2020 NFL Draft: Colorado QB Steven Montez scouting report
By Ian Higgins
Arm Talent
Even though Montez has the physical profile and mental polish to be a top-tier NFL quarterback prospect, his mechanics and consistent flaws have held him back at Colorado and will continue to do the same in the NFL until changes are made. His mechanical issues are the root of his accuracy problems, and cause overthrows deep as well as misses to the outside.
Starting on the positives, Montez is a quality passer outside of the pocket. At Colorado, Montez not only made throws while scrambling to both sides but also gained the confidence of the coaching staff to design bootleg plays to both sides of the field. Having the ability to throw across one’s body is invaluable to a quarterback, giving them the ability to deliver the football effectively when escaping to either sideline.
Montez has also shown quality ball-placement over the top on occasion, able to drop the ball in behind a defender when his receiver beats them over the top. Montez is also able to create power with rotational speed from keeping his front elbow tight to his chest. Similarly to an ice-skater spinning, the tighter they can bring their limbs in the faster that can rotate.
Moving to the negatives, the first of which is going to be Montez’s lack of hip movement. Throwing motions derive their power and ability to drive the ball into tight spaces from hip rotation. Without this crucial drive through the hips, quarterbacks can not make those “frozen rope” passes that are perfect for fitting between defenders on crossing routes and getting the ball out to the sideline.
This issue is caused by poor footwork and positioning in Montez’s throwing motion that doesn’t allow him to turn to the target. Instead of having his front foot pointed to the target and turning his hips to match, Montez starts his throwing motion with his groin pointed to the target. With his hips already in the finishing position at the beginning of the throw, he can not drive through the throw.
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Both of these major issues are the cause of his lack of accuracy downfield as well as to the outside. Montez has shown a tendency to miss down and out to receivers breaking towards the boundary, and generally inconsistent accuracy when throwing downfield (mostly overthrown to compensate).