Written by Jason Askew

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One of my goals for the offseason was to study the tapes closely and try to figure out why 2^nd year QB Colt McCoy struggled with his accuracy. I wanted to find a glaring flaw with his mechanics or maybe some type of other smoking gun that would explain why a QB who played in a tough conference in college and still managed to complete 77% of his passes during his junior year and 71% his senior year can’t reach the 60% mark in the pros.

Before I get into what I saw and the conclusion I made, I want to let all the Robert Griffith III fans out there know that this article has nothing to do with my thoughts on Colt McCoy’s long term future with the team and I have no intentions of giving McCoy an endorsement or a death sentence. I simply wanted to take the approach of analyzing his play with the intentions of trying figure out how he can be a better QB in the future.

Let’s start with the obvious when it comes to the raw completion percentage of Colt McCoy. I think most people are aware and understand that the Browns were at the top of the league in dropped passes and Colt’s percentage would have been higher if the Browns didn’t drop so many balls. I will counter that by saying Colt’s ball placement in many cases didn’t help his cause and should be considered part of the drop-party problem.

After watching the season again it appeared early on that McCoy was struggling quite a bit with his footwork when dropping back from under center. He was also rushing and anxious to get rid of the ball when his back foot planted and therefore showed signs of being unbalanced. His upper body and lower body were not in sync which will naturally lead to some inaccurate throws.

That being said, most of the mechanical issues I saw on tape were pretty much cleared up by the end of the first quarter of games. After the first quarter of the season, I really only saw a handful of times where mechanics or footwork seemed to be the root cause of inaccurate throws so I began to look into other reasons why he wasn’t placing the ball very well.

First let’s talk about what I mean when I say inaccurate throw, because some people still use the mindset that if a WR is able to get his hands on it he should catch it, when in reality that isn’t true in the NFL.

In the NFL, with the type of athletes that play in the secondary and LB core, it is critical to put the ball in the correct spot. There are many variables that go into a successful throw and catch and every variable effects the chance of getting a completion. When it comes to accuracy you are talking about where the ball hits the WR in relationship to where the defenders are.

For example it Ben Watson is lined up next to the RT and runs 6 yards and does and out pattern….turns his head to look for the ball and the ball is thrown towards the inside where he has to stop his momentum and open his hips while reaching for the ball, the ball can hit his hands, but it is a much more difficult catch than if he could continue his forward momentum and reach out and grab the ball. Not only is the catch harder for the receiver but if the defender is inside, the receiver now has to fend off a defender or catch it and maintain it through the contact that wouldn’t have been there with a better throw.

Colt McCoy put a lot of balls in positions where they hit a potential receiver’s hands, but he put the ball in spots that made the catch harder because of body positioning and defender angles.

This is where a ton of young QBs in the NFL fail miserably because they can’t make the adjustment from college where they had a bigger margin for error. In the NFL a QB has to be more precise with his throws because the coverage is tighter and therefore he needs to do his part in making the catch as easy as possible, or face low completion percentages and ultimately a role as a backup.

So, if what I saw was right and his mechanics in general were sound, we will move on to some of the other issues that could be affecting his accuracy. Timing is something that certainly will effect ball placement, especially with the west coast offense.

Whenever you use 3 step drops in a passing game it is critical that the WR and QB be in sync because everyone, including the offensive line, is expecting the ball to come out when that back foot of the third step hits. And if the ball isn’t released then it can and will cause some placement issues. So variables that affect timing like no offseason and not throwing to the same receivers will effect accuracy. We know that the Browns were facing these issues coming into the season and this is one area where management failed the Browns this year.

The Browns had no veteran receivers in their group to show kids them the ropes, so the blame for all of the throws that can be put in this category should be shared by the front office. But it doesn’t let the coaches or players have a free pass. There were other teams in the league who were dealing with no offseason while switching systems and running the WCO. San Francisco and Cincinnati are two teams that come to mind who were dealing with similar situations and both of their QBs were better than Colt McCoy.

The next thing I want to talk about that affected  McCoy may actually be the smoking gun. Yahoo sports did a piece on McCoy that talked about how he was treated last year by Eric Mangini’s staff and it got me to thinking about McCoy’s mental state.

The article talked about how offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was constantly harassing McCoy and making him uncomfortable. I imagine they were trying to see how he responded when stressed because he was a player who was considered to be coddled and pampered growing up: Long story short, Colt played for his dad in high school and he was also said to be babied by player friendly Mack Brown while he was at Texas.

For me this explains a lot when you look at the tape and see sound mechanics but inaccurate throws. I don’t care about the coddling but I’m talking more from a comfort and confidence standpoint.

For a player who grew up watching his dad coach a team and probably had been learning that offense of his team since grade school then went to Texas and redshirted (giving him time to fully understand every nuance of that offense while also getting to see an all-American QB run the offense)….and then go through a situation where he was given a crash course in training camp and expected to run an offense efficiently probably crushed his confidence.

I am not saying that Colt McCoy is some weak-minded individual but for a perfectionist like McCoy, to not know the ins and outs of an offense before hand and to have a feeling of not being in control is probably extremely traumatic. Maybe if he had the laid back temperament of Derek Anderson needing that high comfort level wouldn’t be so important but McCoy is about as opposite as you get from having the same mentality or temperament that Anderson has, so he was “off” all season.

Playing the QB position is much like being a good jump shooter in basketball….Confidence is imperative and the only way you get confidence is to see the ball go in the hoop. Your mechanics could be solid as a rock but if you don’t have confidence the shot is going in those shots seem to find every way around the hoop but not in it. Playing QB has some of those same principles involved. Everything can look good but if you’re second guessing yourself or the least bit unsure your ‘shot’ is just going to be slightly “off”.

I think this is exactly what Colt McCoy went through in 2011….I mean think about it. For a perfectionist who has been in control for virtually his whole career, what could have been more stressful and bothersome than the season that he just went through. Even in his rookie year he probably had a higher comfort level than this year.

In his rookie year he barely got any first team reps in camp he was watching how the veterans did things and learned what was expected. He drove to work every day with the starting QB and basically picked his brain the whole time. He watched two veterans run the offense for the first half of the year then came in and had a much better idea of what to do than he had this year.

For those who say Seneca Wallace knew the offense and Colt could use him  as a reference I would say, “Yeah, right…” Seneca is a solid backup and you can call him a lot of things but ‘mentor’ is something I have never and will never expect anyone to call him.

For those who say he had a playbook and had the Camp Colt sessions I simply say ‘so what?’ Who in those sessions ran this offense before and knew exactly what was to be expected and, furthermore, players need coached….period. Sure they got together and ran some routes but I would even argue the sessions could have even hurt more than helped because I bet players were running routes at incorrect depths and they probably didn’t play the same positions that they practiced either. Not to mention you don’t get timing by running routes against air unless you are simulating “off” coverage which is assuming a lot.

There were a lot of factors in the season Colt McCoy and the Browns offense had including the running game, WR experience and ability, coaching, and mistakes but as far as Colt McCoy individually….I think this season was a perfect storm in terms of variables that set him up to have a rocky year. But in my opinion two things spearheaded his accuracy issues and those were comfort and confidence.

With the Browns perched at the top of the draft they look like they could be in position to pull the trigger on a QB with elite talent so McCoy may not get a chance to redeem himself. But if he does, I think having a higher comfort level will give him the confidence and accuracy he needs to lead the offense much better than he did this year….Of course, it probably can’t get a whole lot worse so that isn’t saying much. Maybe 2012 will be the year Colt gets his groove back but only time will tell if he will get a chance to show us.