Joe Burrow - 2020 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Before I get started breaking down Joe Burrow, I first want to make everyone in Louisiana immediately hate me and think that I’m a total piece of shit and compare him to Mitch Trubisky. Both were Mr. Football in Ohio, both went away from Ohio State to pursue their football dreams with Trubisky enrolling at North Carolina and Burrow transferring to LSU, and they both have one year of production that everyone wants to judge them on. Athletically, Burrow is incredibly similar to Mitch Trubisky. They’re not running quarterbacks, but they are quarterbacks who can run so you need to respect their legs since they have enough juice to get first downs if left unattended.

Now for Trubisky, his one year was his only year as a full-time starter, while Burrow has one incredible year after putting up pedestrian numbers in his first year at LSU. It makes me wonder why it is better to be unimpressive one year as opposed to just not playing that much. I would tend to favor the guy that never played before, because everything I have seen from him has been good, and the big thing that people are asking themselves about Burrow is whether he made massive improvements or whether this year is an outlier that will not translate to the NFL level. 

To break down Burrow, I took a look at his 2018 game against Florida, and his 2019 games against Alabama and Texas. 

Let's get those Louisianans back on my side with a beautiful back shoulder fade from Burrow. I have to say that I was a lot more impressed than I expected to be with Burrow's 2018 performance.

Here, he starts looking down the middle before shifting to the outside and sets his feet and makes a really nice throw on the slant to pick up a first down. The thing that I really liked about this throw is that Burrow not only throws it between two converging defenders, but he also throws it low so his receiver can avoid taking a big hit.

The biggest issue that I had while watching Burrow is how he handled pressure. He just doesn't have great feel in the pocket and even though he starts scrambling, he is doing it to make a play and does not know that there is a blitzer on his backside.

Two other things that I noticed in 2018 that did not seem to be as much of a problem this past season is that he would often throw short of the first down on third downs despite not facing any pressure. He's firing the ball all over the place this year so that is definitely not an issue.

The other thing is that he wasn’t real comfortable scanning the field when his first read was covered. There were a few times where he did some checkdowns, but rarely was he able to look at more than half the field. As for 2019, it was amazing to see him scan the field with no issues. He was looking left to right, checking down and finding open receivers. 

It's night and day. He’s very quick in his decision making. Here, he is looking down the field, nothing opens up, and he sets and fires to his running back while barely looking because he knows there is nobody over there to cover him. 

Burrow baits the defense on this play as he’s looking to his left the whole way, just waiting for the receivers to cross the field where there is no safety on the right side. It’s about as easy of a touchdown as you’re going to see. 

This is such a great play by Burrow as he stays calm in his pocket. His first option is covered, his second option is covered, his third option is covered, there’s nothing to the right side of the field, so he pivots, sees his receiver on the drag has some space and makes the easy completion. 

Unfortunately, his issues with pressure continued to pop up in 2019. He just doesn't have great pocket awareness or movement. Most of the time, he just doesn't show great feel for pressure, but he can also get moving and make poor decisions.

Here is a case where Burrow tries to force something that simply isn't there and nearly gets it intercepted on second down.

Even with occasional struggles against pressure, he is still willing to step up in the pocket and make big time throws. 

I love how he steps up in the pocket to make this throw. Burrow can fit it in tight windows but was also clearly helped by some very impressive wide receivers.

Overall, there is a lot to be excited about with Burrow. He's very accurate with his throws, shows the ability to scan the entire field and even though it's not a big arm, it's plenty big enough to get the job done. As for the National Title game tonight, Clemson has the studs on defense to pressure Burrow, and tonight may be the most important game to watch if I'm an NFL Scout, because if Clemson is able to pressure him, it will be interesting to see whether Burrow can raise his game and still lead his Tigers to victory.

I personally think that Clemson's defense will provide enough stops for their offense to carry them, but this certainly wouldn't be the first time someone underestimated Joe Burrow and was proven wrong.

Scouting the 2014 NFL Draft: Tajh Boyd

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Earlier this season, Tajh Boyd was seriously considered as a candidate for the first quarterback that would be taken in the draft. He was tearing up defenses and Clemson was a legitimate national title contender. Then Florida State happened and all that shine got rubbed off quickly. I have watched a decent amount of Clemson games over the last few years and Boyd always struck me as solid but never wowed me with his potential. I saw him in person at the Orange Bowl and was mostly left with an infatuation with Sammy Watkins. Still, I wanted to put him under the microscope to see where he ranks among the other quarterbacks in the draft. I took a look at his games against Georgia, Florida State, and Wake Forest (Editor's note: This was originally all about Tajh Boyd, but it's impossible to talk about him without bringing up Watkins, so there is some Sammy Watkins love sprinkled in).

