Caleb Williams (kind of) struggles on film.

Caleb Williams is the future of the NFL he is exactly where our game is headed his style of play mirors momes splashing some Herbert some Josh Allen he plays like the best of the best but that doesn't necessarily mean he is a slam dunk he won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 but he and the Trojans fell off in 23 which raised some questions about his game that show up when you dive into his film today we'll start with the positives that pop up on tape but then sprinkle in some concerns going back and forth with the good and the bad for those of you living under a rock Caleb's main two attributes are his ability to extend the play and create and his arm strength he has excellent contact balance to withstand a pass rusher and shed him off while keeping his eyes down field and his arm will be top five in the league the second he steps his toenail painted foot onto an NFL field a lot of quarterbacks break the pocket and struggle to scan their receivers while moving moving a good handful of them can see 5 to 20ish yards down the field Caleb has good Vision deep went outside the pocket and he can missile this thing at any point to anywhere on the field defensive coordinators will go to Great Lengths to keep him in the pocket and on film he's proven he can do that but that he's inconsistent at it as well Notre Dame is playing cover two man which is two high safeties with man coverage across the board however each Defender is supposed to play inside leverage to force the receivers outside Caleb starts to his left nobody is open goes back to his right all of these routes are in Breakers so nobody is coming free but watch how he stays in the pocket people think Mom's game is just all Breaking the pocket and running all around making crazy throws but his game is actually built on winning from inside the pockets then if nothing is there making something happen sometimes based on the play design it's purely out of necessity that he stays inside the pocket and works to do do so some quarterbacks stand like statues in weight but Caleb shows that he has Mobility not just outside the pocket but inside it too once again Notre Dame is playing cover two man with inside leverage so inside breaking route shouldn't work and USC is running a screen to the bottom with an in-breaking Juke route coming late over the middle when Caleb sees Notre Dame is three for three so screen won't work he has to buy time in the pocket for the Juke to come open why cuz Notre Dame is just rushing three and spying him with a linebacker Caleb works the pocket Dodge Ducks dips Dives and Dodges and buys time for his receiver to come open however the problem is that sometimes his footwork gets tangled up and he'll start to drift which can affect his accuracy and his arm strength now these examples aren't perfect there's a defensive line right in his face there is nobody really open but drifting backwards in the pocket messes with your base it creates an allarm throw since your base is vaporized and you have no momentum to towards the receiver and you can see how well yes this is a completion you want to throw a horizontal route out in front of the receiver and because of his bad footwork it comes out more back shoulder tougher to catch on backto back sacks here I believe Caleb could throw with anticipation once he hits the top of his drop the defender is 5 yards off and leveraged outside Caleb could lay this puppy in there well yeah getting smoked and having better anticipation for what Notre Dame had been doing all game where were playing either Twan or this heavy inside technique on the slot receivers we don't have to take a second sack if we get this ball out once again at the top of the drop at times his base will be good he's hanging in the pocket getting through his reads he'll complete the pass but his timing can be a little suspect and can lead to Danger this is a bounce concept which every NFL team runs against two high safeties it's designed to Target the underneath Defender and to throw away from whoever he guards as I said Notre Dame kept playing this like inside leverage two Manish technique with their slot Defenders so right away Caleb should be eyeing Xavier watts and the moment he doesn't flip his hips and moves to defend Zachariah Branch the ball needs to come out but there's a little hesitation which invites the safety into the dance you can see right when watt starts to move underneath this ball should start to come out now but Caleb holds an extra few ticks brings the safety into the play and allows him to almost make a play on the ball on what should have been an easy completion now he does have times when he gets out of the pocket too early and while extending the play is one of his strengths inevitably it's going to leave plays on the field and conversions to be squandered on Third and 14 the Trojans have this double seam concept and it's hard for Caleb to tell pre- snap but it's one high safety which means you work the seam away from this safety as he starts to his right watt books it over to the right seam which potentially leaves Lake McCree open for the conversion but Caleb is already out of the pocket I will say that when there are these flaws on his film he usually shows that he's capable in the area he struggling it's just that he's inconsistent this is third and 20 and they have a similar double seam concept against a similar one high safety coverage Caleb moves around to buy some time here in a good way and throws an absolute seed up the seam to convert but then later