Jacob Eason

Background: Eason’s father, Tony, played wide receiver for Notre Dame in 1985 and 1986. He nicknamed him “Skinny”, not because of his body structure, but because when his son was younger, he accidentally skinned the top of his bald while giving him a haircut. This is also why his Twitter name is “@SkinnyQB10”. At the start to his youth football career, Eason’s father made him play offensive line on purpose. He already knew how talented his son’s arm was, but he wanted him to have a full understanding of the duties of the individuals that were responsible for protecting him. As he became older, his talent was undeniable and now he was wise enough to understand protections and other positions outside of quarterback.

Eason was one of the most highly anticipated freshman ever at Lake Stevens High School (WA). Unfortunately his first season ended after four games due to a broken wrist. He ended the year with 458 passing yards and four touchdowns. Following rehab, he would come back with a revenge and finish his career with 9,813 career passing yards, 102 touchdowns to only 18 interceptions. Being named as the 2015 Gatorade National Player of the Year helped him earn the status of being the top ranked signal-caller in the country and he elected to sign with Georgia.

His career in Athens started quickly as he started in 12-of-13 games as a true freshman – recording 2,430 yards, 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Despite opening the 2017 season as the starter, he’d suffer a setback after suffering a sprained knee in the season opener against Appalachian State. He would only appear in five more games after that point due to the emergence of Jake Fromm and afterwards opted to transfer to Washington, where he sat out the entirety of the 2018 season to fulfill NCAA transfer rules. Starting 13 games for the Huskies in 2019, Eason finished throwing for 3,132 yards with 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions. 

Scheme Fit: Air Coryell / Vertical

Round Projection: Early-to-Mid 2nd-Round

Positives (+)

Play-Action Rhythm: Whether out of the offset shotgun or operating from under-center, Eason shows to have plenty of comfort coming off of persuasive play action fakes prior to latching onto reading concepts. He does a great job of selling the action and then snapping his head around to reread coverages. Eason seems to be more comfortable when defenses are persuaded by lots of pre-snap action.  

Downfield Anticipatory Throws: Most often seen on deeper throws down the field. Eason shows great awareness with throwing to imaginary areas of where targets are supposed to be. He doesn’t wait for receivers to come wide open downfield. Instead, he has the innate ability of using his knowledge and natural feel of estimating where they will end up. It’s a beautiful sight to watch the laces and white paint spin on the ball when he’s able to connect.

Unafraid Risk Taker/Arm Confidence: Eason has the confidence levels to try to throw a football through a coin slot. There’s zero hesitancy with attempting throws into cramped throwing windows. He has plenty of juice to make throws at all levels of the field. Eason rarely ever tries to guide the ball into spots. He puts an emphasis on getting it from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible. To him, condensed windows seem to be as wide as the ocean even though they are really the exact opposite.

Negatives (–)

Arm Overcompensation: Often times, Eason has over the top confidence in his arm, which results in getting him into trouble because he completely ignores the lower body portion of the throwing process. When doing this, his base/feet are erratic, which ends up in an inconsistent hit/miss rate with his throws. Most passes are fastballs even when targets are short distances away from the launch point. Understanding and having the awareness of when to tone down ball speeds will be needed. Everything is primarily a fastball at 100-mph.

Sacrificial Mechanics: Uberly strong arm leads to a lot of lower body repercussions. He has more than enough “oomph” on passes to get them to intended targets based solely off of his arm and core strength. As a result, there will be plenty of unorthodox body positions prior to passes being thrown. To avoid incoming hits, there will be glimpses of falling away, poor footwork, and bad decision-making. When throwing to the left side, he often falls completely off of his throwing platform.

Seeing the Entire Picture: Poor eye discipline leads to putting intended targets into disadvantageous situations. Locking onto a single target in hopes of them coming open is a constant problem and leaves him oblivious to underneath threats. Speed through progressions and simply knowing when to proceed to the next option are areas that will need to be coached into him. 

Projection: With just over two full seasons of experience as a full-time starter, Eason shows positive signs of growth, but it also involved lots of up and down play. While his peaks are ultra-intriguing, there’s a huge mix of bad plays littered in as well. Right now, he’s more of a thrower than a pitcher – meaning that he wants everything to be fastball instead of switching up his pitches to compensate for the certain types of necessities and for who he’s throwing to.

His back and forth dilemma with consistency will result in him always facing questions of whether or not he can take the next step in his development. His arm strength and baseline traits will help him eventually become a starter, but it ultimately will come down to his decision making and if he can hone in on the turnovers. If able to do that, he could eventually turn into a starter.

Updated: 1/27/20