N.C. State’s Ryan Finley is one of the quarterbacks RSP contributor Mark Schofield is most excited about for the 2019 NFL Draft and Finley’s anticipation that is one of the underlying reasons.

Familiarity breeds successful quarterback play. A prime example of this idea comes from Alex Smith’s final few seasons in Kansas City. Looking to improve the offensive output head coach Andy Reid turned back the clock, pulling out some plays from Smith’s college playbook while he was at the University of Utah under Urban Meyer. Running some familiar designs, Smith began to improve his production.

When a quarterback is working with a familiar script, he is comfortable. When he is comfortable, he can be confident in his reads, decisions, and throws, making him successful. You can apply this to any walk of life, any career or vocation. When you are on familiar ground, your job is easier. The unknowns out there, however, create indecisiveness, and difficulty.

That brings us to North Carolina State quarterback Ryan Finley. Finley is a very efficient passer and one of the quarterbacks I happen to be most excited about as we start thinking draft time. Here we will see two plays, one from 2017 and one from 2018, but the same route concept on each. On the first, Finley sees man coverage from the defense. On the second, he gets more of a zone look. But familiarity breeds confidence, and we can see that in particular from the second example, as he delivers an NFL throw into an NFL window with NFL style anticipation:

Finley is a quarterback worth keeping an eye on as this season progresses. While many believe this quarterback class might be a letdown after the strong group 2018 gave us, I am of the belief that the more you watch of this group, the more you’ll like these players. Finley is a prime example.

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