Rookie Review: Comparing the TDs and Turnovers in 2014 of Blake Bortles, Teddy Bridgewater, and Derek Carr

Best Throws

1-10-NYG 30 (Q3, 1:58) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass deep right to 11-M.Lee for 30 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Here the Jaguars run a very strange formation with two offensive linemen split wide, presumably to block on a potential screen play. The Giants’ defense is visibly confused by this. The Jaguars don’t actually run the play to that side of the field, and instead Marqise Lee just outruns the opposing CB. This is a great throw from Bortles. He leads Lee past the CB, the throw is just inside the boundary, and the deep safety is completely taken out of the play. This is the throw you would have liked to have seen to Robinson against the Dolphins and to Hurns on the first TD against the Bengals. Great play by Bortles.

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2-4-HOU 4 (Q1, 3:48) 5-B.Bortles pass short right to 88-A.Hurns for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

On a bootleg, Bortles’ underneath option, the fullback, was taken out by a defender knocking him to the ground. This leaves no fewer than five Texans defenders between Bortles and his WR Hurns. Bortles does a very good job of extending the play for as long as possible, and Hurns fights hard to get free. Eventually, a small window opens and Bortles rockets the ball in for the TD catch. While not a particularly long pass, it’s an excellent play by the pair of rookies.

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3-8-MIA 21 (Q2, 11:40) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep right to 15-G.Jennings for 21 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Jennings runs a corner route, going underneath the CB. Bridgewater and Jennings are clearly in sync, because the rookie releases the ball before Jennings leaves his break and it’s directly on target. This is not an easy throw to make because it needs to be threaded in between the CB and the sideline, and it’s executed perfectly. A nice catch by Jennings seals the TD.

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1-10-MIN 44 (Q1, 6:01) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep right to 12-Ch.Johnson for 56 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

First let’s take a look at the DL. The Jets run a stunt between their two DTs, and the LDE rushes to the inside. While the stunt is picked up, the DE isn’t. Bridgewater does a nice job climbing up in the pocket to avoid the pressure. Now look at Johnson. Around the first down marker, he executes a double move that gets the corner to bite. From there, he gets about four yards of separation on the CB which is a mile in the NFL. Bridgewater makes a very nice throw and hits Johnson in stride for a long TD.

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3-3-DEN 5 (Q2, 11:25) (Shotgun) 4-D.Carr pass short middle to 12-B.Butler for 5 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Carr’s facing pressure from both sides and right up the middle. Butler is his second or third read. Butler himself is running a skinny post that Bradley Roby has well defended. There really is only one place Carr can put the ball for it to be a catch, and the throw is perfect. Butler makes the catch falling out of the endzone and the Raiders put up points.

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4-1-SEA 1 (Q3, 3:04) (Shotgun) 4-D.Carr pass short right to 81-M.Rivera for 1 yard, TOUCHDOWN.

This is a very difficult throw to make. First, there’s a defender in Carr’s face right away so he has to fade away from the throw. The Seahawks’ defense does mess up, as four defenders go after the underneath route and no one follows Rivera, but Sherman recovers and makes the throw even more difficult. Carr lobs the ball up in the right place and Rivera goes up and makes the catch. Good play by both players.

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Worst Throws

3-4-JAC 26 (Q2, 3:07)(Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass short left intended for 16-D.Robinson INTERCEPTED by 39-T.Gipson at JAC 34. 39-T.Gipson to JAC 33 for 1 yard (16-D.Robinson).

This is bad on multiple levels. First, Bortles completely stares down the route, and Gipson breaks on it early. Secondly, he throws while backpedaling, which is just a terrible idea. The throw has no power on it and Gipson gets there for his second pick of the game.

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1-10-CIN 18 (Q4, 10:04) (Shotgun) 5-B.Bortles pass deep right to 88-A.Hurns for 18 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Yes, I chose a play that was a TD as one of Bortles’ worst throws. This is a terrible decision and a bad throw by Bortles and he got totally bailed out by Hurns. Hurns is bracketed by two defenders. He should not throw this football. And if he’s going to throw the football, he shouldn’t be throwing it directly at the CB. Hurns makes a spectacular play to jump the pass like a DB. It’s a great play on his part. I don’t know what Bortles was thinking.

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2-6-MIN 24 (Q2, 3:06) 5-T.Bridgewater pass short right intended for 15-G.Jennings INTERCEPTED by 23-D.Slay at MIN 34. 23-D.Slay to MIN 32 for 2 yards (15-G.Jennings).

Jennings is running an out route, and actually gets in really good position along the sideline. Bridgewater’s throw is just behind him. You need to throw out routes toward the sideline and with zip ont he pass. Bridgewater did neither on this throw. What should have been an easy first down turned into a really good scoring opportunity for the Lions. I should mention that Slay did make a very nice play to catch this ball.

