Spotlight on Andre' Woodson

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1659594715544116800.post-51058008875429457902007-10-21T07:17:00.000-06:002007-10-21T07:30:12.904-06:00Spotlight on Andre' Woodson<a href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_Ddfc28jTSx8/RxtTM8_DysI/AAAAAAAAASY/b6S1sFlBQVM/s1600-h/Andre+Woodson+small.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123780483058223810" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_Ddfc28jTSx8/RxtTM8_DysI/AAAAAAAAASY/b6S1sFlBQVM/s320/Andre+Woodson+small.jpg" border="0" /></a> By Guest Blogger: Daryl Breault Brian Brohm will soon know exactly how Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart and Aaron Rodgers have all felt come draft night. All three of those elite college quarterbacks watched another young passer emerge during their senior years and snatch high draft selections, not to mention millions of dollars, away from them. At least Leinart still went in the Top-10; Quinn and Rodgers plummeted all the way down the late first round. Andre Woodson will be the one who steals the glory away from Brohm, the talented Louisville QB who has been the consensus #1 pick for a year and a half now. Brohm may even see Boston College’s Matt Ryan get selected before him now that Louisville’s season has come apart. Woodson is not a finished product, but his ceiling is incredible. If Woodson reaches his full potential in the pros, he will be a franchise QB for many years, of this I’m certain. Woodson emerged in 2006, his junior campaign, by leading the Wildcats to a 7-5 record and a berth in the Music City Bowl against Clemson. Woodson was phenomenal in leading the Wildcats to 28-20 win as he threw for 299 yards and 3 TD. It was the Wildcats best season since the Tim Couch-lead teams of 1996-’99. The emerging talent finished the campaign with 31/7 TD/INT ratio and 3515 yards. The young Wildcats struggled against some of the nations elite teams, namely a 59-28 loss to Louisville to start the season and a 49-0 slaughter at the hands of LSU. Georgia gave him troubles with their superior front-4, but the Wildcats still won 24-20. In 2007, Woodson and the Wildcats have emerged as one the best teams in the country. They upset Louisville in a comeback, 40-34 victory that went down to the wire and was the beginning of the end for Louisville. Woodson led the Wildcats to a 5-0 start by throwing for 16 TD over that span and not tossing his first INT of the season until 3:30 into the 3rd quarter of the fifth game against Florida Atlantic. That INT snapped an NCAA-record streak of 325 consecutive passes without an INT, the streak dating back to 1:04 left to go in the 2nd quarter of the Wildcats game against Georgia on November 4th, 2006. That 8 full games and two half games, and the Wildcats had an 8-1 record over that span. With 21 TD in 8 games this season, Woodson now has 60 passing TD in his career. He is on pass for 36 this season, which would give him 75 total for his career. If he finishes with a passer rating above 110 this year, it will be his 4th straight season with such a number. He currently is at 149.9, the maximum. Woodson will certainly go down as one of the most productive college QB’s of all time. Woodson has an amazing arm, leaving no doubt about the caliber of his gun, that’s for sure. That is just one of his NFL-caliber strengths. He has elite size at 6-5’ 230lbs. One of the things that stands out when you watch Woodson is his posture in the pocket and his throwing motion. He holds the ball real high when he drops back to pass, nearly touching his chin, making it difficult for blindside rushers to cause the fumble. His delivery is very compact and fast, his arm moves in a blink and he gets his entire body into it. He is so strong that he can get away with just using his upper body, but he does an excellent job of setting his feet getting into his motion. He has great velocity on his passes, throws a tight spiral, and gets a very smooth arc on longer passes. He can throw bullets 40-yards deep through coverage and he has great faith in arm. The Wildcat offensive line has been much improved this season and Woodson is afforded much time to throw out of the shotgun, which helps to pad his stats. Woodson is not scared of the pressure and takes some Byron Leftwich-esque hits in the pocket because he holds the ball too long sometimes in an effort to make a play. He has good pocket awareness in spite of this, and buys time with his feet much like Payton Manning can by sliding and getting rid of the ball quickly on short passes and screens. Woodson’s character cannot be understated either. He is a team-leader and has the practice habits that all coaches demand. Woodson has great football acumen and works hard in the film room. He has a great rapport with a talented trio of big play receivers in Keenan Burton, Steven Johnson and Dicky Lyons. Woodson spreads the ball around evenly to all three, keeping any ego in check. The intangibles Woodson possesses will make him a great NFL player. One of the biggest knocks on Woodson will be the system he plays in as he passes out of the shotgun on nearly 90% of his attempts. Woodson may need some time to work on getting accustomed to taking snaps from center. This issue usually gets overblown come draft time, and the success of Ben Roethlisberger and Alex Smith among other QB prospects has dampened much of this concern among most scouts. Woodson is technically sound enough to overcome this with a little work. He will need to work on dropping back in 3 and 5 step drops. Woodson is very good at going through his progressions and checking down to a back or tight end, but will have to work on getting the ball out faster against NFL defenses. He is guilty of holding the ball too long sometimes, trusting that his receivers will get open and leaving his offensive line to have to block for far too long, resulting in sacks. Woodson is also not very mobile, he will never be mistaken for Donovan McNabb, and is strictly a pure pocket passer. With experience, Woodson will learn when to throw the ball away and when to force the issue. Woodson does see his accuracy waver the longer he has to throw, but having a pro QB coach to help tighten up his mechanics will improve that. Many of Woodson’s flaws are fixable with better coaching at the next level. He is one of the best QB prospects to come around in a long time and is far superior to JaMarcus Russell. Looking back on things, the Raiders would have been better off with Josh McCown and Daunte Culpepper, drafting Calvin Johnson, and waiting until this year to draft a QB. The 2008 draft boasts an incredibly strong group of senior quarterbacks, and Andre Woodson will be the first one selected (in my opinion). Strengths: Size, Arm, Intelligence, ToughnessWeaknesses- Mobility, Deep Accuracy, System NFL Comparison: Alex Smith, San Francisco<div class="blogger-post-footer"><script expr:src='"http://feeds.feedburner.com/~s/blogspot/wWtb?i=" + data:post.url' type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Robert Bryanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10777260350457344494noreply@blogger.com