‘In The Pocket’ will be a weekly NFL column that features a breakdown of a quarterback either in the NFL or entering the NFL. The first edition features University of Miami’s quarterback Brad Kaaya playing against Florida State University this past season. Kaaya is looked at as one of the top quarterbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Welcome to the first edition of In The Pocket!

On a weekly basis, In The Pocket will feature a single game breakdown of either a current NFL quarterback or a quarterback entering the NFL draft.

For the first edition, I breakdown University of Miami’s quarterback Brad Kaaya, who many view as one of the top quarterbacks in the 2017 NFL Draft. The breakdown will be based off of Kaaya’s best statistical game in 2015, which was against Florida State University.

The Numbers:

Kaaya’s Final Statistics: 29-49 (59.2%), 405 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions

Final Score: Miami (FL) 24 – Florida State 29

If you just looked at the box score, you would think Kaaya had a pretty impressive game. His completion percentage is a little lower than you would like to see, but the 405 yards for three touchdowns against FSU is legit. His team may have lost, but you wouldn’t think it was Kaaya’s fault.

However, In The Pocket isn’t just a look at the box score or the final score, it is an in-depth look at the actual game on film.

As my high school football coach Rob Melosky once said, “The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.” So, while the box score may look like Kaaya had an unbelievable game, the film tells the real story.

The Eye In The Sky (all gif’s courtesy Draft Breakdown and giphy.com):

Buckle up, here we go….

To start the game, Kaaya set the tone avoiding pressure and delivering a strike. It was a great way to start the game and its always good to gain confidence early against a great defense like FSU.

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Kaaya’s next two passes go incomplete, with one being dropped and the drive is over.

Down 7-0 with 8:37 left in the first quarter, Kaaya converts a 3rd and 6 on FSU’s 19, which may sound good but he leaves six points on the field.

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Kaaya does have edge pressure, but if he leads his receiver with a little touch and air under his throw, that’s an easy touchdown.

To make matters worse, the next three plays were fumble by Kaaya (he recovered his own fumble), a throw out of the back of the end zone and then he gets sacked on third down. The Hurricanes only walk away with three points, leaving four on the field because of the poor throw above.

On the next drive, with the Canes sitting on their own 10-yard line, Kaaya misses a big throw that would’ve been a gain of 20, if not more.

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He has a clean pocket, no pressure at all, so he sets and throws a very high and inaccurate ball. The pass isn’t one you want to see your quarterback make, especially when you’re pinned back in your own territory. The drive ends on 3rd and 14 when Kaaya displays awkward pocket presence and throws an incomplete pass.

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FSU only brings three on the play, giving Kaaya plenty of time. The pocket develops picture perfect, but instead of stepping up and looking to make a play; Kaaya throws an awkward, off-balance pass that should never be thrown when you’re backed up that far.

On the next drive, Kaaya does a good job of sustaining the drive. He starts out 2-2, with both completions moving the chains. After the second completion, on first down, Kaaya takes a shot down the field that results in a 58-yard touchdown.

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While the play does result in a touchdown, the actual mechanics of the play are ugly. He locks on his receiver the entire play, who is in man-to-man coverage with 2015 first round pick Jalen Ramsey in coverage. What Kaaya doesn’t see is the safety that is watching his eyes the entire play, who breaks on the ball and should have had an easy interception. The safety missed the pick, and luckily Kaaya is celebrating instead of trying to make a tackle. It is always good to get lucky, but those type of plays don’t always go your way and I view as negative instead of the positive result.

After the touchdown pass, Kaaya comes back starting in the Canes own territory. He throws a pass behind the line of scrimmage inaccurately, but the running back does a great job of adjusting and getting back to the line of scrimmage. He throws another screen pass, this time to his wide receiver who picks up three, setting up this 3rd and 7 pass.

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As you can see, once again Kaaya could’ve stepped up in the pocket, but he rushes the throw and it falls incomplete. If he steps up and stays calm, cool and collected he easily completes the pass for a first down.

On the following drive, Kaaya once again completes his first pass, but this time his second one is ugly. It was 3rd and 15 and if the ball is on the money it’s an easy first down.

