Eason Theory

[EastStreet]

2 hours ago, indykmj said:

  2nd round grade by whom ?

NFL.com graded him as a 2nd rounder in on their draft profile/tracker site. Many others did as well.

 

 

[DynaMike]

4 hours ago, ColtJax said:

Manning started day 1 snap 1.

Yes he did, and the Colts went 3-13, with him throwing the most interceptions (28) in the league. While he may have benefited from those early snaps, that year's team did not. The Colts believe that they are a contender this year, and thus want to maximize their chances this year. I think even the worst Rivers haters would concede that he gives us a better chance to win this season than an unproven rookie, no matter how high management regards Eason.

Couple that with the fact that they had already paid Rivers $25 million dollars to be our starter, and there is no way that Eason was starting this year.

 

All that said, I don't really buy into the OP's conspiracy theory, as great as that would be. 

[crazycolt1]

First mistake was listening to Colin Cowherd. Dude has a very vivid imagination. 

[indykmj]

8 hours ago, EastStreet said:

NFL.com graded him as a 2nd rounder in on their draft profile/tracker site. Many others did as well.

 

 

 

  Many others being 'NFL front office folks or media/Mock Draft Inc./Twitter folks ?

 

  Given that he plays THE premium position in the league and lasted until the 4th round, 

  I'll assume the latter....   

[EastStreet]

Just now, indykmj said:

 

  Many others being 'NFL front office folks or media/Mock Draft Inc./Twitter folks ?

 

  Given that he plays THE premium position in the league and lasted until the 4th round, 

  I'll assume the latter....   

You asked who graded him 2nd round. I gave you an example. That example happened to be the league's own service. Why ask for an example if it doesn't matter to you. It's hard to prove a negative, which is likely where your argument is heading I'd guess. If your argument is purely the "actual" (where he was taken), there's plenty of examples of "actuals" being wrong too.

[Jdubu]

What we do know about Eason so far is:

 he has the measurables of a prototypical Pocket QB. 
 

he has a cannon of an arm

 

he has 2 seasons of starting college QB play. 1 in a pro style the other? 
 

he is capable of making every throw

 

he has high intelligence 

 

he has an excellent work ethic

 

had no red flags in character 

 

he isn’t a scrambler

 

he had major issues in throwing with pressure in his face 

_________________________
 

so we have a pretty good understanding of all these items, feel free to add to the list with known information. What the team doesn’t know is his live fire in competition mode. What we don’t know is how much has he absorbed in training camp, classroom time, mentoring time from PR,JB and his coaches. We don’t know, has he taking the lessons he has been given and moved them over to whatever practice time he has been given. Has he been able

to adjust to the pro speed, size, anticipation skills of others, complicated schemes on both offense and defense? Can he read defenses? 
 

His passer rating with college defenses getting in his FACE was atrocious, correct? What was Tom Brady’s when he was in college? Idk that answer. What was Peyton’s or Rivers (picking the non mobile guys here). Kurt Warner, who had that guy as a talent to rise up from the grocery stocker boy? My point here is, how many of these guys in the game really excel well when they have pressure in their face?
 

Most times,  a QB has to be matched in a system, especially early on, that matches your QB skill set and talents with a OC who can mesh with those talents. Is Sirianni that capable guy in Indy? Time will tell I suppose. But in general, I agree that it’s a great idea to sit him this season, let him take it all in and learn at a slower pace with little pressure to come in and feel like he has to carry his team to victory every week. Also, make him want to push harder to hone his skills to be able to clearly over take JB and earn that back up role (and honesty, I think Eason or Kelly should be able to to do that from what we’ve seen on JB). If Eason hasn’t shown significant improvements from his negatives in my list of known issues, than the team knows tossing away a 4th round pick isn’t nearly the same wasted investment as a top 15 pick in a draft and can go draft another guy this season or get a FA with upside that a team gave up on such as Dak, Jones, Darnold etc... and then you have the potential to grab the Stattford, Ryan types. Not young guys but still have 3-5 years of arm left. In other words, the Colts appear to be in the catbird seat. Several options that aren’t going to set them back 3-5 years with a 4th rd pick. 

