Ryan Nassib-2013 NFL Draft Scouting Report

Positives:

Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports

+Solid throw power
+Solid stats
+Solid decision maker
+Usually accurate
+Times his throws
+Good arm strength
+Good sense of the blitz

Negatives:

-Am I the only one that sees ridiculous mechanics?
-Can’t repeat his mechanics
-Doesn’t throw a great deep ball
-Amazingly stiff in his entire body
-Slightly slow release
-Not athletic
-Bit short

I don’t get it. I really don’t. How am I the only one who sees very worrisome mechanics from Ryan Nassib? Why am I the only one who thinks he has the worst mechanics of any notable quarterback prospect since Tim Tebow? Am I the only one who sees things like, oh, I don’t know, his front foot come off the ground when he makes this pass? That’s a jump pass right there. And this guy is touted as a first round pick? I don’t know. There are times when I think to myself “I can’t argue with the results.” But you could have said the same thing about Tebow (not that Nassib’s mechanics are that bad), and I see very inconsistent accuracy from him. Plus, at least with Tebow, he could repeat his mechanics. He developed a muscle memory with his poor mechanics and learned, to a small extent, how to make a few accurate throws with those horrible mechanics. They were bad, but they were the same type of bad every time, and Tebow somewhat figured out how to adjust his body and eye level to make his throws a little bit accurate. Ryan Nassib’s mechanics look different every throw. Occasionally, I’ll see him make a bad throw (usually low) with good mechanics just because he’s putting an appropriate amount of power on the ball for the pass to be accurate with his more typical mechanics. I’m scared for the team that drafts him.

Nassib has poor measurables. He has below average height at 6’2 (I don’t care much about height), average bulk at 227lbs, and below average speed with a 5.06 40 yard dash. On the bright side, he does have somewhat large hands.

Nassib has good stats. In 2012, he had 3749 yards with 26 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 13 games, with an above average 62.4 completion percentage and a fairly high yards per attempt. He wasn’t sacked much (16 times) in part because of a good offensive line but also in part of his own awareness of the blitz.

Let’s cut to the chase; I hate Nassib’s mechanics. He has a strong arm, but is inconsistent with his deep ball, and he always throws a nice spiral. I see one quirk in his mechanics in particular that I believe lead to the other flaws in his mechanics. It’s a bit funny, but, if you watch Nassib’s arm and the rest of his body separately in slow motion, usually, the mechanics look fine. Little to no wasted motion in the arm, good ball position, an occasional issue with his feet but nothing to worry about, good initial position of the feet, no wasted motion in the hips, usually solid target step, etc. However, if you look at both at the same time, if you look closely enough, you’ll notice (I can’t make this up) that his arm is much quicker than the rest of his body. His arm is very fast and fluid, but he has one of the stiffest lower bodies (especially in the hips) I have ever seen. As a result, when his mechanics seem perfect, at the release, his arm is ahead of where his body needs to be, even if only by a half second. A quarterback is supposed to have his hips square to the target by the time he releases the ball. If Nassib’s feet are in good initial position, and his motion is fundamentally sound, his hips aren’t square to the target when the ball leaves his hand because his hips don’t rotate fast enough to keep up with how fast he rotates his arm. To get his hips and feet in the right position, he has to compensate by changing the rest of his motion. Sometimes, he slows down his arm so his lower body can keep up. This usually results in a weakly thrown pass. Other times, he’ll align his hips in a position in which they won’t have to rotate as far to be perpendicular to the target. His hips and feet must start at an unusual angle to each other, but this is probably his most successful technique, resulting in a noticeable but not fatal loss of throw power but decent accuracy. And there are times in which he does nothing to compensate. This results in an inaccurate pass that stings the hand of anyone who touches it. To be frank, I’ve never seen a quarterback with this issue and I don’t know how to fix it.

There is one other problem with Nassib’s mechanics, but it isn’t as significant: his shoulder level. It has a huge effect on his accuracy, but it’s not too difficult to fix. Nassib isn’t known for a nice deep ball, and his shoulder level is the reason. In order to get any air under the pass, the back shoulder must be below the front shoulder when the quarterback is bringing the ball back. This will result in much more air under the pass and a nice spiral. Nassib is simply inconsistent with his shoulder level. Sometimes they are level, sometimes they are pointed. The frustrating thing is that that fact is unchanged on shorter passes. On short passes, you need your shoulders to be level, or the pass will sail high. In Nassib’s case, sometimes his shoulders are level, and sometimes they aren’t. If he adds a front shoulder dip to the end of his dropback he should stop having the problem on his shorter passes, and a little bit of good coaching will help him with the longer ones.

Nassib is a good decision maker. He’s fairly good at reading zone defense and he usually looks off the safety. He occasionally locks onto receivers but it’s not a constant mistake. He has a very good sense of the blitz and knows when to get rid of the football. That being said, he’s not the most mobile guy in the world and he will force some deep throws. Still, pretty good football IQ all things considered.

In the end, I’m not a Nassib fan. I don’t like his mechanics and I don’t think they will be easily fixed in the NFL, unless he suddenly adds a ton of flexibility. It’s quite frustrating.

NFL Comparison: I don’t have one. I haven’t been scouting long enough to see a quarterback whose arm moves so much faster than his lower body in his throwing motion. I can’t compare it to anything I’ve seen.

Grade: 79 (worthy of an early 3rd, maybe late 2nd round pick)

Projection: 90 (will be a late 1st or early second round pick)