I just saw all his throws from the Florida and the Georgia games. I don't follow college football at all, so you guys'll know better. As it was my first exposure to Lock, however, I thought it might be interesting to throw it out there.
At first blush he reminds me a lot of Jay Cutler: tough, terrible mechanics, pretty accurate, not great at reading the field, aggressive. On the other hand, when you think Jay Cutler you think boneheaded plays and turnovers. I didn't see a single boneheaded play from Lock. In fact, I don't think I saw a single TO that was his fault, even though his team was trailing all game against Georgia (funny thing, his mechanics seemed better in that game than against Florida).
It's hard to be crazy about this guy. His game is... unaesthetic. But I can understand why he could go in the first round. Jay Cutler without the dumb plays? Doesn't sound half bad.
You have to watch all of his games - 4 years worth - to get the full picture on Drew Lock. You'll see throws like the pick six he threw against S. Carolina to lose the game. His flaw is to retreat straight back against pressure, then he tried to throw it to a receiver laying on the ground...
(8:28 mark)
Evaluating quarterbacks isn't easy. It's not as simple as good stats = good game. Bad stats = bad game. Interception = bad. No interception = good. Completion = good. Incompletion = bad. Etc....
If that was the case anybody could do it and there would be no need to break down film. All you'd have to do is look at stats, which is what 95% of people do when they fall in love with or dislike quarterbacks.
Even Drew Lock's completions aren't ideal a lot of times. Take the second throw of the game against Georgia for example - a game you said you watched. He has the RB#1 coming out the backfield wide open on a wheel. It's a completion that results in a huge play - mainly due to the back's ability. But break the play down further....
Lock is 3 beats too late getting the ball out to the back. He's wide open but Lock doesn't come off his initial read in a timely manner, and almost lets the DB Tyrique McGhee get over in time to knock Badie out of bounds. There's no reason for Lock to be focused on his initial read that long - UGA is playing 2 deep safeties.
Only great balance by the back and very poor one arm tackle attempt by #26 allowed the play to succeed to the extent that it did. You want the QB to see this and make this decision faster. Process what's going on faster.
Lock has a particular fan that likes to point out his lone TD pass against Alabama where he stood in the pocket against literally no pass rush, and had a full 6.5 seconds to finally find a receiver. Bama's two worst DB's that gave up all the TD's this year (Savion Smith and Deionte Thompson) just couldn't cover that long. Watch the play over and over again and use your stopwatch to count how long he's able to stand back there with no threat of a DL even getting off a block. It's a full 6.5 seconds.
(1:58 mark)
These are just examples. But if you've watched this kid for 4 years as closely as I have, you're just not sold on guys like this. He'll play in the NFL for a little while because of his physical tools. I like his arm and his athleticism. But I'll bet as high as anybody wants to bet that he's not going to be a franchise quarterback at the next level. He has Ryan Tannehill's flaws in terms of dealing with pressure and processing information quickly enough. It's not an IQ thing. It's a football instinct and spatial awareness thing.