in the same game he misses the backside seam where here ASU is kind of disguising their 3D deep coverage this safety is going to play one high and fly over the middle and the thing you need to know about Zone coverage on the whole is that with four underneath Defenders and USC having three to the bottom ASU has to make a decision you can drop into Straight Zone coverage but then get stretched out or push your extra linebacker strong and man up the backside they do the lad but instead of Caleb coming off the dagger concept with the extra Defenders and hitting the backside seam he tries to jam the ball in usually quarterbacks or are trying to get out of the pocket or don't play on time aren't very good against the blitz you need to have a precise plan with precise timing when the heat is turned up but Caleb dominates the blitz with 9.6 yards per attempt 12th in the nation 15 touchdowns just two interceptions however even with those numbers he still demonstrates some flaws your pre-nap processing is one of the most critical aspects against the blitz since you need to know where the Free Runner is coming from sometimes it's as easy as having three receivers and not three Defenders so you just play pitch and catch but other times it's more complicated where you have to identify slight movement identify your pre-nap tails and indicators and identify what's going to happen based on little tweaks in the defense before they happen one of those tails is when a safety is outside of the hash he's scooched over cuz he has to cheat to cover the blitzing cornerbacks guy one-on-one Caleb literally just doesn't see the tell or obviously the corner and his futah nails fly clean off his fingers he sees the safety flying over but doesn't compute that means the corner is coming and then yeah absolute obliteration but he puts on film that he is as tough as Nails as the very next passing play after a turnover he doesn't Flinch and throws a perfect strike here Colorado is playing two High cover two Zone and against cover two Zone the third inside receiver's vertical is usually the go-to since it's splitting the two deep coverage if the linebacker doesn't match which I don't know why he doesn't Mario Williams comes wide open but credit to Caleb cuz he sees the safety off the hash again but as I said doesn't Flinch thinking maybe the corner is blitzing again and rips a seed for a touchdown then he shows that he can learn ingame shows that he can make realtime adjustments on the sideline and can tear up the same look when the defense inevitably shows it again where Colorado keeps the same safety off the hash Caleb can see the corner is slightly inside leverage giving himself an easier path to Blitz this is an RPO where typically you would run it you wouldn't throw it against bump and run man coverage since it's not usually going to be open Quick in the down but Caleb anticipates the Blitz and gets rid of the ball later in the year he did start picking up this safety tail pre- snap where Notre Dame is trying to disguise a one high look their safety is in the dead middle of the field but they're actually rolling into twoo high and blitzing their nickel Corner USC is again running the bounce concept where usually Caleb would read the nickel but when Notre Dame blitzes him and drops their linebacker from a little further away instead of Caleb holding the ball in risking it even though he knows his receiver will wrap inside he realizes he has a safety and linebacker on his receiver and converts the first down I do think he has a good idea of how to attack leverage when his guy is one-on-one he's consistent at feeding him in the right spot like here where despite the fact Colorado's in a cover three Zone look where Each corner should be outside to force the receiver towards the post safety Caleb sees his backside receiver is locked up in man coverage inside leverage so he throws the tightly covered pass outside a couple things that also gave me cause for concern is that he missed a lot of passes from clean pockets on deeper throws obviously he has an incredible arm but in the four games I studied I counted six of these where I charted them as clean pocket misses some of them on tough throws so this is a little alarming and then in terms of his fumbles he's average about one per game throughout his college career at a point last season it was 32 fumbles in 32 career games so on top of the interceptions which he will throw ball security is a problem at this point in his career this video isn't some huge indictment on him just that there's a little more pause to his evaluation as we wait into the fiery hell that is draft time where everybody is either Patrick momes or Josh Rosen Caleb still has an unbelievable skill set but he is raw needs more polish needs a lot of time to progress until he's at the level of quarterback that he is constantly compared to of course I would sit him for a year if possible I'm always a proponent of that but with the Bears likely taking him that's not so likely I am a huge Caleb Williams believer he will go number one over all and if he can iron out these issues he should take the NFL by [Music] storm

Channel: AlexRollinsNFL

Views: 68,196

Keywords: caleb willimas, nfl draft, usc, caleb williams usc, caleb williams highlights, caleb williams analysis, caleb williams highlights 2023, caleb williams football highlights, caleb williams scouting report, caleb williams film breakdown, caleb williams usc highlights, alex rollins, alexrollinsnfl

Id: 1xQY0rgLcLI

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 24 2024