Draft Profile: USC Quarterback Caleb Williams
Breaking down USC QB Caleb Williams to see what makes him the top QB prospect in this draft class
With the Commanders coaching staff now set, it’s time to start looking ahead at how to build up the roster. No position is more important than quarterback and the Commanders own the second overall pick of the draft, giving them a great opportunity to land their franchise quarterback of the future. USC quarterback Caleb Williams is widely considered the top quarterback prospect in this draft, so I thought I’d kick off the draft evaluation process by taking a closer look at his game.
Williams has a lot of positive traits to his game but the things that stand out immediately when watching him is his arm strength, his accuracy and his touch. Arm strength is often vastly overrated when it comes to draft prospects, but while it’s far from the most important factor, it sure is nice to have. Williams has a truly elite arm to make throws from any platform to any part of the field, but he also does it with great accuracy and the right touch.
These clips show good examples of those three traits I mentioned: arm, accuracy and touch. The first play of the clip is simply Williams showing off his arm strength. USC asks him to roll out to his right with two hook routes waiting for him and a double move on the back side. Williams begins to roll to his right and gains depth, getting back to the USC 15 yard line. From there, he pulls up and decides to take the shot to the double move on the back side of the play. He delivers a ball the best part of 70 yards down the field and manages to hit the receiver perfectly in stride for a huge touchdown. It doesn’t really get much better than that.
On the second play of the clip, we have a good example of the type of accuracy and ball placement Williams is capable of. USC aligns three receivers to the right of the formation to try and isolate a single receiver to the left. That receiver runs a fade down near the goal line. As Williams snaps the ball, he decides he’d rather work to his one-on-one matchup instead of trying to sort out the coverage situation over the three receiver side. The problem for Williams is that the isolated receiver is well covered. The cornerback reads the fade and does his best to get on top of it as soon as possible. Williams doesn’t panic and simply adjusts his throw to go to the receivers back shoulder, understanding the leverage the corner has on top of the fade. By going to the receivers back shoulder, he can use the receivers body to shield the ball from the corner. The throw comes with outstanding anticipation, with Williams releasing the ball before the receiver has even crossed the five yard line. Despite that, he’s able to put it in the perfect spot for the receiver to pivot away from the coverage and secure the catch in the end zone for a touchdown.
The third and final play of the clip shows the touch and velocity control Williams has. On this play, Williams has a vertical clear out from the outside receiver to the right with the slot receiver running a speed out into the vacated space. Williams could have potentially thrown that speed out, but he didn’t like it and came back across the middle to his tight end on the deep over route. The end zone replay angle is the best angle to watch this throw. As he comes back to his left, he could easily decide to try and drive the ball right at his tight end in the first window between two zone dropping linebackers, he certainly has the arm to make that throw. But instead, he understands the better option would be to wait a tick and deliver a throw into the second window behind the linebacker.
Watch the linebacker in coverage, he clearly thinks that throw is going to be driven at the tight end and opens his hips to that side of the field. But as he does that, Williams shows great touch and control by delivering the throw behind the linebacker and allowing the tight end to run onto the ball and make the catch in the middle of the field between the safeties with an opportunity for additional yards after the catch.
The arm, accuracy and touch are all there for Williams, which gives him a strong foundation of tools to be developed further in the NFL. The conversation around Caleb Williams is always based on his Patrick Mahomes-esc ability to scramble around and go off-script to create explosive plays, and I’ll certainly get onto that because it’s a big part of his game both positively and negatively, but I wanted to emphasize first that the foundational tools are all there for Williams. Those are the things that enable him to be successful in various situations. Another one of those foundational tools is footwork. Something that often gets overlooked for Williams is how good his footwork is. He plays with a consistently strong, wide base and his feet are never panicked. Because of that, he’s able to move around the pocket smoothly and is always in a position to make the throw when he needs to.
On this play, USC are looking to create an opportunity for an explosive play off of play-action, with two deep crossing routes from either side of the field. As Williams pulls the ball from the running back as part of the play-action fake, he immediately feels pressure coming from his left side. He begins to slide to his right but keeps his feet underneath him. As he slides, he keeps his eyes downfield looking for his receivers and trusts his feel of the pocket to help him manage the rush in the meantime. He feels pressure coming off the right side, so he calmly and securely climbs the pocket. As he climbs, you can see that strong, wide base underneath him, giving himself a platform to deliver a throw. As soon as he finds a receiver running free, he’s able to make the throw and delivers an accurate pass for an explosive play.
That strong base and movement within the pocket is consistent throughout every game I watched of Williams and while it’s not necessarily something you’ll hear about in every profile you’ll read about Williams, it’s one of his biggest strengths. It gives him such a strong platform to do all the crazy things he’s capable of doing, but also just making the routine plays.
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