Campbell Breadown On ESPN Insider
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:46 am
I'll post it since it's premium content.
Campbell much better than his numbers show
By Jeremy Green
After watching Washington QB Jason Campbell over the past few weeks I wanted to go back into the film room and really break him down. What I saw after looking at tapes is that he is rapidly developing into one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL.
That statement is tough to back up statistically because Campbell has just 198 completions in 357 attempts (55 percent completion percentage) in his career. He's thrown 15 TD passes, 10 interceptions and posted a QB rating of 78.5 in less than a year as a full-time starter. This season, he has thrown five touchdowns to four interceptions, which are not exactly numbers that make you say "wow." But consider he plays in a run-first offense and head coach Joe Gibbs would like to run the ball 35 or more times per game. That does not lend itself to gaudy numbers from the QB position.
However, what does make you say "wow" is how quickly he has picked up the Washington offense. Offensive coordinator Al Saunders has one of the most extensive playbooks in the NFL and Campbell is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was last season. I talked to an offensive coach in Washington who told me how Campbell was the first one in and the last one out of the building all offseason and it is starting to pay dividends on the field.
At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Campbell has excellent size for the position and while he looks like a big pocket passer, he has very good mobility and can make plays inside and outside the pocket. He is smooth in his movements and can throw on the move with very little wasted motion in his timing and release.
He has also developed a feel for pressure as well. In the Green Bay game on Sunday, there were numerous occasions where he had back side blitz pressure which he did not see it, but he felt and was able to step up and deliver a solid strike. Some young QBs do not have a feel for pressure and will step the wrong way, but not Campbell. Of all the pressures I saw on Campbell there was only one occasion where he stepped towards the pressure rather then up or away from it. That can be a hard aspect of the game for a young QB to learn.
Campbell also has an outstanding arm and can make all the throws in Saunders' offense. When I say all the throws, I mean that he can zip the out route, zip it into the deep curls, throw the comeback route with excellent accuracy and he even throws a beautiful deep ball. Those are all tough throws to make, but Campbell can make them all.
One area Campbell has really developed his game is his touch on passes. His touch and accuracy on the short to underneath routes is much better than it was last season. Statistically this is tough to see in the numbers, but he has been riddled with a ton of drops by his receivers. On Sunday, Campbell threw 16 incomplete passes, but six were drops by his receivers, another two that were questionable and one that went off his receiver's hands for an interception. On some of those throws, which were in the short to intermediate passing zones, Campbell did an excellent job of taking something off the ball or leading his receiver to allow him to make a play after the catch. He has learned to fit the ball between the LB and the safety, like he did in Week 6 on two throws to TE Chris
ey. Plus, his deep ball accuracy is much better as seen by the throw he put right on the hands of WR Santana Moss that Moss dropped.
Campbell has always been a solid passer, but what was most impressive on tape was his development of understanding defenses. His field vision and awareness are leaps and bounds above where they were last season. Plus, he is much quicker with his progression, which helps the ball gets out of his hand on time.
Campbell does not get the accolades of some of the other young quarterbacks in the NFL because the numbers are not going to be there in a Gibbs-coached offense. However, when you break him down, he is every bit as solid as other QBs around the NFL with similar starting experience. Campbell is good enough to carry this team to the playoffs. Now he just needs the coaching staff to allow him to do it and a little help from the guys around him who need to start holding onto the football. Time will tell, but Campbell is quickly emerging into a solid starting QB in the NFL.
Campbell much better than his numbers show
By Jeremy Green
After watching Washington QB Jason Campbell over the past few weeks I wanted to go back into the film room and really break him down. What I saw after looking at tapes is that he is rapidly developing into one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL.
That statement is tough to back up statistically because Campbell has just 198 completions in 357 attempts (55 percent completion percentage) in his career. He's thrown 15 TD passes, 10 interceptions and posted a QB rating of 78.5 in less than a year as a full-time starter. This season, he has thrown five touchdowns to four interceptions, which are not exactly numbers that make you say "wow." But consider he plays in a run-first offense and head coach Joe Gibbs would like to run the ball 35 or more times per game. That does not lend itself to gaudy numbers from the QB position.
However, what does make you say "wow" is how quickly he has picked up the Washington offense. Offensive coordinator Al Saunders has one of the most extensive playbooks in the NFL and Campbell is leaps and bounds ahead of where he was last season. I talked to an offensive coach in Washington who told me how Campbell was the first one in and the last one out of the building all offseason and it is starting to pay dividends on the field.
At 6-foot-5, 230 pounds, Campbell has excellent size for the position and while he looks like a big pocket passer, he has very good mobility and can make plays inside and outside the pocket. He is smooth in his movements and can throw on the move with very little wasted motion in his timing and release.
He has also developed a feel for pressure as well. In the Green Bay game on Sunday, there were numerous occasions where he had back side blitz pressure which he did not see it, but he felt and was able to step up and deliver a solid strike. Some young QBs do not have a feel for pressure and will step the wrong way, but not Campbell. Of all the pressures I saw on Campbell there was only one occasion where he stepped towards the pressure rather then up or away from it. That can be a hard aspect of the game for a young QB to learn.
Campbell also has an outstanding arm and can make all the throws in Saunders' offense. When I say all the throws, I mean that he can zip the out route, zip it into the deep curls, throw the comeback route with excellent accuracy and he even throws a beautiful deep ball. Those are all tough throws to make, but Campbell can make them all.
One area Campbell has really developed his game is his touch on passes. His touch and accuracy on the short to underneath routes is much better than it was last season. Statistically this is tough to see in the numbers, but he has been riddled with a ton of drops by his receivers. On Sunday, Campbell threw 16 incomplete passes, but six were drops by his receivers, another two that were questionable and one that went off his receiver's hands for an interception. On some of those throws, which were in the short to intermediate passing zones, Campbell did an excellent job of taking something off the ball or leading his receiver to allow him to make a play after the catch. He has learned to fit the ball between the LB and the safety, like he did in Week 6 on two throws to TE Chris
ey. Plus, his deep ball accuracy is much better as seen by the throw he put right on the hands of WR Santana Moss that Moss dropped.Campbell has always been a solid passer, but what was most impressive on tape was his development of understanding defenses. His field vision and awareness are leaps and bounds above where they were last season. Plus, he is much quicker with his progression, which helps the ball gets out of his hand on time.
Campbell does not get the accolades of some of the other young quarterbacks in the NFL because the numbers are not going to be there in a Gibbs-coached offense. However, when you break him down, he is every bit as solid as other QBs around the NFL with similar starting experience. Campbell is good enough to carry this team to the playoffs. Now he just needs the coaching staff to allow him to do it and a little help from the guys around him who need to start holding onto the football. Time will tell, but Campbell is quickly emerging into a solid starting QB in the NFL.
