As great of a quarterback as Ben Roethlisberger, he is creeping closer to his end and has had increasingly more injury issues as of late. The backup passers behind him last season, Michael Vick and Landry Jones, struggled mightily in their handful of appearances, not to mention Vick went down with injury, too.
By: Derrik Klassen
Whether it be purely for insurance or to groom a successor for Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers need to invest in a quarterback in this draft class; and who would be better for them than the closest thing there is to Ben, Cardale Jones.
Jones has a build almost identical to that of Roethlisberger’s, and his arm and level of mobility fit the mold, too. Jones is a big bodied, strong armed passer who would rather do a bit of freelancing and fire in a tough throw than work strictly within the system. Of course, this style of play breeds some ugly outcomes from time to time, but, with passers who are very comfortable playing like this, defenses often struggle to adjust on the fly as well as the quarterback does.
Take Ohio State’s 2014-2015 championship run, for example. Jones did not step into to start until the final three games of the year after JT Barrett went down with an injury. Those three games were the highest of stakes, though. Jones had to face Wisconsin (B1G Championship), Alabama (first round of CFB Playoff) and Oregon (National Championship). All three games were major postseason games against very good teams, with the last one sporting Heisman winner Marcus Mariota at quarterback. Jones was faced with the task of stepping into an offense that he had only ran in garbage time and had to lead that offense through their toughest games of the year. And he did it.
Jones’s performances in these games got progressively better. He was much more reckless in the Wisconsin game than he was against Oregon. He learned quickly on the fly and had no problem adapting to different defenses. Jones did a lot by way of improvisation or deep passing, which was entirely different from how the offense felt with Barrett at the helm. Defenses weren’t ready for such the free flowing and aggressive offense that Jones provided.
Jones can be that type of player in the NFL, too. He will come with plenty of growing pains, especially considering he struggles more with shorter throws than most passers do. Whether or not he will ever truly improve in that area is to be seen, but his work over the intermediate and deep parts of the field can be lethal. For an offense as aggressive down the field as Pittsburgh’s, Jones’s shortcomings on shorter throws can be more easily hidden by his work down the field.
Vertical Routes
Jones has to be allowed to throw down the field and do so often. His work as a deep passer is part of what helped open up Ohio State’s offense during their championship run. More specifically, Jones thrives on play action deep shots. Those plays tend to best generate 1-on-1 situations down the field and Jones has proven that he is money on those throws.
On both of these plays, Ben Roethlisberger was able to get 1-on-1 coverage because the safety covering the middle of the field shaded himself too far to the other side of the field. These throws are straight shots down the field. They are all about generating velocity while also giving the ball a good enough arc to comfortably land over the defender. These are the types of deep shots that Jones and current New York Jets receiver Devin Smith connected on so well when they were both at Ohio State.
Between the Hashes
For shorter concepts, Jones is best fit to have plays develop directly in front of him. This is not because he is not a smart passer that can not look elsewhere, but because he struggles more throwing to the short boundary than he does the short middle. Being as the closer a throw is to the middle of the field the more comfortable it is to transition to, it is not uncommon for passers to need this accommodation.
Both of these route combinations have a player moving away from the middle of the field as another makes their way into that spot. In the first play, the defense is showing a zone/pattern-matching look. The linebackers mix up their assignments to leave the tight end with plenty of space to make an easy catch. The second play, on the other hand, looks more like a direct man coverage. With a little push off at the route break, the receiver is able to gain some separation over the middle of the field and presents a clear target directly in front of the quarterback. These are concepts that can take advantage of a defense quickly if they make one false move because of how much space they can generate in a relatively small portion of the field.
Conflicting High-Lows
This play is a lot like the common “smash” concept, but with an added tweak that makes it even more fit for Jones. Jones works well as a deep passer and as a short middle passer, and this concept provides the possibility of both. Like “smash”, this play pulls the underneath cornerback out of the way, but this time he is lead to the middle of the field by the receiver. If this receiver is able to gain some separation, it would provide a fairly short and simple throw for Jones. Conversely, it may just pull a defender out from underneath the other receiver’s corner route, as seen above. Roethlisberger saw that there was no defender underneath the route and that his receiver had the outside leverage for his route, so he fired away for a deep completion. This sort of concept would provide options for Jones while also providing the types of routes he is most comfortable with.
Overall
Few quarterbacks fits in this class are as perfect as this one. Jones mimics a lot of Roethlisberger’s game. He has the arm, big body, mobility and aggressive style to fill the “clone” backup role very well while Roethlisberger finishes off his career. Pittsburgh is stacked with speedy deep threat receivers, too, which is perfect for Jones’ style of play. It is tough to poke any holes in this fit, especially considering how badly the Steelers need to move on from Landry Jones.
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