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The Seminoles only rush three on the play, dropping eight, but Kaaya once again delivers an inaccurate pass. He made the correct read and his receiver was wide open, but the execution wasn’t there.

Kaaya starts out in the second half completing a pass down the field for a gain of 19 yards. That pass gets him into a rhythm early. He started to complete some passes and was putting together a great drive. He had a great throw on a third and six, on Ramsey, moving the chains and getting the ball to the 16.

It was all going great, but Kaaya seemed to get too comfortable.

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You can tell that he already decided where he was going with the ball pre-snap, but the only problem was he throws the ball right into an obvious Cover 2 coverage. Luckily (somehow) the All-American Ramsey drops the easy INT touchdown, but you can see just how poor of a play it was by Kaaya.

The Canes got lucky and kept the ball, but Kaaya’s miscue led to yet another poor read.

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As you can see, Kaaya predetermined where he was going with the ball again, which led to him missing a wide-open layup touchdown over the middle. The last time Kaaya missed an easy touchdown throw, it led to the Canes leaving four points on the field.

Luckily Kaaya was able to convert the 3rd and 10 with an impressive climb in the pocket, which allowed him to deliver a strike.

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After the impressive third down play by Kaaya, the Canes are stuffed on first and second down, but are able to score on a Kaaya touchdown pass.

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It is always good to score touchdowns, but like his first touchdown in the game, this one wasn’t a great throw. Kaaya has his running back open in the flat right off of the snap and gets it to him, a little later than I would have liked, but the pass is inaccurate. You see the running back adjust to the pass that was thrown behind him and take an unnecessary hit. If Kaaya throws that out in front of his running back, that’s an easy touchdown and no one gets hit. Luckily his running back adjusted well and still got into the end zone.

Later in the game, in the fourth quarter, down six, Kaaya makes a terrible throw that should’ve once again been intercepted for a touchdown by Ramsey (this one was a lot more difficult than the first one) but ends up as a completion.

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The play is just ugly and I know that Kaaya read the corner blitz well, but the pass itself is something you do not want to see. Luckily for the quarterback, he lives another day. Kaaya uses his extra life well and goes on to complete his next three passes, two of which went for first downs before his next incompletion.

After the incompletion, Kaaya delivers his best throw of the game.

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This is an absolute dime, but what I love more than the amazing throw is the pre-snap read. He see’s that the Seminoles are bringing pressure and are man-to-man. He knows that his receiver is one on one and this play could be big. Right off the snap, his receiver beats the defensive back and Kaaya drops the ball in perfectly for an easy touchdown. It was a big time throw and beautiful to watch. It was also a crucial moment in the game, putting the Canes in the lead 24-23.

FSU would go on to score a touchdown, but fail on their two-point conversion, putting the score to 29-24 with 2:45 left in the fourth quarter. Kaaya had a chance to win the game. He went 3-7 on the drive, with his best play on 3rd and 4.

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He let the defense bail and allowed his running back to pick up and easy first down. It was a good read and a good play by Kaaya. However, on the drive, three of his seven passes were tipped at the line of scrimmage, with the last one coming on 4th and 3.

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Kaaya was locked on his target, who was wide open, but the lineman watched Kaaya’s eyes and sealed the game for his team by sticking his big paw up. Even though Kaaya was locked, that wasn’t the worst part of this play. He had the entire middle of the field to throw the ball to, so all he had to do was put some touch on the ball and let his wide receiver run for a first down, but he ended up turning the ball over on downs and the game was over for the Canes.

Conclusion:

Kaaya was playing a really strong defense and his numbers were good. The biggest problem was that he was inconsistent the entire game, which led to leaving points on the field and getting lucky he didn’t give the defense 14 points. Kaaya’s third touchdown pass of the game was his best throw.

Throwing for 400 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions is great on paper, but the film shows the game Kaaya played against FSU was far from impressive. A lot of the mistakes he made are ones that will get him chewed up and spit out in the NFL.

He may be looked at as a top quarterback in the 2017 NFL Draft, but the eye in the sky against FSU shows that Kaaya is far from that.

And remember…

“The eye in the sky doesn’t lie.”