Justin Thomas passing ability

[charles]

I was just reviewing JT"s 14 minute high school highlight reel back in 2011 on Youtube and after carefully studying it I was really impressed with his passing ability,We all knew what he can do by running the ball But most of the 14 minutes was concentrated on his passing , I sure hope that he gets the chance to show that off a little this year.

 

[techman78]

I have always been impressed with JT as a passer. When he was a true fr and dressing with the team in warmups before games he looked like he had a lot of zip on the ball and seemed to have good accuracy although it was without bullets flying but I was just always impressed with what I seen from him.

 

[Sean311]

I feel like a player with JT's ability makes the defense commit to the play action more than any player probably since JN..he should have plenty of opportunities to show off his arm.

 

[AE 87]

He threw a TD pass to Synjyn against BYU where his release was practically too quick to be captured by video. I expect him to be somewhere between Vad 2013 and TW 2011 in passing. We're still going to need the D to step-up for a good season.

 

[Boomergump]

I always crack up when I read people comparing JT to Vad in terms of passing or arm strength and characterize him as inferior in this regard. If you rewind his HS film ( I hope you do it at this very moment) and watch him rolling to his throwing side and flicking the ball down field around 50 yards while on the dead run without setting his feet, you won't feel like telling me his arm is substandard. Try to find a similar clip with Vad. It will be pretty tough to do so. Look, JT can fling the bean. True, rolling to his non-throwing side is substantially worse, in terms of effectiveness, but that fundamental stuff can be worked on. JT keeps his eyes down field on the scramble quite well. He has arm strength and he has a bit of touch. His biggest issue has been telegraphing his throws and decision making. If he makes progress there, I guarantee you, we won't be quibbling about his arm strength. I personally happen to feel that the passing game has the potential to make a big jump, if for no other reason than JT keeping plays alive with his feet and occasionally dumping the ball off instead of fixating on the deep primary target like Vad did to little avail. You can't fake arm strength and the field isn't longer in college. JT has already shown the ability to chuck it way down field. There won't be any TW type limitations there.

If I had to guess what we are likely to see from the passing game in the near future I would characterize it this way: Just think of Tevin, but then think of what Tevin could have done if he had 10+ more yards that he could have led the deep guys.

 

[GT Man]

We have some good talent at WR too. Hope we take advantage of opposing safeties that cheat up. We gotta keep them honest.

 

[gtg936g]

If JT can make LBs cheat the edge to keep him contained, our ABs will have a great year rushing and receiving.

 

[AE 87]

@Boomergump I agree with you except for the suggestion that we some how suffered from TW's lack of arm strength. I know this hit on Tevin is something that's been repeated enough times that it's useless to challenge, but I'll throw my flag anyway. I agree with you on JT 100% though.

 

[iceeater1969]

His quick feet and quick release will get the ball to the receiver while he is still open. We have never had this at gt during cpj.
Needs to work on looking off the defender, but the ab on the swing route should be effective.
The To starts with the qb and we have a good one.

 

[Longestday]

@AE 87 I agree with @Boomergump on the deep ball arm strength of TW when pressured. I will use the last MTSU game as an example. On the short passes TW had plenty of zip. For full disclosure I was a TW supporter.

Vad had huge arm strength for deep passes even when scrambling.

In the past, JT has plenty of zip on short passes and can pass long. He did not seem as strong as Vad and Byerly on the deep passes. I can think of two occasions that support this statement in games last year. I don't know where he is at now. He may have made significant changes over the summer work out and I look forward to watching him on Saturdays.

 

[GTonTop88]

Vad had to set his feet and wind up to launch the ball, JT reminds me alot of RG3 in his early years at Baylor. He can make you commit to him running the ball then zip it right b4 he crosses the line of scrimmage. I love the quick release especially in this offense when the D has to play the run so heavy.

 

[AE 87]

@AE 87 I agree with @Boomergump on the deep ball arm strength of TW when pressured. I will use the last MTSU game as an example. On the short passes TW had plenty of zip. For full disclosure I was a TW supporter.

Vad had huge arm strength for deep passes even when scrambling.

In the past, JT has plenty of zip on short passes and can pass long. He did not seem as strong as Vad and Byerly on the deep passes. I can think of two occasions that support this statement in games last year. I don't know where he is at now. He may have made significant changes over the summer work out and I look forward to watching him on Saturdays.

