
How would you build the best Missouri quarterback from the ground up?
Missouri has a long line of players who have excelled at their respective positions and have individual traits that help make them stand out. You know, like Drew Lock’s arm strength or the athletic ability and quick twitch of a guy like Sheldon Richardson.
Which is a good starting point for this question: How would you build your ideal player? We’ll start this week with Quarterback.
Quarterback
The makings of the best quarterbacks are broken down to these categories:
- Arm Strength
- Accuracy
- Decision Making
- Ability to Extend Plays
Arm Strength: Drew Lock, 2015-2018
This was a layup.
Few players have had a trait as elite as Drew Lock’s arm strength during his time at Missouri. He could (and still can) toss the ball in an effortless manner, and get it 60 to 70 yards down the field. Especially when Josh Heupel was the Offensive Coordinator, they took a lot of shots downfield and gave him a chance to showcase that part of his game.
Here’s an example of him flicking the ball 60 yards while getting blasted on his follow through:
Lock had a lot of natural arm talent that had potential to jump out at any point, and his arm strength was a big part of that.
Decision Making & Accuracy: Chase Daniel, 2005-2008
A winner in two categories!
Daniel was my choice in the decision making category for a couple reasons. He took care of the ball relative to the amount of times he put it in the air. 1,609 attempts and only 41 career interceptions. No quarterbacks before or after him had seasons where they threw the ball 500+ times, and they all had interception rates higher relative to their passing attempts.
From an accuracy standpoint, there’s no real argument for any other player. He holds the school record for completion percentage in a season, as well as in a career. Daniel is also ranked sixth in Big 12 history in completion percentage (68%), coming in right behind names like Baker Mayfield, Graham Harrell and Colt McCoy.
Admittedly, Daniel had some really good talent at his skill positions, as well as an offense that was at its peak before the spread became more popular. Still, it’s hard to look back and see very many passes that were off the mark. Daniel had very smooth mechanics with a repeatable motion, so you rarely saw any BAD misses.
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Photo by G. N. Lowrance/Getty Images
Extending Plays: Kelly Bryant, 2018
He wasn’t here for a very long time, but there is no doubting that Kelly Bryant was a really talented player when he was healthy at Missouri. A big part of that came from his ability to use his legs; not always to run but also to extend plays and create offense.
Sometimes, it was electrifying:
Other times…. Not so much:
Bryant’s time at Missouri maybe didn’t go the way everyone wanted it to, but he had an electricity to him when everything was right. He was genuinely fun to watch and brought something that we hadn’t seen from a Missouri quarterback for a while.
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