I'm popping this thread back into action. If you have not seen those clips of Rivers in action at the Senior Bowl you really ought to.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers01.mpg
In Rivers01.mpg he makes a very NFL style read and threads a needle to Henderson on a corner-in route. Notice that Rivers froze the safety in the middle of the field before looking back left and firing the pass off immediately. The ball gets there quickly enough, but I see what Scouts Inc was saying about his long delivery. It doesn't necessarily need to change. You can see the look-off if you watch the Replay vid that Muck offered up...you can see very clearly the Safety #9 frozen into the middle of the field before seeing where Rivers is really going and jumping back to Henderson. I'm not sure that the ball was thrown intentionally a little behind Henderson but it worked out perfectly and would have even if the safety would have had better coverage because it naturally allowed Henderson to put his body between the Safety and the ball...easy to see why Rivers is so good at not turning it over.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers02.mpg
In Rivers02 this is a pretty simple read and pass 5 yards down the field, but the most important aspect of it was the timing. Rivers read the HUGE cushion that the CB (#2) was giving Henderson, and by the time Henderson short-stops on the hitch, the ball is already out of Rivers hand. The other wide out over on the other side of the field had the same route and a similar cushion from his CB but the slot coverage on the slot WR would have meant that WR would have had a harder time running after the catch for the first down. In other words the play went exactly how it was drawn up to go...no frills, just 17 yards on a simple hitch with perfect timing.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers03.mpg
In Rivers03.mpg this is just a great play to look at and watch. Some might look at the play and say Rivers failed to see that his right side WR was open. He wasn't though. This looks like Rivers initial read on the play...his right side guy had a nice sized cushion to start the play, and it was a short hitch a lot like he had just completed to Deverey Henderson for 17 yards. But the CB played some great zone right there and looked like he was ready for just that...actually I wonder who that CB was cuz he looked really good backpeddling and making a VERY short stop and showed a great first step back toward the ball had the ball been thrown. VERY good job by Rivers not throwing this ball to him...a guy with a lot of armstrength might have tried to zip it in there, and it might have been complete...or it might have been 6 the other way. From there you can see that Rivers had a good feel for how the pocket was collapsing from the left side, and then the great part him finding the right guy to dump it to cuz ya know what there wasn't a single other player open in that play at any other time.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers04.mpg
In Rivers04 this was the first incomplete among the Rivers clips. What can ya say, Rivers did overthrow the ball. On the other hand, he sure as heck made the right read cuz that Tight End was open for a touchdown. And on top of it, why did the Tight End cut his route short? Its hard to discern what route he was running, looks like it might have been an up and out and the TE cut to his out at about the 5 yd line...it is POSSIBLE (this could just be making excuses though) that Rivers tossed it further to the left and over into the endzone because he was hoping the TE would have read where the safety was coming and run to where the ball could be thrown and not risk being intercepted or have the TE laid out prime for a huge hit. I dunno. I do know that had the TE not stopped and turn around, he would have run right under the ball and been able to make a clean catch in the endzone without getting touched...for what its worth.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers05.mpg
In Rivers05 this was the TD strike to Wilford for 21 yards. Rivers threw a nice fastball, perfect accuracy, but this is the first time I think its possible he made a risky read. This is college ball, after a turnover you go for the throat. It doesn't work that well in the pros. In this case the called defense looked to have been perfect for what Rivers ended up doing, firing it into the endzone. It seems like every defender on the field dropped back DEEP. The underneath areas were barren of defenders, and Rivers had a FB open on the right side that he could have easily hit and the guy could have rumbled for 10 yards or so of redzone thats not easy to come by. He also had a halfback open in the middle...same situation. Meanwhile he had a slot WR on the right side, with a slot CB on top of him but the slot CB played the outside while the slot WR ran a skinny post to the inside. What this means is that the slot CB was in pretty darn good position to make a play on the ball thrown to Wilford. Strangely enough, Rivers' pass had too much zip on it for him to do anything with his fortuitous positioning...he ended up lunging awkwardly and missing while Wilford scores with the perfectly thrown ball to his breadbasket. Hard to think Rivers would have gotten away with this in the NFL.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers06.mpg
Rivers06 and OH MAN. This is straight up NFL style right here. Sage Rosenfels in a Q&A was asked what he took from Norv Turner. And he said, what I learned from Norv was that no matter which play you're running, there's always a guy matched one on one with a lesser defender. This 66 yard strike to Deverey Henderson was very illustrative of that. The CB gave him huge cushion, and even held him, but Henderson ended up smokin him and running by him like he was standing still (reminds me of what we've seen Chambers do a few times). The throw was perfect, can't say any more about it. He tossed it while a DL was charging him down too about to murder him. Then again its hard to say this play would have happened like this in the NFL. Where was the safety?? He read the RB leak as his coverage and cheated toward the LOS before the snap. Unfortunately for him, the MLB and WSLB both read the RB leak as their coverage too. Three guys all clustered around the RB while the poor CB is one on one against a speedster like Henderson! It looks like Rivers again froze safety #9 in the middle of the field before tossing this ball out. Why I don't think this would have happened in the NFL is cuz of the no-blitzing. In the NFL if the safety was cheating up and read the RB as coverage, then the LBs would have blitzed, and if they had I'm not sure that Rivers would have had the time he did...not that he had a ton of time he only took 3 seconds to toss the ball. But still he tossed it as a DT was right in his face, so its certainly an impressive throw and catch, and read. Man, Rivers throws a nice catchable ball too.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers07.mpg
In Rivers07 this is like almost the same play as the 66 yard strike...Rivers makes the right read he just overthrows it. Not by a whole lot either. It looks like Rivers was forced to throw this ball earlier than he wanted to because of the RDE who just blew by the LT and hit Rivers just as he threw it. Rivers just failed to adjust his throw the right way...looks like he tossed it as high and far as he could to give his WR a chance to run under it. Far enough, not high enough. He's human after all.
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers08.mpg
Rivers08 well, he's no RB thats for sure. Still he tucked the ball for all the right reasons on that play and made the best he could of it. His cutback abilities are woeful, but since when is an NFL QB supposed to be a cutback runner?
http://muck.finheaven.com/phins/videos/rivers/Rivers09.mpg
Rivers09 also he tucked it for all the right reasons. Does he ever throw the ball away? I wonder. It would explain his ultra-high accuracy percentage. Anywho. If he looks particularly fast in this play its because he's in a foot race with a big fat DT. And they were matching each other in speed hehe.
Two things overall to notice. One is the timing. Just about every throw was timed perfectly...including the Wilford strike...which was apparent on the replay. The second thing is I see what Scouts Inc of ESPN Insider was saying about Rivers having a long delivery during the Senior Bowl. I think that Rivers is sensitive to the issue of armstrength and he's really makin an effort to throw fast balls out there. Its workin. But it makes his delivery slow believe it or not. His improvised throws are the ones where you see him make with the ultra-quick release. Otherwise he seems to have a full windup and delivery thats a little longer than you like.
And a third thing his footwork as he's throwing he never really looks very textbook. But that might have a lot to do with the style of delivery he uses...side-arm.
