Hey Dolphins fans, I've been looking around at some NFL forums to see where Quinn may end up, and I noticed that there is more activity about him here than anywhere else, so I thought I would try and throw in my .02 from someone who has watched every snap of his for the last 4 years. I will TRY as hard as I can to put my biases aside and be straight up honest.
Arm Strength - Most people have it right that say Brady has good, but not great arm strength. He does not have the cannon of a guy like Russell, but he does not have a weak arm either. I would probably label it as above average. However, his arm strength should get linked directly with his decision making, because he makes very smart throws and rarely needs to rifle it into tight spots. I did see him make a throw against PSU this year that he threw into triple coverage where he absolutely unloaded it, and it bounced off the chest of a PSU defender who tried to pick it. He went over and had a meeting with coach Weis after that, and needless to say he didn't force many throws after that.
Accuracy - Again, from what I've read, most people have Brady pegged correctly in terms of accuracy. He is very accurate on the short to medium throws, and one of his better attributes is the fact that he is very good at hitting receivers in stride on those routes. He got a lot of yardage due to the fact that his receivers rarely had to break stride to catch it, and got a lot of YACs due to this. His weakness is his accuracy on deeper throws of more than 20 yards. Sometimes his balls float a bit too much and allow defenders to close on them. In terms of vertical deep balls, he benefited from 2 great receivers who pulled down jump balls with ease, so many of his deep balls were high throws that allowed his receivers to make plays on them. He will have to adjust to hitting his receivers in stride on deep throws rather than throwing floating ones, but he certainly can do it and has hit throws like that while keeping his receivers in stride. One other thing to note: Quinn can be streaky at times. No better example than this year's MSU game, where he looked like a freshman the first 2-3 drives, then proceeded to catch fire and throw for 300+ yards and 5 tds. It's frustrating at times when he's off, but when he's hot it's fun to watch.
Decision making - Brady's best attribute IMO. The guy simply doesn't make many boneheaded plays, and he is not afraid to throw it away and live another day when under pressure. This is why he had games of below 50% accuracy against great teams...because most of the time he was under a tremendous amount of pressure and threw away 8-10 balls a game. If he had great protection most of the time, his completion percentage would have been as high or higher than Russell's, but there were a lot of throw-aways in there. He had an astounding td-int ratio, and nearly broke the NCAA record for most passes without a pick this year. I was absolutely shocked when I saw him make a poor throw into coverage that got picked in the Sugar Bowl, because I hadn't seen him do that all year. Then again, his team was down 17 and his defense wasn't getting close to making stops, so I think that was a direct result of trying too hard to make a play.
Intelligence - Another very good attribute that Brady has going for him. He will pick up any NFL offense within a year, mark my words. I remember Weis saying last year that he had not cut down on his playbook one bit, much to his surprise, because Brady had picked it all up by the first game (and his playbook is not short by any means). He is a very smart guy who studies film very hard, and it shows in games. He also got the nod from Weis to audible out of a play any time he felt like it was needed during this past year, depending on how the defense lined up, and he became very good at reading and picking up blitzes before the snap. Most of the pressure on Brady came directly from the o-line simply getting beat, rather than blitzes running free.
Intangibles - The 2 words that come to mind when I think of Brady are 1) toughness, and 2) leader. I remember his first start of his career against Purdue, as a freshman, getting sacked 9 times and getting hit 3 times that amount, but he kept picking himself back up and somehow threw for 300+ yds. I knew then that he would be the starter the next 3 years, and he has started every game since. In terms of leadership, the guy has been the unchallenged leader for 2 years at ND, and he has never once hung a teammate out to dry (And trust me, this is a huge thing, because he's a better man than I). His linemen failed him time and again, and at times our second receiver got a severe case of the dropsies, and he would go into his post-game conference without mentioning them once and puting the fault entirely on himself. I remember an announcer mentioning that our rb, Darius Walker, said that he thought that things would be ok when Brady was under center, no matter the circumstance (turned out prophetic, because it was just before the improbable comeback against UCLA).
Big Games - Okay, I have to address this, because I've never seen a stigma so universally attached to a draftee than Brady and his "big game wilts". Let me first go over every "big game" he has played in the last 2 years, then I'll go over the big time pressure situations.
