Top 10 Quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft: No. 8 Jacob Eason

Film Review

Eason clocks in at 6-foot-6, 227 pounds, according to Sports-Reference.com. He is as tall as an offensive tackle, but because of his weight, he appears smaller than he is. This height advantage helps Eason read the field, but he looks skinnier than he is.

Appearing to have a sense of humor about it, Eason’s twitter name is @skinnyqb10, which at the very least shows the guy is approachable and self-deprecating. Both traits are bonuses for locker room cohesion at the next level.

It is difficult to know just how much of Eason’s offensive woes are solely on his shoulders. Several plays where Eason had to give up on a play, his tackles gave up pressure far too easily.

Eason’s form coming out of the snap is excellent. He throws with his whole body and has the strength to get the ball to all parts of the field. He is a little slow to recognize pressure, but when he takes off, he avoids tackles well.

One place where Eason looks less reliable is on play-action, where his fake handoffs are fairly unconvincing. This is an issue that can hopefully be resolved when he is in the NFL, as having linebackers and safeties step up anticipating a run is one of the easiest ways for receivers to gain separation.

The Huskies had Eason using a lot of fast throws out of the snap, stepping back a foot or two, before releasing quickly on short and intermediate throws. These passes were effective for Eason when his receivers could reign in the ball.

On several plays though, the ball would bounce off the hands of the receiver or through them. It is difficult to assign blame here, as it could have been an issue with timing, reading coverages or the receivers not being able to hang on to the ball.

While some missed passes were clearly on the receiver, other times Eason would throw to a teammate surrounded by defenders, who would disrupt the catch. This implies that Eason has trouble moving off primary targets on those short, designed passes.

Eason has a fast and accurate deep throw that gets the ball to the receiver quickly and without much hang time. His main issue throwing the ball is he will press when the Huskies are losing the game.

According to Sports-Reference.com, most games Washington won, Eason threw 20-30 times. When they lost games, Eason was throwing the ball 30 or more times a game, epitomized in a loss to Utah where he threw 52 times and threw two interceptions.

His anticipation is great when throwing, but he trusted his receivers to be far more skilled bringing in passes they could not. Eason can pass to all levels of the field and can process his receiver’s movements quickly.

He performs well on screen passes, keeping his eyes to one side of the field and then passing to the other. He can move defenses with his eyes and is rather convincing with his pump fakes, allowing his receivers to keep clear of double teams.

An issue that plagued Eason in 2019 was his pocket presence. Besides being late to recognize pressure, he also threw worse when defenses were closing in on him. According to PFF, Eason’s passing grade went from a 92 when kept clean to a 36.4 when under pressure, a serious drop in productivity.

The biggest issue Eason had playing in 2019 was the offense around him. Watching plays from this year’s Cal game was like watching a Greek tragedy unfold in front of me.

This super athletic quarterback, who could throw to all levels of the field and release the ball so quickly would be rushed out of the pocket before he could get into his stance. Next play, he’d line up his receivers, and chuck the ball with all his body, with perfect form…and the ball goes through the receiver’s hands. He would be pressured from the snap, leave the pocket, backtrack, avoid 3 pass-rushers on a blitz and get stopped right back at the line of scrimmage, his tackles already done with the play.

Eason would scramble on a 3rd and 5 on the opponent’s 15-yard line, get four yards and the coach would call for a field goal. You can’t make this up. The next drive, Eason chucked the ball 40 yards down the field on second down. The receiver never got to it, but I like to think he threw it to say “Hey NFL. Look how far I can throw it.”

Check it out for yourself.

Eason showed good quarterback form and proved he could drive the ball deep when he had to. But certain issues with his mechanics make him a work-in-progress quarterback.

It is also difficult to know how much we should take from a quarterback who played one year in two separate systems. It is entirely possible Eason would have improved, had he been able to work out the kinks of his game during the season the NCAA made him ineligible.

No matter what, Eason showed he has the size and athleticism to make plays in college. In the NFL, with a bit more work, there is no reason to believe Eason couldn’t become a starting quarterback in a year or two.