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Is Cam Ward the best QB we’ve had since Dorsey? Lance Roffers breaks down the film and numbers

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Brooklyndee said:
Did you watch Dawson previous to his time here? Did you watch much of Dana holgerson (the tree he comes from)?
He doesn't run a full air raid. Never has. He runs an offense with air raid principles. Well be just fine not everything reported is always accurate.
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Facts. It will not ever look like coach Arbuckles offense. Just enough to keep teams honest and that's fine.

I donr want it too look like Michigan or WSU but somewhere in between. Doing enough of both so we dont lose ourselves if a team forces our hand the other way.
 
Since there is some discussion of the Air Raid going on, figured I would repost this article from last week:

www.canesinsight.com

Football School: Does Miami really run an Air Raid?

Message boards are full of so-called experts who never played or coached the game at the high levels. I’m one of them. CanesInSight is blessed to have Mike Zuckerman, a ten-year college coaching veteran, take us to Football School. He will join the show regularly to provide insight on terms...
www.canesinsight.com www.canesinsight.com
 
DMoney said:
Nobody in the Canes community dives deeper into the film and advanced metrics than data scientist @Lance Roffers. He already wrote an in-depth article on Cam Ward for his “Upon Further Review” series, available here. On Tuesday, he joined the CanesInSight Podcast to discuss MIami’s star transfer QB, Cam Ward. Some of Lance’s quotes from the podcast are below:

His overall takeaway after reviewing Ward’s film and advanced stats: “I went in with a cluster of quarterbacks that I would take if I was Miami. I left my film review with Cam Ward thinking he was far and away better than the other individuals that you heard rumored for Miami. I started to see a clearer picture of why Mario really planted his flag on Cam Ward and endured the rollercoaster.”

“He's really a great fit for the Air Raid offense. Pre-snap, he processes very quickly. Excellent accuracy and arm strength. He also has the ability to threaten you deep. I felt like when you looked at the Will Howards, the DJ Uiagaleleis, some of these other individuals that were available, Cam Ward was definitely separating himself as the best fit for Miami.”

On what jumped out about Ward’s game: “His pre-snap processing where he's able to identify, ‘In this look, this is going to be my first read, this is going to be my second read,’ and then his ability to change that picture when the defense also changes it. That was something that really impressed me.”

“I haven't seen a Miami quarterback demonstrate the pre-snap IQ and ability to process the way that Ward has in many years. It could be all the way back to Dorsey, quite honestly. [Brad] Kaaya was good at that. I wouldn't say that he was elite at that. I feel like a lot of the throws were predetermined for Kaaya. I was really impressed Ward’s his ability to identify when a defense changed the picture.”

On Ward’s passing talent: “His release is elite. His arm strength's very good, but it's not something you've never seen before. It's not a Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes-type level. It's a very good arm, but his release is so quick, so compact, so versatile. Everything else for him plays up. Wouldn't change anything with his release at all. He has a natural ability to throw the football.”

“The pre-snap processing, again, is something that really impressed me. This person came from a Wing-T offense. This is not an individual who from 10 years old has been playing in a spread with a personal quarterback coach. For him to go from the Wing-T five years ago to what we see on tape with his ability to process, run Air Raid, stay on schedule with these short passes, but also threaten you deep is truly impressive. It actually leaves me to believe there's more on the bone to even develop a little bit further this year.”

“He's got to learn to trust that protection. If he trusts the protection at Miami, which you hope is going to be better than what he saw at Washington State, you could even see his game go to another level with the ability to threaten a defense in all areas. Every blade of grass on the field.”

On where Ward ranks as a prospect: “I really do believe that this is the best prospect at quarterback that Miami has had probably since the glory days. When you had what you called ‘Quarterback U’ and some of those guys getting drafted super high. The combination of arm strength, processing, accuracy, playmaking makes me understand why Mario planted his flag with Cam Ward.”

On Ward’s mobility: “He has some mobility, but really he wants to have his eyes downfield. He wants to move to create big plays, and sometimes to his detriment. There are several plays where he's bailing on the pocket and just holding the ball for five, six, seven seconds. I believe that he could unlock even more by taking some of those five, six, seven yard runs and getting out of bounds a little bit more instead of holding it.”

