[Quesadilla Joe]

Some thoughts on Deshaun Watson from Albert Breer...

Spoiler!

3. Not all spread offenses are created equal. There’s this rush to group every offense where the quarterback doesn’t take the ball from under center as “spread”, and position the transition to the NFL from those schemes at the level of English to Mandarin. Sure, sometimes, the language/scheme barrier is extreme. But not always. Texas Tech’s Pat Mahomes and Cal’s Davis Webb are coming from Air Raid backgrounds. For those two, the learning curve is steep.

But in researching Clemson’s Deshaun Watson the past couple weeks, I’ve learned that the Tigers are on the other side of the ledger here. The quarterback may take the snap from the gun, and there may be more wideouts on the field at once, but the concepts aren’t far from what the NFL runs. “All these guys talk about it like it’s not a pro-style offense—to me, that’d mean that it’s based on the quarterback run game and/or RPOs (simple ‘run-pass option’ plays),” said one NFC offensive coordinator. “When you watch Clemson, Watson is dropping back, reading it and throwing it. They have NFL pass concepts. He’s a lot easier to evaluate than the Texas Tech guys. … And in fact, that’s where people get concerned with Deshaun—the issues with getting to No. 2 are real. But at least you see them doing it.”

And, as noted by coaches who’ve interviewed him, Watson also has shown signs he can work through his issues with field vision and progression reading. “He took the best defense in the country (Alabama) and tore them up twice,” said an AFC quarterbacks coach. “From a pure football standpoint, he was the smartest of any of them I talked to in being able to understand protections, how he handled issues. He could speak the offense well. Now, he did have 17 picks his last year, and he puts the ball in harm’s way too much. But you look at it with him, and when you ask, ‘what are you seeing here?’, he was able to provide good answers. And usually, if they have those answers, they can work from that with you.”

These, of course, aren’t Watson’s only problems. There are questions about his accuracy, too. But the sense I get in talking to people I respect about this stuff is there’s plenty to work with here, and a good reason why he’s considered the most pro-ready of any of the quarterbacks—even if he didn’t take many snaps from center as a collegian.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2017/04/20/a...mpact-notebook