Now to our second 2014 NFL Draft Scouting Report. For this report, I will be taking a look at another small school player and that is Cornell Big Red senior quarterback Jeff Mathews.
When looking at Mathews’ film, I was really impressed by him, which I will breakdown later in the article. To start off, he is 6-f0ot-4 and 229 lbs. This is good as he has good size for a quarterback.
Now when looking at the tape, at Cornell, Mathews played in the shotgun and pistol. When you think about it, the NFL is becoming a more shotgun and pistol formation league on offense. I definitely think that is a positive of his game.
Another positive that I saw from Mathews is that he can make the short quick throws to his receivers. We have seen in the NFL that the short quick throws can make the biggest impact in the game. For example Peyton Manning and Nick Foles used the quick throws to their advantages this season and both of them had big years.
Jeff Mathews also has a quick release which is good because since he isn’t a mobile quarterback, he will have to get the ball out quickly and accurately. For a senior quarterback, Mathews is not quick to bail out on the play. He will read through all his progressions, scanning the field to find an open receiver. That is something a lot of quarterback do not do well.
Many quarterbacks read and react while others just have one read and go with it. Some more positives of Mathews’ game is that he can make all the throws in which you want to see a senior quarterback do. Another positive is his pocket presence. He can stand tall in the pocket and deliver the ball.
Now, there are some negatives to Jeff Mathews’ game. The first negative is that he is slow, he is not the fastest quarterback but he is mobile enough to get himself out of trouble. Another negative is that he needs to work on his footwork, which can be fixed in the NFL. The third negative is that he holds onto the football too long when the play breaks down. If you saw Nick Foles this year, he did the same thing instead of throwing it out-of-bounds. Foles would go on to throw two interceptions this season so that is not bad at all.
Finally, the last negative is talent. He goes to Cornell and the talent is alright in the Ivy League but he still dominated.
Here are his stats from this season: 22 touchdowns, 13 interceptions, and 2,953 passing yards
Here are his stats from his best season which was in 2011: 25 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and 3,412 passing yards
NFL Comparison: Brock Osweiler
NFL Draft Projection: 6th-7th round
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