I spent the night really watching and breaking down a few of Carr's game tapes. Here's what I came up with:
Quote:
Strengths: Arm strength, quick release, ball location long and short, foot quickness and athleticism, good size, gets rid of the football quickly, confident passer.
Weaknesses: Pocket presence needs to improve…always in shotgun/spread and not much experience under center…pressure affects him a lot.
Overall Impression: Throws a tight football with good velocity to the sideline and down the field. He has a really quick release with little wasted motion, keeping the football high and a nice compact delivery. Even when his feet aren’t set, Carr shows the ability to be accurate and throw with nice tough from awkward situations/throwing angles, and while moving back or laterally. Possesses the arm strength to make every NFL throw.
Good ball location, throwing it where only his man has a chance to make a play down the field, and throwing it where receiver can get YAC on short throws…His screens and swing passes are very good, with the ball in a spot that doesn’t have receiver lose momentum up field and/or towards the sideline. Is able to throw into tight windows and “throw a receiver open” with good anticipation. Can throw it into a bucket down field.
Shows the ability to make plays with confidence in critical situations. Seems to grow in confidence and urgency in the red zone and is very productive.
He shows the ability to read and look off a safety, but can he go from one side of the field to the other when going through progressions? Not much of that on tape, and when he does, he doesn’t see where he’s throwing well enough…Carr sticks to his first read too often, not moving on even when he is covered; can go through progressions with clean pocket, but offense is designed to get rid of it on 3rd step in drop.
Carr needs to step up in the pocket quicker when the pocket is collapsing, often staying in a small box within the pocket and taking hits or getting sacked because of it. He doesn’t feel pressure well enough. He panics under pressure too often, making panicked decisions and letting it affect his accuracy…he’s not willing to step up into pressure enough and would rather throw off his back foot or rush the throw.
Overall, Carr has good physical tools; his arm strength is very good, his accuracy and touch down the field is good, and throws with good ball location to entire field. He has good size, athletic ability, and a quick release to go along with that. However, a lot of Fresno State’s offense doesn’t translate to the NFL, and Carr needs to feel and deal with pressure better; in short, he looks soft sometimes. He also needs to learn how to read defenses from under center and go through progressions more often and confidently.
While he has the physical tools to succeed, I am not sure he can get over his struggles to deal with pressure and he will need time to adjust to an NFL offense.