2022 NFL Draft: USC QB Kedon Slovis on the first round radar?

Weaknesses for Slovis

The main weakness for Kedon Slovis that will come up often is the arm strength. Slovis doesn’t have the upper-echelon arm that other 2022 NFL Draft quarterbacks do. While it doesn’t affect him much in the short/intermediate areas, his deep ball does struggle a bit because of the lack of zip. It doesn’t flutter and get away from him (which is often a mechanical issue) but the hang time is a little too long. NFL defenders are going to be able to have the time to make plays on the ball from deep half/single high alignments on Slovis’ deep ball.

Another thing to watch for Slovis is his turnovers. While he doesn’t have a high turnover rate, it’s important to bring his turnovers into context. A lot of interceptions result in Slovis getting locked on to his primary receiver, which tends to happen to everyone, regardless of how well they process the field. Other times, Slovis will get into “hero ball” when pressure, and force some ill-advised passes.

While he can make some plays out of structure and make plays on the run, most analysts wouldn’t describe Slovis as super mobile. He won’t make a lot of plays with his legs outside of escaping behind the line of scrimmage.

Consistency is the other factor that comes up in the weaknesses section. After a strong 2019, his 2020 season was littered with some inconsistencies with accuracy. There are throws that get very wild and off-target, which is uncharacteristic. Some of that can be attributed to the shoulder injury, but reigning that in this fall would be huge for his 2022 NFL Draft stock.