2017 NFL Draft Breakdown: Iowa Hawkeyes Quarterback CJ Beathard

CJ Beathard's Iowa career did not end on the most positive note, as Iowa got blown out 30-3, and Beathard suffered an injury in the first half that greatly affected his (abysmal) second half performance. But you can't judge a guy off one bad game, and Beathard had over two years of film for NFL teams to look at and decide whether he can be an NFL quarterback. Without really giving it a close look, I thought he'd be worthy of drafting, mostly because Jake Rudock got drafted and Beathard definitely seemed like the better quarterback of those two. But instead of just using the transitive property, I decided to break down game film. Since I know Beathard fairly well as a player, I knew there was no need to check out the second half of this season, so I took a look at his games against Pittsburgh, Purdue, Minnesota, Stanford, and Michigan State from 2015, and his game against Miami (Ohio) from 2016.

Beathard's mobility seems to be forgotten at this point, but it was a legitimate weapon for the first half of 2015. Then he got hurt and could barely move the rest of the year, and this year, he seemed to forget that he could run. But I don't think he could lost all of his athleticism in a year, and he has shown that he has enough mobility to make some plays with his legs.

I'll admit that I totally forgot that a majority of the yards on the final drive to get Iowa in position to win on a last second field goal against Pitt were gained off of Beathard scrambling for yardage on three separate plays in the last 44 seconds.

Another thing that was much more evident in 2015 was his ability to lead receivers and hit guys in stride. This year, it seemed like nearly everything was difficult once VandeBerg went down, and I think a lot of that was due to Beathard's comfort level with his other receivers. Since so much of Greg Davis's offense is based off option routes, Beathard may have had to wait a beat longer to see what his receiver was going to do instead of trusting that they would make the right break for him to deliver the ball. That lack of timing and chemistry with his receiving corps may have been the biggest factor in his step backwards during his senior year.

The thing that separated Beathard from the quarterback that came before him, Jake Rudock, is arm strength. Here, the flea flicker play does not work out as planned, but he still gets enough distance on this ball despite having to alter his release for an oncoming hit.

Here's an example of him zipping a ball into a tight window.

And on top of that arm strength, he showed that he also had touch in his game as well.

That is a beautiful back shoulder fade, and he did it while knowing he had to absorb a hit. This really hammered home how bad the receivers for Iowa were this season. Because it's not like Beathard needed a ton of space to fit balls in, as he could place balls fairly well, and we still saw it this year with VandeBerg healthy. But having VandeBerg and Tevaun Smith in 2015 let Beathard show his true potential.

The first weakness I want to talk about seems to be the weakness of every Iowa quarterback, pocket awareness. I mean, Drew Tate was the last quarterback to actually feel a rush coming for him for Iowa, and although that doesn't seem that long ago, it's been ten years. For Beathard, his issue seems to be tunnel vision as he literally doesn't see anything out of his direct line of sight coming. This can cost him when locking in on receivers, and also just a total obliviousness to blitzers coming straight up the middle at him as seen in back-to-back pass plays below.

One thing I do worry about with Beathard is his offensive coordinator causing a lot of these issues. It's really tough to judge Beathard without the All-22 and whether there were hot routes for him to throw to or whether he had no options due to poor play calls. I mean, it's not like Greg Davis was ever seen as an infallible genius.

Another issue Beathard is his ability to go through progressions. Like many college quarterbacks, he's fine when he can target one side of the field, but things get extremely shaky when that side is covered well, as he's slow to look to the other side of the field and make decisions. Iowa's offensive line often got beat in games, but Beathard deserves a good amount of blame for slowly going through the motions and giving defenses time to get to him.

And even though the Michigan State game ended in a loss, let us not forget the biggest moment that I had ever seen as an Iowa Hawkeye football fan.

Don't forget the dab.

Because of the unimpressive senior year, I think he falls in the draft. Most projected him as a 3rd-4th rounder going into the season, but I see his value being around 6th-7th round. He's going to need to be drafted into the right situation to reach his potential. He's not good enough to overcome a bad offensive line or poor receiving options. The perfect fit for him would be the Raiders. A lot of Beathard's weaknesses were the same things Carr struggled with at times in college. I could easily see him outplaying Connor Cook to become Carr's backup and giving them a much better chance of winning if Carr gets hurt again.

