Kyle Lauletta isn’t a quarterback who is going to wow you with his arm strength. At 6-foot-3 he’s tall in comparison to the rest of us mortals, but by NFL standards, he’s of average height. While Lauletta tested well at the scouting combine, his athleticism doesn’t exactly jump off the tape. And having played at Richmond, an FCS school, he hasn’t been able to prove himself on the national stage.

For all of those reasons, Lauletta isn’t projected as a first-round pick. But as NFL history has repeatedly proven, the traits that get quarterbacks drafted highly — size, height and athleticism — rarely, if ever, are the foundation of a great career.

Look at the best quarterbacks in the league today. Some of them are tall; others are short. Some have howitzers for an arm; others can barely throw it 50 yards downfield. Some are as likely to beat a defense with their legs as they are with their arms; others rarely leave the pocket. There is no such thing as a prototype for a great NFL quarterback, but the best do have a lot in common under the surface: They all process information quickly. They’re all accurate. And they’re masters at navigating the pocket.

While Lauletta may not check all of the boxes that excite pro scouts, he does have all the traits we find in great NFL passers and could very well end up being the best of this loaded class of quarterbacks when all is said and done.

Lauletta invited For The Win inside Richmond’s film room to break down five plays from a game against Sam Houston State. We’ve included video of our time with the future NFL quarterback throughout this article.

In the last 25 years, only three FCS quarterbacks have been drafted in the first round: Carson Wentz (North Dakota State, 2016), Joe Flacco (Delaware, 2008) and Steve McNair (Alcorn State, 1995). They all had one thing in common: They could throw the ball a mile.

Without an elite arm, quarterbacks from the lower levels of college football just don’t get picked in the first round — no matter what they put on tape. Jimmy Garoppolo, one of the NFL’s most promising (and now highest-paid) quarterbacks, produced first-round worthy tape but, according to one pre-draft scouting report “ not rip the deep out or drive the ball with high RPMs,” so he had to wait until pick No. 62 to hear his name called.

Lauletta has heard the same criticism, at least from media scouts, who have questioned his arm strength. The 23-year-old, who has met with all 32 teams during the pre-draft process, says he has yet to hear those same concerns from the people whose opinions actually matter.

“The ‘experts’ will bring up the arm strength stuff, but I haven’t heard that from NFL teams,” Lauletta told For The Win. “The one thing I’ve consistently heard is ‘You don’t have high-end arm strength, but you have enough arm strength to make it because you throw the ball accurately and with anticipation.’”

The tape backs that up. Lauletta might not be able to sling it 80 yards like Wyoming’s Josh Allen, but he has more than enough arm strength to make any throw you’ll find in an NFL playbook. Richmond’s offense certainly wasn’t limited by Lauletta’s supposed lack of arm strength. He was asked to throw plenty of out-breaking routes from the opposite hash, and did so with ease. And he didn’t lose any arm strength when throwing on the move, whether he was going to his right or left.

Of course arm strength also comes in handy when throwing into tighter windows at the next level, and while Lauletta doesn’t have an elite fast ball, he’s still proficient at throwing into tight windows thanks to a keen sense of timing.

“People look at these big framed quarterbacks who can throw the ball really far and really hard, and it definitely helps,” he said. “But the more you study quarterbacks and look at the position, if you throw the ball on time, you don’t necessarily need to throw the ball 75 yards to be an effective quarterback.”

Timing doesn’t get quarterbacks drafted in the first round. It doesn’t make highlight reels, either. But it’s undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of playing the quarterback position in the NFL, where windows close in an instant. If the ball doesn’t come out when it’s supposed to, the defense wins more often than not.

Lauletta clearly understands this. His drops are perfectly in sync with his receivers routes so he’s in position to release the ball as soon as his receiver comes out his break, giving defenders little time to react and break on the ball. If the ball is placed where it needs to be and gets out on time, arm strength isn’t much of a concern.

“Teams have made mistakes drafting these quarterbacks who have these big arms,” Lauletta said. “You look at a guy like JaMarcus Russell, they don’t pan out because they’re not accurate. If you’re accurate, as long as you can throw it far enough, you can be successful in the league for a long time.”

