In The Pocket: 2017 NFL Draft Prospect Brady Gustafson vs. North Dakota State University
By Jeremy Klump
On this edition of In The Pocket, I break down Montana quarterback and 2017 NFL Draft prospect Brady Gustafson against North Dakota State in 2015. Gustafson has gained some major hype this offseason, and some think he is a legitimate NFL prospect.
Welcome back to In The Pocket!
This week, I breakdown University of Montana (FCS) quarterback Brady Gustafson against North Dakota State. This edition was by the request of NFL Spin Zone’s Chris Spooner:
Related Story: NFL Quarterback Power Rankings
Brady Gustafson?
— Chris Spooner (@SpoonfulofSport) June 23, 2016
If there is a quarterback in the NFL or a 2017 NFL Draft eligible quarterback that you would like me to break down on In The Pocket, just tweet me the players name and what game you would like me to analyze.
Gustafson is an interesting player to look at, mainly because Carson Wentz was an FCS quarterback, but was taken with the second overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. This has allowed Gustafson to gain some hype as we head into 2016, with Bleacher Report’s Brent Sobleski even writing an article titled, “Could Montana’s Brady Gustafson Be the Next Carson Wentz?”
Well, we are about to find out.
The Numbers:
- Gustafson’s final statistics: 30-55 (54.5%), 434 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception
- Final score: Montana 38 – North Dakota State 35
Gustafson played a solid game when you look at his numbers. This was Week 1, with both teams obviously sitting at 0-0. North Dakota State was coming off of winning the National Championship and was looked at as the best team in the country, ranked No. 1. I mentioned Wentz before, and that is who Gustafson went head-to-head with in this game. Wentz had 268 total yards and four touchdowns in the game. Montana was down 35-31, but scored a touchdown on 4th and goal with two seconds remaining to win the game. Gustafson played a great game on paper and got the win.
However, In The Pocket isn’t just a look at the box score or the final score, it is an in-depth look at the actual game on film.
As my high school football coach Rob Melosky once said, “The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.” So, while the box score may look like Gustafson played great and defeated Wentz’ team, the film tells the real story.
The Eye In The Sky (all gif’s courtesy Draft Breakdown and giphy.com):
One thing you notice right away on film is that Montana’s hurry up offense is controlled by the play-caller, which isn’t Gustafson. He looks to the sideline to get signals and the plays are called for him, meaning some of his reads are predetermined.
Gustafson starts off the game hitting a couple small throws, but turns the ball over on downs on a miscommunication on fourth down. It seemed to be the receivers fault to me and the play should’ve been a first down. On the next drive, Montana starts on their own 14 and drives down the field. After a couple of big plays, Gustafson threads the needle.
He stands tall in the pocket and delivers a beautiful pass to his receiver in-between two defenders. The pass gets his team in the red zone and a chance to score. On the next play, Gustafson does get his team into the end zone with a nice read.
The throw wasn’t as accurate as you would like on such an easy throw like that, but he made a good read and got his team six points.
After the touchdown drive, Montana starts their next drive in the red zone, but Gustafson misses a huge opportunity for six points. Look at the bottom receiver matched up with the cornerback (who is in the worst cornerback stance ever). Gustafson should have seen this mismatch and been able to change the play, but instead runs a screen that falls incomplete.
As you see, the receiver beats the corner right off the snap and that would’ve been an easy touchdown for the Griz. Instead, the ball was incomplete and they had to settle for a field goal, leaving four points on the field.
Gustafson makes up for his poor read on third down the next drive. On third and six, he makes a solid throw to move the sticks.
Throws like that are what you want to see by players who wish to play in the NFL. Great timing and arm strength showed there by Gustafson.
As the drive continues, the Griz get into a fourth and six situation. Pre-snap, Gustafson knows where he is going with the ball.
He looks off the safety for a split second and allows his receiver the space to catch his beautiful pass. It was a big-time thrown on fourth down and that is exactly what you want to see from your quarterback.
The pass got his team on the eight yard line, but Gustafson once again struggled in the red zone. The first play he has his running back wide open for a touchdown but throws the ball behind him.
If he throws that ball outside more, it gives his running back the chance to catch it and score. Then on third down, Gustafson makes a huge mistake.
