference for any SEC QB because they get to pad their stats against weak out of conference teams. But even if you look at SEC only stats, his completion percentage is just under 60% at home compared to less than 50% on the road.

His TD:INT ratio, yards per pass, rushing TDs, yards per rush --- everything he did was not just a little better, but significantly better at home vs. away.

I guess you'd have to analyze the schedules to get a good comparison. He did have to play at LSU and Bama twice, and Georgia in 2017. So maybe that's what throws off his stats. But he even performed much better against LSU and Bama in 2017 at home.

I don't really know what any of this proves... but you could probably say if he'd have played as well in road games as he did in home games, no one would question whether he was going to be drafted or not.

 

[615 Guy]

Sure he could, seems about the only way Fitz gets a snap and Taysom Hill wasn't drafted. I think a lot of teams like the idea of having a really athletic guy that can play QB3, play special teams and be an all around utility guy for certain packages in specific scenarios.

 

[josebrown]

Not arguing, just thought it was an interesting take that of everything working against him his size is too. But that size helps him at other positions, and glad to see he ain't ruling that out. Dude is a good athlete with a will to win. So don't count him out of making it in some fashion yet.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

If he gets picked up by some team and becomes the next Tom Brady I’m going to be very pissed at Moorhead.

 

[karlchilders.sixpack]

Yep, what I've been thinking...

 

[JoMo MoJo]

One thing about Fitz's career stats - his home / away splits are significantly different. I guess you'd expect some difference for any SEC QB because they get to pad their stats against weak out of conference teams. But even if you look at SEC only stats, his completion percentage is just under 60% at home compared to less than 50% on the road.

His TD:INT ratio, yards per pass, rushing TDs, yards per rush --- everything he did was not just a little better, but significantly better at home vs. away.

I guess you'd have to analyze the schedules to get a good comparison. He did have to play at LSU and Bama twice, and Georgia in 2017. So maybe that's what throws off his stats. But he even performed much better against LSU and Bama in 2017 at home.

I don't really know what any of this proves... but you could probably say if he'd have played as well in road games as he did in home games, no one would question whether he was going to be drafted or not.

the entire team was shell shocked in road games this last year. We didn’t look prepared for any of them except maybe the egg bowl.

 

[fishwater99]

the entire team was shell shocked in road games this last year. We didn’t look prepared for any of them except maybe the egg bowl.

That's on our Head Coach.