There has been tremendous debate about Kyle Trask among scouting types. No one doubts his arm but his athleticism has called his future into question. From my perspective, he’s worth the risk any time after the first round. Here is analysis from the great Lance Zierlein at NFL.com:
OverviewTrask clearly has the arm strength, touch and placement to wear out one-on-one coverage if he has good protection and above-average players around him, but he’s not going to elevate an offense with his talent alone. He’s very good at finding his throwing platform and can deliver deep throws with outstanding touch. He needs to improve his eye work to create more opportunities by moving safeties around. Trask is clearly a skilled passer, but it’s hard to find evidence of him being able to play chess at this point against what NFL defenses are likely to show him.
Strengths
- Prototypical size to stand tall and fire from the pocket
- Made substantial production gains across the board in 2020.
- Enabled team to open up game plan in 2020.
- Became the first FBS quarterback in 15 years to post three or more TD passes in nine consecutive games.
- Stepped up against Alabama in SEC Championship Game.
- Able to pump and reset against baiting coverage.
- Feels edge pressure and climbs to free space in pocket.
- Gets back into passing platform when moving outside the pocket.
- Arm strength to whip field-side deep outs with no issues.
- Tardy safeties will find a willing challenger over the top.
- Talented downfield passer with touch and accuracy.
- Can attack one-on-ones and place deep throw where it needs to go.
- Fairly accurate even when feet are not set.
Weaknesses
- Pocket setup is slower and labored.
- Footwork gets sloppy and bouncy inside pocket.
- Needs to do better at recalibrating optimal targets post-snap.
- Will miss blitz recognition and basic reads at times.
- Threw into bracketed coverage multiple times against LSU.
- Deliberate release will not tolerate slow reads through progressions.
- Below-average functional mobility to extend the play.
- Unlikely to improvise and beat defense if he’s not well-protected.
- Appeared to favor left knee, affecting follow-through.
- Runs targets into traffic and collisions with late-ball delivery.
