Originally posted by Red Dawn
First time ive seen him, he's very impressive, throws a nice ball, good mobility. I was wondering about the quality of his conference opponents, but the fact that the MAC produced Leftwich and Pennington eases that concern for me.\
Oh crap, he punts too. I'm liking him more and more.
For a QB I don't think the competition level is very important to judge him. It's different than a HB or WR who can simply outrun lesser athletes but can't do much on an even talent level whereas an accurate QB is an accurate QB. I wish I had ESPN2 so I could see Ben R. since I haven't been able to see him I've been wondering if he's really as good as I've heard or is he a fake. Sounds like everyone is impressed. I think the things everyone's been scared of is the similarity to the Manning/Leaf draft as far as 1 the obvious name connection and 2. his similar build with Leaf.
Give me the low down on him,
When he drops back to pass does he hold the ball up (should be about the head/shoulder level) or does he keep his hand down neer his waist/hips. If a QB holds the ball low (the main knock on Mirer coming out of college) it takes longer to get rid of the ball. You have to first bring the ball up, then release. If you're hurried then you get out of your normal throwing motion. Marino got away with it only because he had an insanely quick release...
Which brings me to throwing motion/release. How quick does the ball leave his hand? Watch Randall Cunningham for a perfect example of a bad windup. He brought the ball down and around and it took FOREVER to get rid of the ball. That makes it a lot easier for a DE rushing around the end to smack the ball. To me a quick release is more important than foot speed for a QB. Marino was slower than molasses (about 100 total career rushing yards) and he was one of the most difficult QBs to sack because nobody could get to him before he threw. You don't have to dodge a defender if you don't have the ball when he gets there. Plus I'd rather have a slow QB who throws with his feet set than a quick one who throws on the run a lot.
From what I've read already it sounds like he is accurate and steps up with confidence when he throws. Something else to look for, does he know when to underthrow his recievers? A guy like Moss is going to outrun everyone so you can just chuck it, but the average NFL WR will be running even with the DB so it's better to underthrow so he can come back to it while the guy covering him runs past. Also (this will benefit Quan a lot) has Miami run many crossing patterns. While you're always taught to lead the reciever so they can run after the catch on the crossing patterns when they are going to get creamed the ball should be thrown between the belt and knee level so the WR has to go down to catch it, avoiding a bit hit when he's unprotected. Every week there's a bunch of complaints about Blake leaving our guys out to dry.
It sounds like Ben is for real and I'd be happy with either him or Manning is he enters the draft.