05
(forgive me if some of these rankings are off by a couple, I'm going off of memory)
9/10: ND vs #3 Michigan (W 17-10) - ND went into the big house and won for the first time in like 10 years, however, the defense actually won this one. Brady played mistake free and did what he needed to do, but wasn't dominant (to be fair, it was his 2nd game in the Weis offense). Still, it was a huge win at the time, even though Michigan faltered later in the year and finished 7-5. Brady's stats: 19/30, 140 yds, no picks & no tds
10/15: ND vs #1 USC (L 34-31) - This is THE game that makes me laugh at the "Big game Brady" critics. USC was on a long winning streak and were the defending champs, while ND was trying to prove that they belonged in the top 10. Other than a play early in the game where Brady's arm got hit as he threw it, he played extremely well, and had what should have been one of the biggest, most clutch game winning drives in a long, long time at Notre Dame. Was it really his fault that he didn't play corner on 4th and 9? Because if the pass falls incomplete, Brady's the hero and nobody questions his big game ability right now. Finished 19/35, 264 yds, 2 total tds & 1 pick
http://dietler.net/nd/videos/quickplay/?video=2005_usc
1/2: ND vs #4 Ohio State (L 34-20) - ND played a stacked OSU team with a defense that featured something like 7 NFL draft picks. Brady actually didn't play too bad, finishing 29/45, 286 yds, no picks & no tds, but his defense gave up 617 yds and 34 pts and never allowed a comeback.
06
9/9: ND vs #19 Penn State (W 41-17) - This was a rivalry game with a lot on the line early in the year, and Brady played very, very good against a defense that finished the year in the top 20. Brady's stats: 25/36, 287 yds, 3 tds & no picks
http://dietler.net/nd/videos/quickplay/?video=2006_pennstate
9/16: ND vs #11 Michigan (L 47-21) - A huge game, and the one big game that Brady truly played poorly in. He had no running game whatsoever, and was throwing on every down, but he still did not play well. No argument here, finished 24/48, 234 yds, 3 tds & 3 picks
11/26: ND vs #3 USC (L 44-24) - Another huge game, and again, I actually thought Brady played very well in this one. His receiver, Rhema McKnight, dropped 3 first downs in the first half, 2 of them coming on 4th down, and all of them in USC territory that probably would have resulted in points. Again, not much of a running game to speak of, and again, the defense gave in, but he finished 22/45, 274 yards & 3 tds w/no picks. I would bet at least 8 of those incompletions were throw aways, wouldn't read into the percentage too much.
1/3: ND vs #4 LSU (L 41-14) - Repeat above, except Brady played below average in this one. ND went to a max protect to protect him, and only had 2 receivers running most of the night, and it showed. Still, he didn't play as you would expect a high draft pick to play, and finished with statistically the worst "big game" of them all: 15/35, 148 yds, 2 tds and 2 picks
Pressure Moments
9/23: ND vs MSU (W 40-37) - Crazy game. Quinn looked lost the first quarter, then caught fire and led the Irish, with a bit of help from his defense (gasp), from 16 down in the 4th in a rainstorm to pull off the improbable win. Finished 20/36, 319 yards, 5 tds, 1 pick.
http://dietler.net/nd/videos/quickplay/?video=2006_msu
10/21: ND vs UCLA (W 20-17) - Another crazy ending. Quinn was being pressured the whole game, and never really got into rhythm, until the final drive with the season in the balance. Talk about going from depression to euphoria, geez. Here's the video:
http://extrapoint.typepad.com/the_extra_point/2006/10/var_api_ve_getc_16.html
As for my thoughts on how he would fit with the Dolphins, I think he would be a great fit. For the first time in his career he would have a strong defense backing him up, which would take a HUGE amount of pressure off of him, since he wouldn't be expected to score EVERY possession, as was the case with Notre Dame. Also, Ronnie Brown is a very good back, and should help open things up for him. Culpepper is a nice qb, and someone who can give Brady a year or two to get acclimated. It sounds like your offensive coordinator likes to incorporate short-medium passing plays, and if so, that would be an absolutely perfect pick for Brady, and one where he would be most likely to excel. I really hope he falls to #9, because I feel the Dolphins have the things in place that would make it the most likely place for Brady to succeed. Just prayin the Raiders or Lions don't scoop him up...:shakeno:
Anyways, I'm sorry for writing a book, didn't intend to, but I've watched a lot of Brady Quinn snaps what can I say! I tried to be as unbiased as possible, but it's pretty difficult being the ND fan that I am. Hopefully you didn't find this to be 10 minutes that you want back in your life! Cheers