I'll be honest. 2016 PV (Post VandeBerg) made me forget how good Beathard could be as a quarterback. Now he's not perfect; he's mechanical in scanning the field and his pocket awareness is abysmal. But man, there is a lot of arm talent there. Here's to hoping he gets a chance to show it.

Scouting the 2014 NFL Draft: Derek Carr

It is impossible to think about Derek Carr without thinking about David Carr. Great arm, good athlete, and just looks the part of a quarterback. Obviously, Derek's brother's career didn't quite worked out like he planned as he spent more time staring up at the sky than he did celebrating touchdown passes. Still, he spent 11 years in the NFL. It wasn't a glorious career, but he was still talented enough to keep around. I always go into these with open minds, as sometimes I can be surprised for the better, and sometimes, I can be shocked for the worse. I checked out Carr's games against Utah State and Nevada.

Derek Carr can do a lot of amazing things on the football field. On this play, he does a nice job of leading his receiver on this throw.

The coverage is good, but he lead the receiver nicely which also helps the receiver gain an extra five yards after the catch.

Unfortunately, Derek Carr can also look pretty bad at times. His short route accuracy could use some work as this should be an easy toss as the receiver has plenty of space in front of the defender.

Instead, he seems a little too amped up and sails the pass. Fresno State did a nice job of playing to his strengths and overloading different sides of the field so all Carr had to do was step back and fire towards the sideline, but just going 7-10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage makes his accuracy shaky.

This is one of my favorite passes from him. He throws a rocket 20 yards down field to hit his receiver in stride.

This is the type of throw that will get teams excited, because that is a throw you can dream on.

One big issue that he has is the belief in his arm. He'll throw seam routes 20 yards down the field and will just try to rocket the ball as hard as he can to get it to his receiver.

This works with glitches in video games, but it does not work in real life. He can throw it hard, but he cannot throw it hard enough to impale defenders.

This is a good example of him moving well in the pocket.

He still throws it into tight coverage, but this play does display his abilities to feel pressure and move well within in the pocket, something he consistently did well from what I saw.

Although he can sometimes notice coverage and use his checkdown, there are some plays where he is bound and determined to hit his first read. This is an example of a fourth down play where the receiver was clearly covered.

There was some contact in there, but Carr had time to look for other receivers but instead just tried to fire the ball in there as hard as he could. Had he turned to his right and threw the swing pass, there is a good chance the receiver would have been able to get the first down since he had some space between himself and the closing defender.

This is the best play I saw from him. He's in that ideal range to take a shot at the end zone, and he doesn't miss. This is a perfectly placed deep ball that lands right in his receiver's hands who beats the single coverage on the outside.

As great as the throw is, the subtle movement before the throw is nearly as important. He squares his shoulders to the middle of the field which keeps the safety in the middle. He then quickly turns to his right and fires the ball, and the safety has no chance of providing help over the top. This is an all-around great play.

On the other hand, this is what happens when you don't look off the safety and try to throw a ball over the top.

It ends in an interception on what was otherwise a well-thrown ball.


Since I like to end on a positive note, here is another really nice deep ball from Carr.

The thing I really like about this play is how calm he stays despite being backed up against his own end zone. He takes the snap, goes through the play action, calmly sets, lets his receiver build up some steam and throws the ball as a defensive end closes in near him.

Derek Carr shows flashes that put him among the best quarterbacks in this draft class. Still, there is a too much inconsistency, especially in his accuracy, to put him among the best quarterbacks in this class. His good and bad is easy to see, and I see a lot of similarities between him and Mettenberger as prospects. Both have the big arms, but the inconsistent accuracy is what would scare me away from them before the middle rounds. I have Mettenberger with a slight edge, since he did his work against better defenses (to be fair, he also had some pretty impressive receivers), and although I feel like his accuracy needs to improve, he was better at still giving his receivers chances to make a play. Still, Carr is right behind Mettenberger and far ahead of McCarron.

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. Derek Carr - Fresno State
6. AJ McCarron - Alabama
7. Tajh Boyd - Clemson
8. David Fales - San Jose State
9. Logan Thomas - Virginia Tech
10. Brett Smith - Wyoming
11. Aaron Murray - Georgia