Nah, if he improves his passing game by leaps and bounds he'll be 2010 Michael Vick, with hopefully less injuries. That's an awfully big jump in skill that I don't think he's going to take. As I said before though, at least his mechanics aren't bad and his release is fairly quick. Other than that he's got his legs and QB's who use their legs too much in the NFL usually don't last too long.
I am not a fan of QB who likes to scramble just because he doesn't know what to do with the ball.
Newton knows what to do with the ball.
It's not his fault that Mazlan called running plays specifically for him.
On the other hand, he only scrambled when there was nobody open or pressure was coming heavily.
He scrambled and looked to pass first.
He does not have happy feet.
Remember that his passing efficiency rating of 182.05 was second only to Kelen Moore of Boise St. (182.63) who played against a much weaker schedule.
Gabbert was a mere 127.04
His 10.19 yd per attempt (not completion) was top in the country.
(Andrew Luck number was 8.97; Gabbert was 6.71)
His TD Pct of 10.71 was top in the nation (Gabbert was 3.37).
That means he threw for a TD pass every 9 attempts while it took Gabbert more than 3 times as many (roughly 28 attempts).
He attempted 280 passes as compared to:
McElroy 313, Dalton, 316, Tolzien 266, Ponder 299.
His poise in the pocket was 100 times better than VY.
He knew where the pressure can come from because his pre-snap read is very good.
He will slide away from the pressure to complete a pass.
VY cannot hold his jock as far as understanding the passing game and different defenses.
He went through multiple reads in his progression often.
On one play, he impressed the heck out of me by going through all 5 reads (in a short period of time).
That is, he looked at all 5 receivers before delivering the ball.
That's unheard of in college ball.
I'm not sure I've ever seen Schaub going thru 4 reads, let alone 5.
He had an arm that Schaub can only dream about;
he can zip the ball on the medium route while also has the touch on the short route.
This is also extremely rare.
In short, he's a whole lot more advanced in the passing game than all of the QBs that I have followed the last 5 years or so (beginning with Leinart and VY). I wasn't much into football for a long while since the Oilers left town so I didn't know much about guys like Rodgers who came out a year earlier.
The only other QB that I liked was Sam Bradford.
Gabbert isn't terrible.
I think he's a little short in a few areas.
If he can take the coaching, he could be a good one because he also got the tools.
The mental aspect; however, will be the biggest thing that he (Gabbert) needs to improve on.
Newton already has it!
Ummmmmmm, NO!!!!
