Round 3, Pick 76

Jacob Eason, QB, Washington

Height: 6-6

Weight: 231

Class: RS Junior

D.O.B.: 11/17/97

Statistical Profile: Eason began his career at Georgia, posting a mildly promising true freshman season in 2016. The next year a knee injury allowed Jake Fromm to jump Eason on the depth chart, and the former five-star recruit spent the rest of the season on the bench before transferring to Washington before the 2018 season. After redshirting a year, Eason finally returned to the field as a starter in 2019, throwing for over 3,000 yards, 23 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing over 64 percent of his passes.

Scouting Eason: The rap on Eason is almost a universally held belief – and nothing I saw on tape will make me play the contrarian card – that the dude is brutal under pressure. There are definitely times where you can fall in love with what he does from a clean pocket, but one free blitzer or a single one-on-one loss up front and the whole play is in jeopardy.

Against linebacker blitzes, Eason has to throw this in behind him to the crossing tight end. He’s wide open. Instead he pulls it down, loses his poise and gets strip-sacked. Disaster on what should have been a routine play.

That same lack of poise is a factor in Eason’s mechanics falling apart at times, too. Ordinarily a pretty crisp thrower of the football, Eason can fall off platform and sail throws he would normally drive, while also making some pretty questionable decisions. It’s like all aspects of his game just crumble to pieces when pressure arrives.

While Eason is completely averse to stepping up in the pocket or even standing his ground against pressure, he also invites pressure around the edge by getting too deep in the pocket, making life tougher for his tackles. It’s almost like he can only operate with a ton of space; not a great recipe for the NFL.

When he is afforded that space, Eason can do some nice things. He has a cannon for an arm and he can fit the ball into tight windows on a regular basis. There are no physical limitations to Eason’s game, as he can rip a throw to the boundary from the far hash without losing any zip on the ball. If he ever starts throwing with more anticipation, that trait combined with his arm strength will give him the ability to hit high degree of difficulty throws with regularity.

Little tough to tell from the GIF, but Eason actually shows a little nuance to his play here by slightly moving the underneath linebacker with his eyes to expand that middle of the field window to hit the dig route. Good stuff.

Although I like his willingness to give his receivers a chance to make plays, sometimes Eason trusts his arm too much and makes his decisions that he just probably shouldn’t.

You can almost see Eason say, “Ah, screw it” as he cocks his arm, sees the cornerback has leverage on the route the whole way and throws it anyway. Yeah, his receiver does a terrible job of gaining position and fighting for the football, but this isn’t open at all. Eason needs to do a better job of moving through progressions and not just hoping his first read opens up. Quicker decisions will be crucial for a quarterback who can’t hang in there under pressure.

Eason doesn’t miss the easy ones and has flashes of really good ball placement, but his deep ball is inconsistent, and given his arm strength it would be great if that were a stronger staple of his game. That’s basically the problem with Eason’s game, even his best traits only show up in flashes, and consistency is hard to come by.

He’s only started one season over the past three years, so there is definitely reason to expect Eason to keep growing to some extent at the next level. He’s decently accurate, has a great arm and has flashes of good decision-making, but I just don’t know how he can survive at the next level unless he magically becomes better under pressure. The NFL just isn’t a clean pocket league, and if Eason does become a starter at some point, it’ll only be a matter of time before he unravels.

Bucs Fit: I think a lot of people see Eason’s stature and strong arm and believe he’s the ideal quarterback for Bruce Arians’ offense. I’m not so sure. On one hand, Eason certainly possesses the raw traits that Arians’ gravitates toward, along with the occasional “screw it” mentality to test tight windows down the field.

But while Arians’ may see potential in Eason’s game, I’m not sure Tampa Bay would be the best place for Eason. There are elements that fit his skill set, but Eason is actually at his best getting the ball out quickly and working off of play-action.

That’s not how Arians’ system has typically run, as Eason the Buccaneer would likely be asked to take more deep drops and let routes develop down the field. If he had any improvisational ability or poise under pressure this might work, but because Eason struggles so mightily in these areas, teams that can generate pressure before longer-developing routes open up down the field could frazzle Eason completely.