Post by GordonG on Aug 17, 2019 15:52:59 GMT -5
The following is what I consider a very objective assessment of D. Jones by Painter who is a regular contributor at BBH. I have known Painter for many years and consider him one of the most knowledgeable football fans that I have ever encountered.
Quote: Jones seems to be gaining approval based largely on his throwing ability which is fair enough. I am just as pleased with his apparent accuracy and touch as anyone else. But as I was not comfortable to put it mildly when they took him at 6th overall, I decided to look at every bit of Duke game film and tape (no highlight stuff) that I could find.
While I didn't quite see what we have seen in his two preseason games in terms of his "arm talent", I saw a lot to like and admire about him. He played more often in games where Duke was over-matched and thus faced a lot of adversity. I came away thinking, Boy! is that kid tough, he just doesn't flinch. The Auburn tape in particular convinced me that he could handle pressure in the pros. He played most of the time in an empty set against the nearest thing in the FBS to a pro pass rush and stood tall.
It's much harder to judge arm strength from those tapes than it is from watching a game live on TV. I've seen no evidence in the 2 PS games that there is any issue there. The same for his accuracy which actually hasn't surprised me despite jibes that were made about his 59.9 Cmp% at Duke. After seeing his receivers drop passes all over the place, I decided to recalculate it after subtracting drops and obvious forced throw-aways. That brought it close to 70%.
And finally, while we want a mobile QB, but not a running QB, Jones is the former and, if and when needed, can show us something we haven't seen since Hoss or, for many fans, ever. End of Quote
Quote: Jones seems to be gaining approval based largely on his throwing ability which is fair enough. I am just as pleased with his apparent accuracy and touch as anyone else. But as I was not comfortable to put it mildly when they took him at 6th overall, I decided to look at every bit of Duke game film and tape (no highlight stuff) that I could find.
While I didn't quite see what we have seen in his two preseason games in terms of his "arm talent", I saw a lot to like and admire about him. He played more often in games where Duke was over-matched and thus faced a lot of adversity. I came away thinking, Boy! is that kid tough, he just doesn't flinch. The Auburn tape in particular convinced me that he could handle pressure in the pros. He played most of the time in an empty set against the nearest thing in the FBS to a pro pass rush and stood tall.
It's much harder to judge arm strength from those tapes than it is from watching a game live on TV. I've seen no evidence in the 2 PS games that there is any issue there. The same for his accuracy which actually hasn't surprised me despite jibes that were made about his 59.9 Cmp% at Duke. After seeing his receivers drop passes all over the place, I decided to recalculate it after subtracting drops and obvious forced throw-aways. That brought it close to 70%.
And finally, while we want a mobile QB, but not a running QB, Jones is the former and, if and when needed, can show us something we haven't seen since Hoss or, for many fans, ever. End of Quote