First off, here is a nice throw from Boyd on an out route to Sammy Watkins.

Look at Watkins attack that ball with his hands. If he lets the ball come into his chest, the defender breaks it up, as he has great coverage, but Watkins extends his arms to meet the ball as soon as he can. A nice play on both ends, as Boyd put the ball where it needed to be.

This is a very nice deep ball from Boyd.

He pump fakes, and it may have caught the defender, but the two camera angles are impossible to sync, as it may have just been Watkins stutter step that froze the corner. Either way, Boyd tosses up a beautiful deep ball, and then Watkins hits the after burners to make it into the end zone.

He shows the ability to make some nice throws on intermediate routes.

He does a nice job of putting it through the zone on this play and leading Watkins perfectly.

Here is a touchdown pass from Tajh Boyd.

Alright, so I'm full on breaking into Sammy Watkins highlights. Can you blame me? Look at that catch. That's simply not fair.

This is a throw where if he puts it in front of the receiver, he can get a big play. Unfortunately, he throws it behind his receiver instead of leading him. Most receivers won't be able to catch this ball.

That being said, Sammy Watkins is not most receivers. He reaches behind his body and makes the catch, trucks a defensive back, and sprints to the end zone. Still, this is the sort of play that looks great on a stat sheet for Boyd but not one that looks all that impressive when actually looking at the throw.

He just doesn't show much for accuracy or great decision making on this play.

He overthrows this ball, which is a positive, because the cornerback had coverage on anything thrown over the top. Still, he had a receiver down the sideline in single coverage. If he tries to make a back shoulder throw, the receiver might be able to make a play on the ball for a good gain.

On this pass, he not only makes a bad decision to throw the ball when the safety had easy coverage over the top, but he also overthrows it as well.

A more experienced safety probably intercepts that pass. Instead, Sammy Watkins is able to turn it into a pass interference call on the defense.

This is a bad case of Boyd showing tunnel vision when targeting his receiver.

He never sees the defender drifting over, and even had that guy not been there, he was still trying to squeeze a ball with two men in the area.

The Florida State game was really ugly for the entire Clemson team. Florida State got away with some contact throughout the game, and his receivers were often just not on the same page. Boyd made some bad mistakes as well, but that beating was the cause of Florida State being great and Clemson being really poor. I can't come to the conclusion of him not rising to the occasion; I think it was more just that guys are always going to have some bad days. These are the best examples of the team being out of sync.

And...

Yep.

Going in a different direction, he does a nice job of reading the field on this play.

He starts off looking to his right, then works over to his left and throws a very nice pass to his receiver. Unfortunately, that ball was still dropped. Still, the blame cannot be placed on Boyd as he made a nice play. This was not a skill I saw very much of, but that is partially due to the design of Clemson's offense which has a lot of quick screens and is built on presnap reads instead of having the quarterback make a lot of decisions once the ball is snapped.

Although he has good mobility, he doesn't move well within the pocket. Here, only one rusher is causing any sort of penetration, and Boyd has two blockers on him, yet he still cannot avoid the rush from him.

This is an issue I saw pop up on a few of his dropbacks, as he does a nice job of looking towards receivers, but does not do a good job of subtle movements to avoid pass rushers.

Inconsistency. That seems to be the story with every part of Tajh Boyd's game. He can throw some great deep balls...and some awful ones. He can lead receivers perfectly...and throw it well behind them. He can move well and scan the field...and panic and make ill-advised decisions. If all you had to do was flash talent, Boyd would be a first round pick. Unfortunately, there is just very little consistency in anything that he does on the football field. He always runs hard, but that isn't enough to draft a quarterback off of. His stats are inflated, because of receivers making plays around him. I went to the Orange Bowl and saw him throw for 378 yards and 5 touchdowns and thought he was just fine. His first touchdown to Watkins was nice; other than that, he had wide receivers (Watkins especially) making plays for him. And this was on a good day. The potential is there with Boyd, but with all the inconsistencies, it's a gamble I wouldn't bet on before the late rounds of the draft, as he is much closer to Logan Thomas than he is to Zach Mettenberger.

Here are my quarterback rankings for the prospects I have looked at so far:
1. Teddy Bridgewater - Louisville
2. Blake Bortles - Central Florida
3. Jimmy Garoppolo - Eastern Illinois
4. Zach Mettenberger - Louisiana State
5. Tajh Boyd - Clemson
6. Logan Thomas - Virginia Tech
7. Brett Smith - Wyoming
8. Aaron Murray - Georgia