Austin Davis

I really like Austin Davis. A lot. But there are players you really like … who ultimately don’t have what it takes.

AD has already shown that he is an excellent guy to take over after a #1 goes down. Better than Clemens. That’s a given. Yoiu can play effective football with this guy.

But–remembering that he is young and green–can he be more than that? Can he be a mid-table or better starting QB?

I’m not sure about that, but I am optimistic. I think he is already better than perhaps 1/3 of the starting QBs in the league. As a starter! Not just a solid back up. For me, that raises his needle a couple of significant notches.

His strengths are important ones. We all know what they are: he reads defenses well, moves well, extends plays, makes tough throws under pressure from the DL and from the game situation.

I figure he will improve in those areas. Yes, he held onto the ball some yesterday. Well, it was start #3, and he will get better and better reading defenses. He doesn’t generally have trouble deciding to pull the trigger. I figure the capability he has already shown is top half of the league and is likely to get better.

The only real question I have is his arm. Is it strong enough to be consistently accurate. On some of his misses, you see him trying to loop a ball in there and it gets too high. Some of that is throwing to tall guys–Cook, Quick, Britt. But some may be a matter of arm strength. He needs a higher trajectory to get the ball there.

Consider that TD he threw to Quick off the back pedal. That was a looping throw. Good thing Quick was wide open. And consider how often he completes back shoulder balls. That’s a good tactic, sure. But is it partly because of arm strength? If DBs focus on taking the back shoulder away, will this take away a good deal of his effectiveness?

Not sure. And that’s the issue that will play out over time. He is already a decent starting QB who can give you plus performance in a good situation and gritty competitiveness under pressure.

If he can show that his arm can consistently make the throws needed to deal with an array of coverages and situations, he could be a top half starting QB. I see that as a real possibility.

But perhaps the best thing he could do to improve would be …

TO GET HIS DAMN RECEIVERS TO CATCH THE BLEEDING BALL!

Sorry, guys. You’ve come a long way. But the drops really hurt. We might have won BOTH the last 2 games without dropped passes by Cook and Pettis!

SunTzu_vs_Camus wrote:

I think Hill and Bradford were all throwing more of these deeper balls and more 50/50 jump balls as ordered from Fisher thru Schotty. We know Fisher wanted more big plays from the passing game last offseason.

Yes. I don;t know how many people see this. But that downfield game was part of their plan going back to the first OTA. And with Britt, Quick emerging, and Cook playing better, they can DO IT now. Just imagine when they get Austin mixed in more and get Bailey going. Kendricks too for that matter. The medium pass has re-appeared too, and I agree, it was the plan from the beginning.

But, since this thread is about Davis…it’s really valuable that he can do this. He may not have the top arm, but he has big hands (like Brees) and a high release point, so, he can take advantage of this stuff.

They had some of this with Bradford last year (games 5-7). Hill showed he could do this. Davis can do this. Clemens couldn’t.

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Jlowe22
Location: South Mississippi

I’ll be pulling for you guys now, as a Southern Miss and Austin Davis fan. I’m glad to see him finally get his shot, he was a beast at USM.

I didn’t watch all of his games, but the ones I did watch I wasn’t impressed with his arm strength on the deep ball. He was a bit of a dual threat, but that doesn’t mean much in C-USA I suppose. He was great in the pocket and knew how to win ball games, which I believe are traits that can transcend conference. He look really accurate on the short-intermediate type throws. As far as if he was better with seam routes, outside routes, etc, I can’t answer that as I didn’t break his play down enough to do so. I do know that Southern Miss ran a CRAP LOAD of plays from shotgun.

I don’t know if “gunslinger” is the right word for him, but against better competition he quite possibly could have been labeled as such.

He certainly put up big numbers, and for those that don’t know, broke or almost broke all of Favre’s passing records at USM.

zn wrote:

He was signed [ie. as a rookie] then cut by the Rams, then spent most of the 2012 season on Miami’s practice squad.

Poor Sam Farmer can’t get his facts right.

Heck all he had to do was read the wikipedia entry:

Davis went undrafted in the 2012 NFL Draft and signed a free agent deal with the St. Louis Rams. On August 30, 2013, Davis was cut by the Rams.

The Miami Dolphins signed Davis to their practice squad on September 10, 2013. Davis spent a very brief tenure in the Miami Dolphins organization, only to be cut and re-signed to the Rams a month or so later.

Davis re-signed with the Rams on October 22, 2013, after an injury to Sam Bradford.

49ers’ Jim Harbaugh a fan of Rams QB Austin Davis

By Paul Gutierrez | ESPN.com

http://espn.go.com/blog/san-francisco-49ers/post/_/id/9967/49ers-jim-harbaugh-a-fan-of-rams-qb-austin-davis

St. Louis Rams quarterback Austin Davis has an unlikely fan — San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.

Especially after Davis’ performance last week — he threw for 375 yards and three TDs on 29-of-49 passing against the Philadelphia Eagles — and despite the fact that Davis will be facing Harbaugh’s Niners on “Monday Night Football.”

“He’d be coming into this game with a lot of confidence I’m sure,” said Harbaugh, himself a 14-year veteran NFL quarterback. “The ball game he played against the Eagles and the fact that he’s gotten better and better every single week, you can see it. It was one of the rare times where I’ve watched coaches’ tape and been excited about the game.”

Davis brought the Rams back from a 34-7 deficit and had St. Louis within 34-28 with more than four minutes to go before eventually falling by that score.

“To watch them come back, sparks were flying,” Harbaugh said. “This was a quarterback that was making throws, an offense that was making plays. And then the last drive, they had a chance to win the game and I’m like, ‘Maybe they got the score wrong. Maybe the Rams really won this game,’ because he made a couple of throws in that drive there that were right on the money and gave his team the chance to win.

“That was a very interesting game to watch on tape … he’s got a knack of throwing the ball in traffic. He can have guys hanging on him, around him, and he’s able to get the ball out at the last second.”

He also did not throw an interception.

“[Davis was] playing with no conscience about throwing the ball down the field and deep, so we’re going to have to do a good job defending the deep ball,” Harbaugh said.

Davis was undrafted coming out of Southern Mississippi in 2012 and had not appeared in an NFL game until this season. Injuries to starter Sam Bradford and backup Shaun Hill opened the door for third-stringer Davis.

And no, Harbaugh was not intrigued by Davis heading into the 2012 draft.

“I wish I would’ve been more aware of him,” Harbaugh said. “He looks like a real nice prospect.”

Then was Harbaugh aware of Davis at all?

“Not that much, no,” Harbaugh said. “I am now, though.”

from off the net

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UMSLBlues12

Gruden comparing Austin Davis to Drew Brees

Gruden had an entire segment on it in the ESPN pre game.

Including the fact that they lick their hands a lot. Looks like ESPN is buying into the AD9 hype…

from off the net…trying to get all sortsa views

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tbux

Warner made an observation—if anyone knows what a QB is doing and not doing it is him. He didn’t bash Davis, but he said Davis does some things well, but doesn’t handle pressure well. The late pick 6 a perfect example of that. They need to practice more on teams blitzing and reading it and how to beat it. It will continue until we beat it routinely.

Ole Davis came through today, with a couple of improvisations that helped them win.

I don’t know if they can put the game on him and ask him to pass them to a win.

But, he can qb a team that plays some defense.

Now all they need is a team that plays some defense.

On today’s Breakfast With Bernie, the Post-Dispatch’s Bernie Miklasz talks about the improvement he saw from Austin Davis in the upset of the Seahawks and what it means for his future. (3:13)

http://www.rams-news.com/bernie-austin-davis-might-be-a-keeper-video/