QB Mike Glennon.

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Alen Dumonjic
Evaluations
Gauging Mike Glennon
Thursday, February 07, 2013


There are a lot of labels thrown around during the NFL draft season. Some prospects are called “franchise” passers whilst others are considered mere “game managers”. And then there’s the group that many think they simply won’t live up to their billing. One of the quarterbacks that seems to fit into the latter for many is North Carolina State’s Mike Glennon.

Glennon is a talented passer of the football. He has a wicked strong arm that enables him to make a variety of throws, including throwing from the short hash into the wide side of the field and outside the numbers to a receiver running an outside breaking route. This type of throw has long been considered the standard for arm strength, and there’s little doubt about the N.C. State’s signal-caller ability to make it.

He also possesses other tools that make evaluators raise their eyebrows and furrow their forehead. One of these tools is to make intermediate and deep throws through the seam. This is an area that past coaches have called the easiest for quarterbacks to make throws in (former defensive coordinator Tom Olivadotti comes to mind here) but that hasn’t always been the case. Three reasons are that it requires anticipation, touch and understanding of the depth of the field. Not all quarterbacks have this ability (e.g. Chad Henne) but Glennon does.

His above skills were vital to the N.C. State offense during his reign, as he was asked to throw vertically numerous times. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the weapons to throw vertically to, and it can be argued that he did it too much, which explains his streakiness as a passer (58 % completion percentage) and the constant long down and distances he had to work with (e.g. 3rd-&-6+). This aspect of the evaluation is tricky because when a quarterback is in this kind of situation, the evaluator will convince himself that it’s not the quarterbacks fault, rather the surrounding casts. Although this is true with Glennon, his teammates and coaches are not entirely to blame for his inconsistent play.

Two issues of Glennon’s are that he doesn’t allow plays to develop long enough and he doesn’t play outside of the offense.

The development of plays, specifically routes, is an integral part to an execution of the concept. The passer has to be able to read the field, understand how the defense will react and get the ball out to the correct target. What Glennon tends to do is check the ball down to his outlet too early, consequently squashing the chance of a big pickup.

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more: http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/cfb/4 ... ke-glennon