 

 

 

 

[EastStreet]

2 minutes ago, Jdubu said:

What we do know about Eason so far is:

 he has the measurables of a prototypical Pocket QB. 
 

he has a cannon of an arm

 

he has 2 seasons of starting college QB play. 1 in a pro style the other? 
 

he is capable of making every throw

 

he has high intelligence 

 

he has an excellent work ethic

 

had no red flags in character 

 

he isn’t a scrambler

 

he had major issues in throwing with pressure in his face 

_________________________
 

so we have a pretty good understanding of all these items, feel free to add to the list with known information. What the team doesn’t know is his live fire in competition mode. What we don’t know is how much has he absorbed in training camp, classroom time, mentoring time from PR,JB and his coaches. We don’t know, has he taking the lessons he has been given and moved them over to whatever practice time he has been given. Has he been able

to adjust to the pro speed, size, anticipation skills of others, complicated schemes on both offense and defense? Can he read defenses? 
 

His passer rating with college defenses getting in his FACE was atrocious, correct? What was Tom Brady’s when he was in college? Idk that answer. What was Peyton’s or Rivers (picking the non mobile guys here). Kurt Warner, who had that guy as a talent to rise up from the grocery stocker boy? My point here is, how many of these guys in the game really excel well when they have pressure in their face?
 

Most times,  a QB has to be matched in a system, especially early on, that matches your QB skill set and talents with a OC who can mesh with those talents. Is Sirianni that capable guy in Indy? Time will tell I suppose. But in general, I agree that it’s a great idea to sit him this season, let him take it all in and learn at a slower pace with little pressure to come in and feel like he has to carry his team to victory every week. Also, make him want to push harder to hone his skills to be able to clearly over take JB and earn that back up role (and honesty, I think Eason or Kelly should be able to to do that from what we’ve seen on JB). If Eason hasn’t shown significant improvements from his negatives in my list of known issues, than the team knows tossing away a 4th round pick isn’t nearly the same wasted investment as a top 15 pick in a draft and can go draft another guy this season or get a FA with upside that a team gave up on such as Dak, Jones, Darnold etc... and then you have the potential to grab the Stattford, Ryan types. Not young guys but still have 3-5 years of arm left. In other words, the Colts appear to be in the catbird seat. Several options that aren’t going to set them back 3-5 years with a 4th rd pick. 

I'd just add that he had a pretty poor surrounding cast in WA. There are 10 schools and systems I would have gone to before WA if I were him. His pressure issues are for real though. If he can learn from Rivers who has a great time to throw, and is one of the better QBs at reading Ds and going through progressions, then I like his chances with our OL. 

[lollygagger8]

I think Eason learning off of Rivers and seeing how a pro does it is better for his development than just throwing him into the fire. 

 

 

[pacolts56]

2 minutes ago, lollygagger8 said:

I think Eason learning off of Rivers and seeing how a pro does it is better for his development than just throwing him into the fire. 

 

 

Totally agree.... I actually like the QB situation considering where we were a year ago.

 

And by all accounts Eason is handling his side of things well.

[Myles]

I'm not sold on Eason, but I do think a year or 2 as a backup will do him allot of good.  

 

 

Eason was the top QB recruit in the country in 2016, the National Gatorade Player of the Year, and an a 5* signee for SEC powerhouse Georgia. He started as a true freshman at Georgia and put up respectable stats- 2430 passing yards and 16 TDs against 8 INTs. A knee injury early in his sophomore year allowed Jake Fromm to Wally Pipp him out of a job and Eason headed westward to his home-state Huskies.

 

Eason started every game after sitting out a year following his transfer. Despite nearly two years without game action, he flashed the raw talent that made evaluators drool over his high school performance. Still, he didn’t put together enough consistently strong performances to carry the team. His stats for UW were a step forward from his lone season at Georgia. He totaled 3132 yards with 23 TDs and 8 INTs. Another encouraging development was the progression from a 55% completion rate to a 64% completion rate.

 

Eason appears willing to adapt to different styles. He played in a run-heavy offense at Georgia and never complained in games in which UW threw the ball less often.

 

Eason’s college stats are subject to interpretation. For those fixated on his stature and arm strength, the numbers are encouraging enough to suggest a baseline from which he can grow. For those who saw a disconnect with his receivers and sub-optimal decision-making, he deserved his middle-of-the-conference finish in most key QB stats (7th in adjusted yards per attempt, 7th in efficiency rating).

