Miller Moss Went Undrafted

Note who said that about Maiava early on.  People were talking about him being so athletic and wanting him to run.

I said  if you look how gangly he is and how he moves you can see why he was a 3 star talent.

his best hope is to develop as a our pocket passer but his decision making has been his weakness all along.  Can’t be Peyton manning if you’re stooooopid.

so his problem coming into usc and now is that he makes bad decisions and either panics or thinks he can thread a needle and makes a bad throw.  Resulting in 11 picks.  No bueno.   Or on the flip side he should only throw to open space like Caleb did.  No tight windows.  But that requires you take off.  Buy time.  Occasionally take off downfield.  And he looks like a scared giraffe when he does that.

so I like the guy but he either needs to become a better athlete and not throw into tight windows. meaning it’s not there takeoff and make that decision much sooner

or he needs to make decisions, much quicker and get rid of the ball or quickly check down to safer options in his progression  meaning quicker decision-making

if he does n either. then the USC offensive line is going to need to be spectacular all season and his wide receivers and tight ends are going to need to be A+

expecting both of those groups to win the vast majority of their battles against Oregon, Washington, Ohio State, Indiana, and Penn State is a really tough ask. so I think we need to see measured improvement in him in one of those two areas  I just don’t see how magically a 6 foot 422-year-old guy suddenly becomes nimble and athletic. You really are or you aren’t  and I guess with enough film study your decision-making and risk avoidance can be polished but again I don’t think you magically become something you aren’t

my hope is that Lincoln Riley‘s genius and his system covers up a lot of that and I really don’t know what that means on draft day. he’s 6 foot four, which the NFL likes. But he’s got a funny side arm 3/4 delivery which makes his passes really easy to block at 6 foot four   and the NFL doesn’t like that  and the NFL has no patience for guys who can’t move, but hold onto the ball too long  he is not even close to being what the NFL considers quick or elusive  he’s just an average big quarterback in terms of his athleticism  nothing to move the needle  which for the NFL means does he have an incredibly strong arm and tremendous accuracy? Yes to the former no to the latter  does he read defenses incredibly well adjusted with audible at the line go through his progressions make good decisions and quick decision decisions? At this point I would say no to all of the above in terms of the NFL and their standards

one other challenge is that I believe the 2027 drafted general and with quarterbacks in particular is going to be extremely deep so he may find himself pushed down on the depth chart in  the numbers game

IMO, if Maiava and SC do well, Maiava will be a first rounder.  He has a quick release and can make all the throws.  It’s the mental part of his game that needs improvement but it improved over his first games when he replaced Moss by leaps and bounds this last year.  He still made some horrible decisions like the utterly incomprehensible IT in the Michigan game.  If Riley can again improve Maiava’s game like he did the previous year, Maiava will be in great demand in the NFL.  One great attribute of Maiava is his size.  He is not as likely to be injured like a Dante Moore framed QB.