QB accuracy inconsistencies - looking beyond the 'footwork' Feb 14, 2015, 11:11pm 
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports Last year, when I was watching Teddy Bridgewater and evaluating him as a potential Bucs QB, I noticed that he had a catapult type action in his throwing motion on occasion. I couldn't really explain it at the time because I didn't educate myself on throwing mechanics that thoroughly. I used to call it 'flinging it', and thought that it was a quick, strong action that was effective. Well, it is to an extent. Some QB's use this motion to generate more strength that they do not necessarily posses in their regular throwing motion to get the ball further or quicker down field. (On the flip side of lacking arm strength, some rely on their strength and 'muscle' through a wind up, disregarding their poor mechanics. And some just never learned that this may be something they could work on to improve accuracy.) Bridgewater was a very accurate passer to short and intermediate routes, but struggled to hit deep passes consistently in college, and this has remained an issue in his rookie year in the NFL. Looking at the pictures below, you can see that there is a slight issue in the angles at which he draws the ball back and transitions to his delivery. It might not look obvious because it is very subtle. In these instances, he brings the ball down really low, just below shoulder level, and inside of his throwing shoulder. Almost drawing the ball to the back of the shoulder blade. The downside of this motion is loss of control of the trajectory of the ball when following through, often resulting in underthrown or overthrown passes. This is an aspect of the throwing motion I found common in some QB's that struggle with accuracy as depth increases. 
Here is an illustrated picture I stole from Google which shows a pretty ideal drawback alignment. Notice the angles of the arm and spacing of the ball in relation to the shoulder. Not too low, not too close, and not too far inside. Now, most QB's will drop the ball lower while torquing their hips and torso to generate power and adjust for the trajectory of the throw, but they won't drop it low AND bring it close to and inside of their throwing shoulder (other than last second panicked adjustments to throwing lanes). The transition from the "L" position to the "zero" position is crucial in how effective the bio-mechanics involved in the throwing motion will be (which I will not get that technically into in this post). 
While doing research, I looked at video and images of some of the top passers in the NFL. It was uncommon to find the issue Bridgewater displayed in Brady, Rodgers, Brees and Luck. (Manning has begun to display it more due to the loss of strength from his neck injury - and his deep accuracy has suffered noticeably). Tom Brady didn't normally display this poor technique in college although there were questions about his arm strength coming out. He still remains a technically sound QB and has improved his arm strength. 
Here are some other QB's that have struggled with inconsistent accuracy throughout their careers and have displayed this similar mechanical issue to Bridgewater. Other issues certainly factor in, but I was pretty amazed that this issue was common in most of them.Geno Smith is one of the worst and most consistent with it. It's not something that happens on occasion, it is his throwing motion. 
Tim Tebow has displayed poor mechanics throughout his career. He focused on compacting his delivery coming out of college, but reverted to his old ways very quickly and never looked back. He relies on muscling through his throws. 
Michael Vick has always been touted with a strong arm and relies on his athleticism (to a fault). He just seems to disregard this as a possible factor in his improvement. 
Christian Ponder... there's just no hope. He needs to improve on more than just mechanics. 
(This one's not bad, but you can see the tendency to let the ball get there.) 
Here's where it get's really interesting and may have some bearing on the Bucs. Marcus Mariota had this ineffable question about his accuracy that reminded me of Bridgewater last year which led me to research this further. He has some of the same accuracy traits Bridgewater displayed - short to intermediate is good, but deeper throws are sometimes head scratching. He also displayed a similar drawback tendency at times that Bridgewater and others who struggle with accuracy posses. These photos below show just how similar Mariota's drawback can be to others mentioned above. 
And yes, since it is draft season I have to compare Mariota to Winston for a second. The photos below are the worst I could find of Winston's drawback. Notice that his mechanics are not even close to those above, and that in the last two photos he is under severe pressure, but still maintains his technical discipline in terms of arm and ball positioning. 
Now, if this is really a flaw in Mariota's game, can it be corrected? Sure. Aaron Rodgers did the same thing in college, but hasn't shown it regularly in the NFL and he has been considered the leagues top QB year-in and year-out. He also spent 3 years on the bench to develop, though. 
...But there's a natural tendency to revert to old ways sometimes. Will he be good enough to overcome that by then, like Rodgers?
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