“He's probably a 4.8-type runner, which is solid speed for a quarterback. Where you're gonna really see his benefits in the red zone. He scored a lot of touchdowns with his legs (13 the past two years). Something that Miami struggled with last year was converting some of those low red zone type drives into touchdowns. You can use a Cam Ward, a 220-pound body type with strong legs, to get some of those touchdowns.”

On Ward’s tendency to drift backwards: “Those 14-16 yard losses may as well be turnovers because those are drive killers. Your offensive line is always taught to run a guy around the arc and push them deep. And you see Cam Ward trying to back up a lot, which is going right into where the rush is being pushed by the offensive line, rather than stepping up. There was more than one opportunity for him to step up. and either run, get four or five yards and slide, or just step up in the pocket and take a shot where he was still trying to bail on a pocket and get outside. So that's a big area for growth.

On Ward’s fumbles: "He does have small hands, but he also is loose with the ball. I'd love to see him do the two-hand drills in the pocket, understand quick movement, rip movements with the football when you have the ball like this, ripping away from the guy instead of holding it like this to where they can get to it quite as often."

On Ward’s fit with Miami’s personnel: "Cam is a perfect fit for what Miami is going to run in the screen game. For the wide short game, you need to have a strong arm. It might be a short throw from the line of scrimmage, but it's a long throw for the quarterback. It also needs to be quick because you have to get it to receiver to give them time to make a person miss. The initial defender is almost always unblocked, because it's two-on-two or two-on-three in every situation. You're not going to have an uncovered receiver out there, meaning you've got one blocker for two defenders on the initial man on those screens in almost all situations. Miami likes to try and get their center out there for that unblocked guy. But it's pretty rare that he's gonna have time to get out there before the defender has a chance to make a move. So a strong arm in that short, quick game that Miami loves to run."

“It’s also his pre-snap processing. If they do X, I do Y. That's something he excels at all over and over on tape.” (SEE EXAMPLE HERE)



“I watched multiple games of Cam Ward and saw him do that over and over. And Miami does that over and over in their offense. He's gonna love Xavier Restrepo with his ability to read those choice routes and be on the same page with a player who's reading leverage. If that defender does X, I do Y type of routes. He's gonna kill it on that.”

“The other thing that he does so well is his vertical shots. He really has great touch. He reads where a safety is. Is a safety inside hash, outside hash? Do I have leverage? Do I have press bail, press man? Do I have off quarters? All of those things. And his arm allows him to threaten defense.”

On Ward’s toughness: “He's not afraid to stand in the pocket. I went in with a little bit of bias, as quarterbacks who have a ton of fumbles and a ton of sacks taken tend to be a little bit softer. The reason for that is they don't like to get hit. They're just shelling up and dropping. Cam Ward was not that guy on tape at all. He took several shots where he stood in and delivered a ball."

Overall upside: “He should have much better pass protection than what he had at Washington State. And at Washington State, they really didn't have much of a run game at all. It was the Cam Ward Show. If you give him those things and allow him to reduce some of the rogue playmaking where he's throwing it into coverage, you've got a shot at a person who could go to New York for the Heisman ceremony this year. I think he's that good based on what I saw.”
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@DMoney @Lance Roffers

Bravo! Gentlemen, that was amazing. Incredible show and awesome content. @Lance Roffers Brother you are an absolute natural and I'm going to keep telling you this until my fingers fall off. You were born for this man. Go get with a college staff or an NFL team. They would be fools not to hire a man of your prodigious gifts and intellect. Lance, you are the best. You bring so much knowledge and information and you do it in a way that the layman understands. Go get paid!!!!!!

@DMoney The new daily CanesinSight Podcast has been a smashing success! Well done my friend. You and @Peter Ariz do a phenomenal job and its been great to have Pete back. You have the very best Miami Hurricanes site on the interwebz and it isn't even close. Nobody can touch what you are doing right now. Heck, even before the daily pod nobody could touch you! Fantastic job gentlemen!
 
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For this offense to reach its potential the running game needs to be complimentary to the passing game and not the other way around. We have a very average running back room full of guys who run 4.6. They’re fine for getting 4 or 5 yards but they can never break the big run even when given room. That’s fine if you’ve got a lead and you’re trying to run the clock out and put another team away. It’s counterproductive if you’re trying to score and get leads. Our best player is Cam Ward. He’s not a game manager. We don’t need to use the run to set up the pass for him to have success. We’d be best to probably lean on him as much as we can since he is a proven product. Our best opportunity to make big plays and score touchdowns is with him throwing to X, George, Horton, Jo Jo and Carr. We should use the passing game to soften up the defense and then punish them with our strong but slow run game. If we really want to maximize our talent we need to let our best players do what they do. I don’t think our staff is stupid enough to go through that hassle and spend all that money on Ward to make him hand off 40 times a game so hopefully it won’t be an issue.
 