That's fine. Like I said, I know that it's not worth arguing. I wasn't arguing the "when pressured" point, which wasn't part of @Boomergump 's post. I know that TW completed at least one pass ~50 yards down field and had plenty of arm to complete several around 40, some on a rope. It's not like we're asking our QB to throw much more than that on a regular basis.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

@AE 87 ............ In the past, JT has plenty of zip on short passes and can pass long. He did not seem as strong as Vad and Byerly on the deep passes. I can think of two occasions that support this statement in games last year. I don't know where he is at now. He may have made significant changes over the summer work out and I look forward to watching him on Saturdays.

This is what I remember. Players improve and JT has the skills on tape. Some of it was on our receivers tipping the balls, but I wasn't wowed last year. Erratic stats: http://www.cfbstats.com/2013/player/255/1047228/passing/gamelog.html

 

[iceeater1969]

Pretty small sample size = 17 attempts over multiple games while passing to receiver corp where the best player by far was a baseball player.
Good news - he has seen the field in some bigger games ( first game miami and then byu) and did well in a few of them.
We have 3 easier games to start the season.

Bad news - last year probably a number of passes were not from pistol

 

[Ash]

Am I the only one that has never really worried about JT's passing ability, and instead thought ball security could be more of a problem?

 

[Techster]

The thing that stands out to me about JT is he needs a "clean" pocket in order to pass because he has to set his feet in order to get power behind his throws. Vad could throw the ball flat footed off his back feet (a terrible no no in the passing world) about 40-50 yards down field...which was not always a good thing because he was overly confident in his arm, and he would sometimes force passes with bad consequences. The point is, it takes a strong arm to generate that kind of power off your back foot...if you don't believe me, pick up a football and try throwing off your back foot.

"The hit" against Miami was a good illustration of how JT needs a clean pocket and has to set his feet to make a throw. JT gets clobbered either way, but if he didn't need to set his feet he gets the pass off to the flats where there was a receiver open. There was one throw on his HS tape where he runs to his right into open space and delivers a ball 30 yards down field, but that was to his right side and his mechanics on the run was perfect. There was also quite a few instance in his tape where if he would just stepped up, there was receiver wide open. Instead, he's distracted by the rusher and starts to scramble outside of the pocket. He's gotten better with keeping his eyes down field the few times I've seen him in scrimmages so maybe that translates over to games.

I think JT exhibits better anticipation and a little better accuracy in his HS tape than Vad did. A lot of Vad's passes were BOMBs down the field. JT had quite a few passes that he was able to either thread or deliver between the CB and the safety. Looks easy, but you have to able to anticipate separation, and deliver it in a small window. GT has a lot of those kinds of passes to the ABs, so that's really promising.

My conclusion is JT, like every other QB we've had, will get better at passing. His arm strength is better than average for what we do in our offense. We don't throw a lot of deep outs to the far sideline, or deep comebacks down the seams, so really having a howitzer isn't needed. For our offense and what we do in passing, JT's arm strength is more than strong enough. I'm more worried about accuracy, anticipation of where our receivers should be (that's on JT AND our receivers), and reading coverages versus our concepts. JT has exhibited the first one, the other two we'll find out over time.

 

[dhbartlett12]

Am I the only one that has never really worried about JT's passing ability, and instead thought ball security could be more of a problem?

No. Fumbling will absolutely be our biggest problem on O this year. Like the Nesbitt years but worse.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

The few things I want to see Justin improve on have nothing to do with arm strength.

1. Ball security/less risky pitches
2. Looking off defenders/not locking onto primary receiver
3. Taking a better line on triple option runs. He loops around after pulling from the mesh and loses 1 to 2 yards that have to be regained. I still don't know if he's supposed to be doing this or not, but I don't remember any of our other qb's doing it.

 

[stylee]

DCS, you are 100% right about the "looping." It's a really bad habit.

Due to JT's speed, he's been able to get away with it to a great extent. But it's not something that you ever really want to see

 

[GTRX7]

The few things I want to see Justin improve on have nothing to do with arm strength.

1. Ball security/less risky pitches
2. Looking off defenders/not locking onto primary receiver
3. Taking a better line on triple option runs. He loops around after pulling from the mesh and loses 1 to 2 yards that have to be regained. I still don't know if he's supposed to be doing this or not, but I don't remember any of our other qb's doing it.

I agree with most of your list, but was actually generally happy with his risky pitches. I thought we had some big plays off of those. I would rather see a guy be a bit too risky than too tentative.