Before the beginning of this season, UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley was part of a trio who we highlighted as the most important to watch at the position.
Hundley was widely considered the third best quarterback prospect in the country behind only Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, the other two quarterbacks we profiled at the time. Although Hundley had that reputation at the time, he was still significantly behind the other two players and he needed to have a strong season this year in order to solidify his status as a potential top draft prospect.
To this point in the year, Hundley has been inconsistent and proved incapable of elevating his teammates at this level. His performances have opened the door for other prospects such as Connor Cook or Everett Golson to surpass him on the totem pole process that is ranking NFL draft prospects.
Considering all of this, Hundley must have felt good when he came up big late against Colorado. UCLA took an early lead in the first half, but Colorado clawed their way back to a 31-31 scoreline by the end of the fourth quarter. After initially trading field goals in overtime, the UCLA defense held the Colorado offense to a field goal, allowing Hundley to run in a game-winning touchdown from eight yards out.
While the end of the game will have been full of relief for Hundley, it’s the first half that NFL scouts will be focusing on.
In the first half, the UCLA offense scored 24 points and Hundley threw one touchdown pass. That touchdown however, was a first read throw to a wide open receiver from a completely clean pocket. Hundley actually showed off a weak arm on this particular play as the ball looped uncomfortably high for the receiver despite him running a relatively short curl route. The receiver was able to make an impressive catch before turning downfield to run in the 20 yard score.
Now, this is a low degree of difficulty throw that Hundley struggled with. He avoided complete disaster by giving his receiver a chance, but he forced a difficult adjustment on a wide receiver who was wide open when Hundley wasn’t throwing under pressure. This isn’t the type of play that is expected of successful NFL quarterbacks.
While that play could maybe be marked off as a one-off if Hundley showed more ability throughout the rest of the game, that wasn’t the case in the first half.
In fact, this could be considered one of Hundley’s better throws down the field in the first half. While the offense scored 24 points, 14 of those came on long touchdown runs while the rest of the offense’s success was largely based on simple throws or running plays. The quarterback wasn’t the catalyst for success; instead he was missing opportunities that the offense around him was consistently creating for big plays down the field.
On this play, Hundley is given time to drop back into the pocket and survey the field. He stares down a receiver running a double move down the right sideline. Despite holding the ball, Hundley is still working in a huge amount of space when he begins his throwing motion. His receiver has created separation down the sideline, but Hundley’s pass glides a couple of feet above his receivers’ hand and lands out of bounds. The trajectory of the pass made it uncatchable for the receiver.
As the red line highlights, Hundley had a huge throwing window to put the ball through and space down the sideline to land it in. He simply missed the throw.
Not too long afterward, Hundley missed a wide open receiver down the other sideline. This pass would be considered even easier as his receiver wasn’t running at a full sprint and there wasn’t a defender in sight to even disrupt his thought process. The young quarterback isn’t throwing with anticipation and he’s not under pressure, which, again, should just be considered a missed throw. The kind of throw you would expect from middling college quarterbacks, not potential NFL starters.
Overthrowing receivers down the sideline and missing out on potential big plays to throw incompletions is one thing, but overthrowing receivers over the middle of the field can so easily lead to turnovers.
Each of these throws comes from the first quarter of the game and this is the worst of the lot. After surveying the field in the pocket without any pressure forcing him out of it, Hundley heaved the ball down the right seam. His intended target was well covered and his pass was badly overthrown. Fortunately for him, it was so badly overthrown that the defensive back never had a chance to run underneath it for what would have been a simple interception.
After missing open receivers from a completely clean pocket throughout the first quarter, Hundley saw some pressure in the second quarter that he didn’t react well to.
Hundley has time to work in the pocket, but he reacts to the penetration of his offensive line before it turns into legitimate pressure. He is floating backwards as soon as he sees the defensive linemen and ultimately throws the ball with no foot discipline. When trying to fit the ball into a well-covered receiver by the sideline who is nine yards downfield, this is exceptionally difficult to do. Predictably, Hundley’s pass floated harmlessly over the sideline and never went near his intended receiver.
To this point of the game, Hundley had done very little to suggest that he was an NFL draft prospect, never mind a potential first rounder. His team had largely carried him while getting the better of their opponents, before he caused another major setback at the end of the half by losing a fumble deep in his team’s territory.
Again, Hundley was given plenty of time in the pocket, but he didn’t have a wide open receiver downfield so he didn’t feel comfortable fitting the ball into a tight window or throwing someone open with anticipation. He dropped his eyes and attempted to scramble while not effectively securing the football. The ball was punched out from behind by one of the players who had initially been rushing the passer.
Right now, it appears that Hundley’s greatest attribute for the NFL game is his athleticism. As Tajh Boyd found out last season, unless you are a spectacular athlete, that alone isn’t enough to force an NFL team to keep you. Hundley doesn’t appear to be a spectacular athlete, but rather an above-average one.
Unless his play takes a dramatic swing over the second half of the season, it’s hard to argue that Hundley deserves to be a top draft pick next season. Unlike Winston or Mariota, he simply doesn’t have the skill set that affords him a greater margin for error with his performance.
