Matt Waldman’s Rookie Scouting Portfolio visited with Ryan Burns on the Browns Note Podcast before the 2018 NFL Draft and had one of the best conversations about quarterbacks that’s representative of what Matt has learned over 15 years of evaluating the position.
Yesterday afternoon, Rotoworld’s Josh Norris re-posted the quarterback podcast we did for the 2018 NFL Draft. The teaser was my angry take in response to renown football analysts suggesting that Lamar Jackson was better off switching positions.
Today’s Rotoworld Football Podcast with @MattWaldman approaches perfection.
Thorough conversation on the 2018 NFL Draft’s top QBs
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— Josh Norris (@JoshNorris) February 14, 2018
While there’s a part of me that enjoys listening to this angry take almost two years later, there’s a lot more behind my thoughts on Jackson and quarterbacks that can be found on this fine podcast that Norris hosts.
Still, if I had to choose a podcast from that time to represent the lessons I’ve been learning about quarterbacking as well as an in-depth conversation about Lamar Jackson that’s more even-keeled towards the likes of Bill Polian and other smart football people, I recommend the show Ryan Burns and I did a month later.
Burns invited me to discuss potential draft picks for the Cleveland Browns and in one segment, that turned into an entire episode, asked me to present my case for one of the quarterbacks in the 2018 NFL Draft class.
Burns suggested Josh Rosen but he was thrilled when I asked if I could make a case for Jackson. What follows is a 90-minute discussion about quarterbacking, quarterback evaluation, and how Lamar Jackson fits into it.
Notes:
- Lamar Jackson’s development in high school.
- Bobby Petrino’s specific coaching techniques that molded Jackson into a pro-style pocket passer.
- Jackson’s daily Visual Reality training at Louisville.
- Why Jackson’s pre-draft decision about representation was a non-story that was blown out of proportion.
- Where Lamar Jackson’s skills have been misrepresented in the media.
- Analyzing Jackson’s accuracy beyond the box score.
- Risk management strategies that stifle a team’s willingness to embrace talent and mold an offense around it.
- Where some NFL teams still fail with its scouting.
- The case for the Browns taking Lamar Jackson and why Matt thought Jackson was better than Deshaun Watson pre-draft.
- Why there’s a subconscious and often unwitting racial undercurrent for front offices and media downplaying and nitpicking Jackson.
- How teams could benefit from more inclusive thinking and why the lack of it ultimately hurts teams as much as black quarterbacks.
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