DTP said:
For this offense to reach its potential the running game needs to be complimentary to the passing game and not the other way around. We have a very average running back room full of guys who run 4.6. They’re fine for getting 4 or 5 yards but they can never break the big run even when given room. That’s fine if you’ve got a lead and you’re trying to run the clock out and put another team away. It’s counterproductive if you’re trying to score and get leads. Our best player is Cam Ward. He’s not a game manager. We don’t need to use the run to set up the pass for him to have success. We’d be best to probably lean on him as much as we can since he is a proven product. Our best opportunity to make big plays and score touchdowns is with him throwing to X, George, Horton, Jo Jo and Carr. We should use the passing game to soften up the defense and then punish them with our strong but slow run game. If we really want to maximize our talent we need to let our best players do what they do. I don’t think our staff is stupid enough to go through that hassle and spend all that money on Ward to make him hand off 40 times a game so hopefully it won’t be an issue.
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Yea i have no concerns that mario/dawson will lrt cam be cam, **** the leash they had for tvd was longer than it should be so i have no doubt they will let him go.

My only concern is how we build an offense around him, u dont want every series to be solely depending on him i hope the run game can take some off his shoulders when teams gives us light boxes or drop 8 like they did last year
 
I might get killed but if cam could play multiple years here he probably would go down as one of our greatest players ever. I think he will for sure be the best since duke but since he’s at qb its a different level of impact.

We have a special talent on our team yall, i was saying before he came in that other thread the nfl would be stupid if they think guys like jj mccarthy or bo nix are better than him. He would have been a steal if those late draft projections were real
 
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I’m most worried about this season vs any season in the last 10 years because this is the best team we’ve had. Last year we had enough to win 9 games, maybe 10. But we know what happened at QB… this is a better roster, top to bottom with an ELITE @Lance Roffers certified dawg. Should be a playoff team (expanded to 12)
 
E1k said:
Yea i have no concerns that mario/dawson will lrt cam be cam, **** the leash they had for tvd was longer than it should be so i have no doubt they will let him go.

My only concern is how we build an offense around him, u dont want every series to be solely depending on him i hope the run game can take some off his shoulders when teams gives us light boxes or drop 8 like they did last year
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Obviously you don’t just stop running the ball. If a defense wants to play the pass the. Run it down their throats. I just don’t want a run to set up the pass type of offense. You pass to get the lead and you run to keep it.
 
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JHallCanes said:
It’s nostalgic to say Dorsey but this kid is significantly more talented than Dorsey
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No doubt about it, physically. But he is the best QB at Miami since.

Always the reason people dislike making comparisons or saying “since ____” is people can get hung up on them and dismiss a lot of the message.

We will see if Ward lives up to the hopes, but he’s got a chance.
 
JayCane20 said:
Be careful. I got assaulted for a week on here for saying something similar not that long ago.
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Dorsey was a great leader and a smart guy who played with a team full of all Americans and first round draft picks. He’d likely be the first person to admit he wasn’t physically as talented as a lot of other guys but he was the right guy for that particular team.
 
FrancisSawyer said:
@DMoney @Lance Roffers

Bravo! Gentlemen, that was amazing. Incredible show and awesome content. @Lance Roffers Brother you are an absolute natural and I'm going to keep telling you this until my fingers fall off. You were born for this man. Go get with a college staff or an NFL team. They would be fools not to hire a man of your prodigious gifts and intellect. Lance, you are the best. You bring so much knowledge and information and you do it in a way that the layman understands. Go get paid!!!!!!

@DMoney The new daily CanesinSight Podcast has been a smashing success! Well done my friend. You and @Peter Ariz do a phenomenal job and its been great to have Pete back. You have the very best Miami Hurricanes site on the interwebz and it isn't even close. Nobody can touch what you are doing right now. Heck, even before the daily pod nobody could touch you! Fantastic job gentlemen!
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What a kind thing to say. Thank you.
 
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