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1-10-DET 15 (Q1, 7:42) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep middle intended for 84-C.Patterson INTERCEPTED by 27-G.Quin at DET -2. 27-G.Quin to DET 18 for 20 yards (31-J.McKinnon).

Detroit is playing with single-high safety coverage. The route combination between Patterson and Jennings is supposed to force the deep safety (Quin) to choose to cover one of the two, and Bridgewater can hit the other for the TD. I don’t know if Bridgewater trusted his arm too much or he just failed to look Quin off, but he telegraphed the pass to Patterson and Quin (who was moving that direction at the snap) had an easy job of picking the ball off. I hate this decision. Jennings is such an obvious choice on this play. Quin’s movement dictates that. Seriously, a high school QB should have been able to make that read on the safety. Hitting Jennings for a TD would require a very precise throw, but he’s clearly the correct choice in this scenario (and Bridgewater, at least the version of him later in the season was money on the kind of throw he would need to make to complete it to Jennings). I have no idea why he chose to throw it at Patterson.

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3-2-OAK 40 (Q2, 3:37) (Shotgun) 4-D.Carr pass short middle intended for 81-M.Rivera INTERCEPTED by 29-B.Roby at DEN 47. 29-B.Roby to DEN 47 for no gain (81-M.Rivera).

The pocket is collapsing around Carr but that’s no excuse for this throw. It’s just a terrible decision. Rivera has no chance on his dig route because the throw is right at Roby.

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4-5-OAK 47 (Q4, :39) (Shotgun) 4-D.Carr pass deep right intended for 18-A.Holmes INTERCEPTED by 20-J.Bush at DEN 36. 20-J.Bush to DEN 41 for 5 yards (83-S.Simonson).

This is a garbage time throw on 4th down, so it doesn’t matter and it’s no worse than an incomplete pass. It’s still a terrible decision by Carr, because he gets flustered by phantom pressure (he actually creates pressure by running towards a defender) and totally misses a wide open receiver at the bottom of the screen, instead opting to throw to the double-covered Andre Holmes.

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While each rookie QB did some things well, there were also things the rookies each need to work on.

From looking at these plays, I think Blake Bortles has the furthest to go. I love the aggressiveness he showed in his rookie season, throwing the ball downfield often. However, you’d like to see that tempered with success in the short game, which didn’t happen. I thought he definitely progressed in terms of ball placement as his rookie year went on, but there are a number of things he still needs to work on. First and foremost is his footwork, which was downright atrocious at times. Secondly, he needs to do a better job of making smart decisions rather than just aggressive ones, because there were a number of times where his aggression got the better of him. There were also times where he telegraphed his throws, which he will need to cut back on.

For Teddy Bridgewater, I love his ball placement. He consistently shows the ability to drop passes in to his receivers on a dime. A second thing I think is great is his ability to handle pressure. There were a few plays I covered where it rattled him and caused an interception, but he also responded strongly to pressure and threw a number of TDs under duress. The third big positive for me was his decision making. I covered a very bad decision earlier on this page, but I think he displayed more consistently good decision making on these plays than either Carr or Bortles did, and his decision making was impressive, especially for a rookie. As for negatives, the biggest one for me is arm strength. That’s not to say I don’t think Teddy has the arm to make every NFL throw, but he’s inconsistent with it. There are a number of plays (particularly on out routes, which are some of the most tasking in terms of arm strength) where he should be throwing on a rope and instead the ball ends up in the hands of the defender because there wasn’t enough power behind it. And, although it wasn’t entirely shown in the subset of plays I covered, deep ball accuracy is another area where I think Teddy needs to significantly improve his game.

For Derek Carr, I really liked his deep ball when he threw it. One thing I think he has a knack for is throwing 50/50 balls to his receiver. Obviously on those plays the receiver ultimately has to go up and win the catch, but the QB can help out tremendously and Carr appears to make those plays easier on his receivers. I also have to commend Carr on what he was able to do without appreciable support for the run game (as evidence by the Raiders only having two rushing TDs inside the 10 yard line). He consistently put all of the physical tools you need to succeed in the NFL on display, and I’d put him ahead of Bridgewater and Bortles in that category. On the flip side, however, he made his fair share of rookie mistakes in the mental side of the game. There were a number of times where he tried to force passes that simply weren’t there. I think another big issue for him was with setting protections. He let pressure affect him, and there were quite a few plays (especially early in the season) where he allowed an unblocked rusher straight at him. As he progresses past his rookie season, look for these kinks in his mental game to be ironed out. If they aren’t, he might have a problem becoming a consistently successful QB.