At 6 feet 6 and 234 pounds, Sudfeld is the prototypical size for an NFL quarterback. He also has an NFL arm and can make all the throws.

Here, Sudfeld drops back on the left hash marks. He has a wide receiver running a deep out route to his right. He takes his drop and a couple of hitch steps, waiting for his receiver to break towards the sideline. Sudfeld delivers the ball just as a rusher arrives and lands a hit. Still, Sudfeld manages to push the ball across the field to the opposite sideline and down the field to hit his receiver in stride for a completion.

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With that type of arm strength, Sudfeld is a natural deep-ball thrower. He wasn’t shy about taking deep shots in college. Sometimes they weren’t the best decisions, but often they were.

On this play, Sudfeld has a receiver to his left on a deep post route. He sells the play-action fake to draw the attention of the linebackers and, most importantly, the safeties. He then drops back and effortlessly unloads a perfectly placed pass that traveled about 40 yards in the air and hits the receiver in stride for a touchdown.

That was a relatively simple deep shot as the receiver was so open. But Sudfeld has shown he can be more complex in his deep throws and hit receivers in tighter coverage.

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This time, Sudfeld wants to get to the go route to his right. But instead of looking to his right straight off the snap, he keeps the deep safety in the middle of the field. He starts looking to his left, adding a pump fake to that side to try and get the safety to bite. He works his eyes back to the middle of the field to find the deep safety before finally working to his right. Again, he makes the deep ball look effortless, dropping it in over the shoulder of the receiver perfectly.

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His arm strength and deep ball ability are good traits to have as a developmental quarterback. Another thing that Jay Gruden said he liked about him was his awareness and mobility in the pocket.

Here, Michigan State brings six rushers on a blitz on third and 10. As Sudfeld reaches the top of his drop, he feels the running back losing his block in pass protection. Sudfeld does a good job keeping both hands on the ball, keeping it protected as he drops his shoulder past the rusher and steps up and out of the pocket. Importantly, he keeps his eyes down the field, allowing him to find an open receiver. He quickly resets his feet and gets rid of the ball, finding a receiver over the middle for a first down.

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Along with pocket awareness, Sudfeld also shows toughness. He’s willing to stand in the pocket and take a hit in order to deliver a ball and keep the chains moving.

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This time it’s Michigan that brings six blitzers on third and long. The score is close as the game enters the fourth quarter. Sudfeld knows he needs to complete the pass and move the chains to keep the offense on the field and the ball away from Michigan’s offense. At the top of his drop, Sudfeld feels the free rusher coming from his left. With no way to avoid it, he looks to his hot receiver running across the middle. He stands in the pocket and delivers the pass despite taking a big hit. He completes the pass and Indiana manages to pick up the first down.

All of these plays display the upside and the potential Sudfeld has. However, between these big plays are some very poor plays. At times he had a tendency to stare down targets. It wasn’t an every-play or even every-game thing. But occasionally he appeared to decide where he was going before the snap and would tip the throw.

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Here, Sudfeld wants to throw the curl route to his right. As he drops back, he immediately looks to his right, staring at the coverage. He then takes three hitch steps, climbing up the pocket, all while staring down the receiver and tipping his intentions to the defense. The defense is in zone and the corner reads the throw the entire way. Sudfeld was lucky not to be intercepted and have it returned for a touchdown.

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By far Sudfeld’s biggest problem was accuracy with ball placement. Far too often, Sudfeld threw a ball behind, over or short of the receiver. Here’s his first throw of the game against Duke:

This is a simple in-breaking route from the slot receiver. We’ve seen Sudfeld throw the ball beautifully 40 yards down the field, but here he throws short of a receiver less that half that distance.

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Here’s another example:

On fourth and three, Sudfeld looks to hit his slot receiver on a speed out. But like before, the ball hits the dirt in front of the receiver.

I believe this problem is because of his footwork. His footwork is inconsistent and I feel it’s the reason for most of his inconsistencies. If we go back to that previous play and look at his posture as he releases the ball:

As he’s releasing the ball, you can see his front foot is planted out in front of him and pointed towards the sideline instead of at his target. That means Sudfeld can’t generate much velocity from his lower half, meaning the throw is all upper body. With his front foot out in front and pointed in the wrong direction, he can’t efficiently transfer his weight over it to deliver the ball. To make up for that, his head and his chest tilt forward and drop towards the ground. As he releases the ball, his entire upper body is leaning forward, pointed towards the ground, dragging the ball down with him and causing the ball to fall short of its intended target.

Here’s a look at Tom Brady, to get a good comparison.

Brady is much more mechanically sound throwing a similar route. You can see his front foot is pointing towards his target and is not too far in front of him. That allows Brady to be more upright and transfer his weight over his front leg as he delivers the ball.

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The footwork allows Brady to complete the speed out for a touchdown, while Sudfeld’s footwork made his pass fall short and turned the ball over on downs. That will be the big challenge for Jay Gruden and his coaching staff as they look to develop Sudfeld. Clearly he has some solid traits worth developing, but his footwork needs a lot of work. In theory, that is correctable, but it will take a lot of reps in practice to get it right on a consistent basis. Washington will have to be patient with Sudfeld. But the coaches take the time to correct the footwork issues, Sudfeld could become a solid backup option down the road.

Mark Bullock is The Insider’s Outsider, sharing his Redskins impressions without the benefit of access to the team. For more, click here.