Kyle Trask: The 2021 NFL Draft’s conventional alternative to a new wave

After a stunning 6 touchdown performance out of the Florida Senior, Kyle Trask‘s 2021 NFL Draft stock becomes a serious question in relation to his fellow QBs.

One of the leaders of the SEC, the Florida Gators have failed to sport an outstanding quarterback in recent years. Tim Tebow brought his own special brand of football to the nation with his outstanding years of play, but Trask is opting to follow a more conventional style of play in contrast to a football landscape that has taken inspiration from Tebow and so many other mobile-quarterbacks like him.

Quarterbacks have become molded into multi-dimensional WMDs on the offensive side of the ball, stretching defenses laterally and vertically with both their arm talent and athleticism. Trask is not outstanding because he is one of these athletic marvels, but does impress with his physical frame and presence within the pocket.

A 6-foot 5, 240-pound quarterback is a tough tackle and combined with effective footwork and impressive evasiveness in and around the pocket, Trask has the essential ability to extend the play like many great quarterbacks before him (most similarly, Ben Roethlisberger). Trask is not going to be considered in any defensive gameplan as a runner, but he is more than capable of providing an effective counter-punch to an interior run.

Within Florida’s pro-style offense, Kyle Trask has been tasked with the duty of maintaining balance and operating as the anchor to the unit. Consistent reads and quick decision-making are much of the mental makeup of a quarterback at any level, and Trask has demonstrated this ability since his time in Texas high school football.

Coming in as a backup Junior following an injury to their starting quarterback, Trask grabbed hold of the job and finished his career completing 73% of passing attempts and passing for 17 touchdowns with zero interceptions.

This stat line shows the kind of consistent play Trask brought to Florida, completing nearly 67% of passes with 25 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. On his way to this kind of collegiate production within the SEC, Trask displayed a number of qualities that both show promise and raise concerns for the young quarterback.

The first of these traits is the comfort he showed operating in a pro-style offense at Florida. With downfield-passing concepts and quick-hitting conversion-completions, Trask never failed to stay calm under pressure and deliver the ball where it needs to be on time to a waiting playmaker. An issue on some of the longer-developing plays has been Trask’s tendency to get stuck onto his first read before moving on. This is a common issue among young quarterbacks and will come with time and practice.

Trask still has room for improvement when sensing pressure, but he has done a brilliant job of escaping out of the pocket when pressure is imminent and/or can be seen. Once he is outside of the pocket, Trask shows no issue firing from a moving platform and reads shifting defenses well to find his targets through the gaps.

This cool-natured play under pressure and outside of the pocket brought reminders of Joe Burrow on tape last draft season, making plays for LSU while rolling out only to find an open man downfield against busted coverage.

Moving into the throwing mechanics of Trask’s game, this is the portion of the scouting report that should be a glowing review of his ability to reach every part of the field with absolute perfection, right? Trask has an incredible upper body which can create throws from a poor base due to either being under pressure or on the move.

He has an impressive touch on the ball at short and medium ranges, ruling out linebackers in coverage blocking a sight-line, and he is able to get the ball out at speeds rivaling that of quick-release champions such as Jimmy Garoppolo. Although he does all of this, the last of those pros is the one that draws the most concerns.

Garoppolo has been known to have the issue of not bringing his back-foot through on release adding velocity with hip rotation and making targets easier to hit downfield north of twenty yards.

This same ‘issue’ is the mechanical function that gives him the ability to beat pass-rushes coming straight down the A-gap. Garoppolo is forced to select a trade-off between accuracy and release speed when making throws downfield. Trask suffers from the same mechanical issue but is able to compensate with his arm strength and off-platform throwing ability.

On the move outside of the pocket and escaping pressure is when Trask has shown some of his best throws though, finding targets downfield with high-lofted throws and improvisational delivery.

The single word that continued to come to mind on every one of these plays was “gunslinger.” The combination of innate senses for pressure, mobility, and pure arm strength combined with accuracy off of a mobile platform bode well for the future.

Player Comparison: Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers

A long and memorable career in Pittsburgh with a variety of impressions among Steelers fans, Ben Roethlisberger first made his stamp on the NFL with strong-armed quarterback play and the ability to extend the play with his legs.

A quarterback with the ability to stretch the field, manage down & distance, and extend plays in such a ‘lumbering’ manner hadn’t been seen before, and Trask has incorporated similar principles into his game.

The career outcome for Roethlisberger is a reach for any NFL prospect, but the similarities in strengths and play-style between the two are eerily similar.