With 10:27 left in the second quarter, Montana has three timeouts and is on the eight yard line on third and eight. Gustafson calls an audible, but his teammates are clearly not on the same page. You actually see his receivers throw their arms up in confusion, so Gustafson should have taken a timeout on such critical play in the game. Instead he snapped the ball and the confused players all did something different, leading to a field goal instead of a touchdown. Once again leaving four points on the field.
On the next possession, Gustafson makes a solid pre-snap read of a corner blitz, but he doesn’t finish the play.
He sees that the corner is coming and the corner gets picked up by the running back. He has plenty of time to let his wide receiver dominate the linebacker that tried to cover him because of the blitz, but he rushes the throw instead of stepping up in the pocket. If he stepped up and throws an accurate pass, his wide receiver is still running. Luckily the receiver makes a beautiful sideline catch and the play is still positive, though, it could have been huge.
After that gain of 26, the Griz and Gustafson stay aggressive.
The play call is awesome, I love aggressive play-callers, however Gustafson almost makes the coach look bad. He under throws the pass, giving the corner a chance for an interception. Luckily, Gustafson’s receiver bails him out again and makes a beautiful touchdown grab.
The touchdown made the score 21-19, so the Griz went for two to try and tie the game.
Gustafson lets the play develop nicely and finds a wide open target in the back of the end zone. It was nice to see the Griz tie the game, but Gustafson once again didn’t put the ball right on the money. It was an easy throw, but he almost made it an incompletion by throwing the ball so low. His receiver bailed him out, again.
As the game progressed, Gustafson started to show more of his accuracy problems.
On fourth down, with only 1:58 to go before halftime (why did the Griz coach decide to go for it!?) Gustafson needs to complete this pass. He needs to put the ball right on his target instead of putting that much air on it. It would have been first down and kept the drive alive, instead of giving NDSU the ball on Montana’s side of the field with a chance to take the lead (which they did with a touchdown before halftime).
The Griz’ first drive of the second half resulted in nothing, but the second drive had some fireworks.
Gustafson’s play action sucks the safety in and he makes a beautiful throw (while taking a hit) to his receiver for a 62-yard touchdown. These are the kind of throws you want to see, especially when you are trailing in a big game. They give your team momentum and life.
However, Gustafson gets rid of that momentum on the next drive.
He has locked on his receivers before, but this one was bad. I like to use the word “yuck” when scouting players and this play fits that word perfectly. Not only did he lock on his target, he threw a terrible pass that was easily intercepted by the linebacker. It was almost like the linebacker was doing a pass coverage drill in practice, that’s how easy Gustafson made it.
The game progressed with neither team doing much. The score is 35-31, with Montana trailing NDSU, but they have the ball with 1:38 left to go in regulation.
Gustafson starts the drive 2-5, with the fifth pass below.
He escapes the early pressure well, but his eyes down the field aren’t as great as you would wish in this situation. He tries to bomb the ball, but he had a chance for a big completion to one of the receivers in the middle of the field, especially the one right by the center logo. Instead the pass falls incomplete.
After starting 2-5, Gustafson goes 1-3 on his next three passes (3-8). His eighth pass almost ended the game…
Gustafson makes a terrible decision and almost blows the game by throwing an interception. Luckily the linebacker drops the pass, but plays like that aren’t what you want to see in crucial situations.
He may have played poorly on the last drive of the game, but Gustafson hit the throw that mattered the most on that drive.
With 27 seconds left, fourth and 10 and the game on the line; Gustafson puts touch on his pass and completes the biggest play of the game. This was a big-time throw against the No. 1 team in the nation on what could’ve been their final play. This is money and puts a big smile on your face, especially considering he was playing so poorly on this drive to begin with.
He completes a slant on the next play to get his team on the one-yard line. Montana fails to score on the first three plays, setting up a fourth and goal from the one-yard line with only six-seconds left. They punch the ball in and upset NDSU and Wentz.
Conclusion:
Gustafson started the game off well, especially for Week 1 against the defending National Champions. However, he began to play very inconsistent throughout the game. He would make a throw that would light your eyes up in excitement and then make three throws that were confusing to watch.
He ended the game with solid numbers and completed his most important pass. However, if he made some pretty easy throws throughout the game, they would have blown NDSU out, or at least won easily, and his numbers would have been ridiculously good. Playing at the FCS level, you need to show consistency at the quarterback position because it only gets harder in the NFL. His accuracy is a big question mark in my eyes and he needs to improve immensely in 2016.
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So, after watching Gustafson’s games against NDSU, the film says that he is not the next Carson Wentz.
And remember…
“The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.”