So my brother is getting married this winter and we were over at his fiance's family's home last weekend for a meet and greet between the clans. Anyway, his future sister-in-law is married to Judd Garrett (Jason's brother) who is the Director of Pro Scouting for the Cowboys. We started chatting about college football and I showed him the video of Pat's 60 yard bomb from his knee. He said Pat's arm strength is a fun party trick but he thinks it could be the secret sauce to a spread offense like Tech's. He said even though most safeties are taught at an early age to be as deep as the deepest man, there are many times where they will cheat up to try to snag an under thrown ball or an overthrown short-mid range pass because at some point you are so far away from the line of scrimmage that you are out of the QB's range or you have a "feeling" of what the QB can do from a distance perspective. He said with Pat behind center, it really eliminates that mindset. If the opponent's corners are playing zone and they release a WR to the safeties deep, the safeties better stay with them all the way down the field or Pat will find them, even if Tech is on the opposite 20 yard line. He said the fact that Pat can put a ball (standing or on the run) 70-80 yards down the field is a threat defenses will have to honor. And when they honor it, it opens a bunch of the field up for more "routine" underneath routes. He said provided that the OLine can stay upright and Pat can learn to stay in the pocket, he thinks Pat will make his living off of the 10-20 yard intermediate throws because the safeties will have to nearly play the entire length of the field. He finished by saying other than physical health Pat's ability to "make the easy throws" will be one of the biggest Round 1 deciding factors for teams when/if he decides to go pro because he has "everything else".
All in all it was a really interesting discussion. I never thought of arm strength like that. I always thought it was good for fitting the ball in a tight window but hearing him speak about what it does from a defensive perspective was really cool. Anyway, cool story bro, right?
All in all it was a really interesting discussion. I never thought of arm strength like that. I always thought it was good for fitting the ball in a tight window but hearing him speak about what it does from a defensive perspective was really cool. Anyway, cool story bro, right?
