Leaving Yarnell out of it, if you’re seeing good arm strength and zip out of Eli, I’m not sure what kind of lenses you’re looking through. His out throws are marshmallows. There’s no zip on any of his throws. He’s constantly short arming intermediate throws and bouncing them at his receivers’ feet.
I don’t think anyone would argue with a straight face that Yarnell should be QB1. But just for some perspective, Yarnell came in cold and led the offense on exactly the same number of TD drives that Eli did, with far fewer snaps in the game and no first team practice reps. Eli was gifted a FG via a turnover (3 play drive for -4 yards before it was kicked) and led a modest 24 yard FG drive. The picks were the big difference, but Eli was just as capable of turning the ball over as Yarnell, most of his throws before he got hurt were way off target.
That's inaccurate. It's partly true, but you are making an overgeneralized statement here. Eli has been wildly inconsistent in terms of zip, velocity etc. If that pass on the sideline to Barth been short aimed, it would have been picked. There are plenty of other examples. Arm strength is there at times, other times it's not. I think it's more of a head issue more than an arm issue. Coaches that see him every day should know what the issue is. It's possible it's something we don't know.
Well one thing I’ve seen watching him is his footwork is terrible even when he’s not pressured, which certainly doesn’t help his ability to get some zip on his throws. But I haven’t seen anything impressive about his arm at all. Velocity, accuracy, placement, etc-generally appears to be subpar in all areas. Occasionally puts some nice touch on certain throws, which his good. But for a big framed kid, I’d expect to see a stronger throwing arm.
UVA was in Tampa 2.
Interesting.
I'm concerned about his health. Hope he's OK, but another concussion would likely end this year.
