Trying to look at the silver lining, i'm actually pretty pumped about it.
One of his best attributes coming out was his leadership and locker room presence. That will be an interesting dynamic to watch unfold.
But one of the most underappreciated aspects of his game is turnovers, or lack thereof.
His last year at MS, he had 5 picks in 500 attempts for a 1% INT rate in the SEC, which is the closest thing you're going to get to NFL competition in college, while getting hit the most of any QB in the conference. Those games he had picks, were all games he was throwing the ball 40+ times. 1% would be the lowest in the NFL, fwiw. He had the 3rd longest streak in SEC history without an interception with something like 300 attempts.
We all watched Cassel and Moore throwing ducks out there, and i know that y'all know how important taking care of the football is.
He also rushed for 1500 yards and 24 touchdowns his jr and sr years, and from the looks of it, he's a smart runner, he knows when to take off. That 20 yard run he had for a TD was pretty awesome. It also gives you another element on offense in the Wilson mold, except with a better run game and better receivers.
So here you have a guy, who basically tied for the best completing percentage in the SEC(with ALA Coker), was a percentage point or two away from being top 5 in the country, who only had 1 player in college better than him in INT's with more than 300 attempts in Paxton Lynch (who played in Conference USA pffft), but Dak threw the ball 30 more times, all while playing in the SEC and getting killed behind that offensive line. Alabama sacked him 9 times in one game last year. One game. Let that sink in. He also threw one of his 5 picks that game. I ain't even mad.
He's continued that trend in the preseason. Almost 80% completion rate, 7 touchdowns, 0 picks, 9.1 yards per passing attempt, and 7.6 yards per rushing attempt. He's going to have growing pains, but I don't think anyone who has watched him hasn't been impressed. I was skeptical, but when he dropped that loaf of bread in TW's arms the first game, me and my buddy just looked at each other, and he's actually been living up to it.
I'm excited to see him develop, and I'm excited to see him with an OL that's actually talented. Tony was obviously the man, the vet QB, and everyone else was kinda under his wing, now the roles are reversed and even 2nd year guys are veterans compared to the first year rook who was thrust into the position. I'm curious to see if it elevates their play to help the rook out, knowing the responsibility that just got laid on his shoulders.
No one knows for sure how he's going to play in the regular season, but he's got qualities to be excited about that correlate well to winning games, even amidst the growing pains. Hopefully, it's a lot of fun to watch. I think it will be.
gmoney112,
Aug 27, 2016Report
#44Reply