Processing information quickly is another key to throwing with good timing. That’s where Lauletta really shines in comparison to the other top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft. He can go from his primary read to second and third options in a matter of seconds, all while keeping his footwork intact. That’s high-level quarterbacking.

It also helps to have a vast knowledge of the game, and Lauletta does. He wouldn’t have survived at Richmond, where he played under four offensive coordinators in four years, if he wasn’t able to pick up a new offense in a hurry. The Spiders went from a traditional pro-style scheme in Lauletta’s first year as a starter to what he called a “hybrid between a spread and a pro-style” system in 2017.

That experience in a pro-style offense will serve Lauletta well at the next level. While most of his peers barely have any experience calling plays in the huddle, he was handling all the calls you see quarterbacks make at the line of scrimmage on Sundays.

“The first year I started, I declared the ‘Mike’ on every play,” he said. “And that was run or pass. I’d say 52 is the Mike, and that sets the protection, or we’re running a zone scheme and it’s who we’re running the double team to — I’m pointing out the center-guard combo. That’s pro stuff. That’s what teams do in the NFL.

“We also had longer play calls and huddled on every play. And some of the plays we called in the huddle were ‘double calls.’ So we’d have Blade Split Right Open Paper Alert Iron Right Y-sphere H-slant. That’s a run with an alert to pass. If there are eight defenders in the box, we’d alert to the pass.”

By his final season in Richmond, the offense had become more simplified. The team rarely huddled and there weren’t a lot of changes made at the line of scrimmage, but head coach Russ Huesman, who came over from Tennessee Chattanooga where he ran a pure spread offense, did give Lauletta some freedom to make adjustments before the snap.

In a game against James Madison, Richmond installed a package where Lauletta would go to the line, fake his cadence and pick from one of three plays — a man coverage beater, a quarters coverage beater and a Cover 2 beater — based on what he saw from the defense. College quarterbacks are rarely afforded that kind of autonomy, especially in a spread offense.

Lauletta used those pre-snap recognition skills to dominate at the Senior Bowl, where the rules limited what the defense could do.

“The rules were in favor of the offense. The defense could only play certain coverages: Cover 1, Cover 2 or Cover 3. And the Broncos staff didn’t play Cover 2 the whole game. In Cover 1, the guys were usually in press coverage and they’re head-up leverage. In Cover 3, the corners are farther off and lined up with outside leverage. So when I walked up to the line of scrimmage, I knew what coverage they were in every play.”

You give a guy like Lauletta the answers to the test beforehand and the defense doesn’t stand much of a chance. That was certainly the case in Mobile, Ala., where he threw for 198 yards and two touchdowns and took home the game’s MVP award.

That wasn’t just a one-off performance either. The FCS quarterback was the best passer in Senior Bowl practices, out-performing guys like Josh Allen and Baker Mayfield, according to Pro Football Focus’ practice reports. Of the 95 throws he made during practices, only eight were marked as inaccurate by PFF. Lauletta proved he can hang with the draft’s top quarterbacks.

“What set me apart was my ability to process the information quickly, understand the defense and where to go with the football and throwing it on time,” he said. “You can have the biggest arm in the world. You can be the No. 1 pick overall. But you can’t teach that. That’s just an innate quality that I’ve had, so I felt really comfortable at the Senior Bowl.”

A quarterback can be accurate and smart but if he gets rattled easily, it doesn’t matter. Pocket poise is one of the more underrated aspects of playing quarterback in the NFL, where time and space in the pocket is at a premium. Lauletta’s command of the pocket might be his biggest strength as a quarterback. Even against intense pressure, he keeps his eyes downfield and his feet in a position to throw.

For whatever reason, Lauletta’s tape didn’t generate a lot of hype before the pre-draft process, but that changed after his breakout performance at the Senior Bowl, which almost instantly transformed him from a Day 3 prospect to one who may end up going in the second round.

As guys like Tom Brady and Drew Brees have proven, it doesn’t matter where a quarterback goes in the draft. Smart, accurate passers who understand the nuances of the position will always get a shot in the NFL. Lauletta’s skill-set may not propel him to top of any team’s draft board, but it will serve him well during what should be a long, successful career for whichever team is smart enough to draft him.