 

Eason’s relative inexperience is another element of his resume worth noting. Even though he finished high school four years ago, he has only started 26 collegiate games. He played for excellent college coaches in Kirby Smart and Chris Petersen, but neither coach has a Lincoln Riley-type of resume at preparing QBs for the NFL.

 

Four years ago, Eason looked like the kind of big, skilled QB prospect that would follow in the footsteps of the likes of Matthew Stafford and Matt Ryan from the top of the HS rankings to the top of college football to the top of the NFL Draft.

Draft Projection: 2nd-3rd Round Pick, 5th QB taken

 

[DougDew]

18 hours ago, BleedBlue4Shoe86 said:

He is learning and everything coming out is really positive.  I think they know they got a steal in the draft and that they know he is gonna be really good.  So there is no rush to play him.  Win with Rivers now and then make the move after this year to Eason.

While this is nicely optimistic, what is going on with Tua has no bearing on what the Colts may or may not be thinking about Eason.

 

What Cowherd says about MIA playing Tua to see what they have makes some sense.  But that's because they have a top 5 pick and feel like they are in position to move to the top and get a better younger QB.  So playing Tua when they might otherwise not play him is not out of the question.

 

The Colts treatment of Eason is not based upon the same thing.  They are in no position to possibly replace him unless the draft falls the right way, so there is no motivation to test him.  Right now, the sole concern is playing Rivers in order to get to the playoffs. 

[Myles]

6 minutes ago, DougDew said:

While this is nicely optimistic, what is going on with Tua has no bearing on what the Colts may or may not be thinking about Eason.

 

What Cowherd says about MIA playing Tua to see what they have makes some sense.  But that's because they have a top 5 pick and feel like they are in position to move to the top and get a better younger QB.  So playing Tua when they might otherwise not play him is not out of the question.

 

The Colts treatment of Eason is not based upon the same thing.  They are in no position to possibly replace him unless the draft falls the right way, so there is no motivation to test him.  Right now, the sole concern is playing Rivers in order to get to the playoffs. 

Yep.   At this point what is known is that Rivers gives us the best chance to make the playoffs.  Eason may be better, but the team would have to risk a playoff run to find out and that is not smart.  

[ColtStrong2013]

18 hours ago, Jared Cisneros said:

Ballard and Reich had Chad Kelly

 

Oh no... 

[chad72]

5 minutes ago, Myles said:

Yep.   At this point what is known is that Rivers gives us the best chance to make the playoffs.  Eason may be better, but the team would have to risk a playoff run to find out and that is not smart.  

 

Yeah 2-2 in 4 years from 2017 season to 2020 season looks better than 1-3 in 4 years regarding making the playoffs for Ballard and company as well. There has to be significant upside to mortgage the present for the future or serious roster deficiencies that puts us out of contention for the GM and coaches to abandon Rivers and go any different direction right now, neither of which is the case, IMO.

[Superman]

17 hours ago, stitches said:

Otherwise... just let the guy play. 

 

Take Jordan Love. The Packers decision was blasted because they don't need a QB right now, and the fact that he's not getting great reports so far is being used as "proof" that they made a mistake. (Set aside the value of the decision for the Packers, as it relates to their roster composition. Just talking about whether Jordan Love is ready and/or good.)

 

Let's say the Pats had drafted Love. They appear to be taking a gap year in 2020. Cam's game is falling apart, and their roster is being held together by duct tape. The media and fans would be calling for Jordan Love to play in 2020 because 'you spent a first rounder on the guy, you need to find out if he can play!' Even though, for all his talent and upside, everyone who really dug into him knows that he needed a redshirt year. Just bottom line, he probably shouldn't see the field in 2020, unless it's a very controlled situation. 

 

And it's not just getting used to operating in a pro style offense. He actually has some fundamentals to tighten up, with footwork, balance, throwing motion, etc. Any team that drafted him would have had a plan to help him shore up those fundamentals, knowing it would take some time before he was refined enough to succeed. 

 

I think there are a lot of young QBs who fall more into the 'he's not ready' category than they do the 'let him play' category. But more often than not, those guys are prematurely put on the field, and the higher they were drafted, the more likely it is that they wind up playing earlier than they should. And generally, that's not the plan the team had when they drafted the player. They wind up setting these QBs up for failure.