With all due respect to Pro Football Focus, yes, Kyle Trask is an elite SEC quarterback
I read Pro Football Focus consistently and respect the fine folks over there.
For the 6 seasons that I’ve been working for this company, I’ve used them as a resource. I’ve reached out to their analysts to clarify a grade and break down a draft prospect. I’ve interviewed them for stories and podcast purposes, as well. It opened my eyes to things like how Jaycee Horn had only allowed 2 touchdowns in 1,426 career snaps entering 2020 or that Drake Jackson had only allowed 1 sack in 974 pass-block snaps entering 2020. With all the resources that we have in 2020, I’m glad that there’s a publication like Pro Football Focus that breaks down every player from every game.
But no, I don’t agree with PFF’s continued takedown of Kyle Trask. At all.
If you’re unfamiliar with what I’m talking about, you likely missed PFF’s story titled “Treash: Why Florida’s Kyle Trask is not an elite SEC quarterback.” Mind you, this came after PFF ranked Trask as the No. 66 FBS quarterback at the end of the 2019 season.
That’s right. The 2019 season that saw Trask produce 29 touchdowns in 10.5 games and complete 60% of his passes in all but 1 game he started for a New Year’s 6 bowl champion was worthy of a middle-of-the-pack end of season ranking. In case you were wondering, there was no mention of Florida’s poor offensive line that Trask had to deal with.
Why was PFF so low on Trask then? Well, as they put it back in January, “Trask launched just 9 big-time throws compared to his 22 turnover-worthy passes, a mark that certainly isn’t pleasing on the eyes.”
So one would assume that the 2020 critique of him is more of the same, right? Nope. As PFF’s Anthony Treash even admitted, those have been areas of improvement:
“Last year, Trask had the 4th-worst big-time throw to turnover-worthy play differential in the FBS, at -13 (9 to 22). Through 3 games this season, Trask has nearly matched his big-time throw total from last year (8) and is on pace to cut his turnover-worthy play rate in half.”
Also, PFF had Trask as the No. 3 downfield passer in FBS after his first 2 games. Just sayin’.
Treash wrote that we cannot get consumed by the box score when it comes to Trask. Throwing for 996 yards, 14 touchdown passes and 1 interception with a 72% completion percentage and 9.7 yards per attempt isn’t what it appears, Treash argued. After all, Treash pointed out, Dan Mullen is incredibly good at scheming and Trask’s pass-catching targets have been fantastic without his help. Duh. Any quarterback can throw for at least 4 touchdowns, 9 yards per attempt and complete 71% of his passes in 3 games vs. SEC competition, right?
Plus, Trask faced Ole Miss, and in case you haven’t watched any Ole Miss games this year, well, let’s just say that defense is a special level of awful. According to Treash, we should throw out that game for Trask because that Ole Miss defense can skew things.
The irony is that Trask is ranked behind Feleipe Franks in Pro Football Focus’ ranking of SEC quarterbacks. Who did Franks just face and have 1 touchdown against? Ole Miss. The other irony is that PFF did a 2021 mock draft immediately after Trask played Ole Miss — it was done by PFF’s Mike Renner — and it had him going No. 15 overall to the Las Vegas Raiders.
But sure, let’s just take away that 1/3 of the season for Trask.
Here’s what Treash is really hung up on — he believes Mullen and Florida’s pass-catchers are making Trask looking significantly better than he is:
“On throws of 9 yards or fewer downfield this season, Florida’s receiving unit has averaged the most yards after the catch per reception (8.7) and have turned 28% of such catches into an explosive play of 15 or more yards — 10 percentage points higher than any other SEC team. And Trask has generated a 130.4 passer rating on these throws, which also leads the SEC.”
PFF cited that last year, Trask threw to receivers with a step of separation on 41% of his throws. That number is up to 55.5% this year, which suggests what we already knew. Mullen is an excellent schemer and Florida’s pass-catchers are pretty darn good at getting open.
The problem is that according to PFF, Trask is dead last in the SEC in terms of positively-graded throw percentage on explosive pass plays. In other words, PFF’s system argues that Florida isn’t making big plays because of Trask, but rather because what the receivers are doing.
This play here that Treash used was his closing argument. Florida fans remember it well because Kadarius Toney put on a nasty double move, caught Trask’s pass and then ran through 5 South Carolina defenders en route to the end zone:
“Kyle Trask has 996 passing yards and 14 touchdowns through three games and Florida has one of the best offenses in the country. How is he not your highest-graded QB?” pic.twitter.com/i3ssguHDre
— Anthony Treash (@PFF_Anthony) October 16, 2020
Treash, whether he realizes it or not, picked a bad example. Yes, Toney is an absurd human being. This is more likely to go on his highlight reel than Trask’s. Obviously.
But while Toney’s moves in the open field were the highlight, why are we discounting what Trask did to get him the ball in stride?
I watch that play and I see Trask recognize that he has front-side pressure coming his way and if he wants to target anyone, he needs to create some space to get off a clean throw. Trask also correctly spots that he has a spy middle linebacker who is going to take off for him as soon as the threat of a run appears.
Not only does Trask dissect both dangers, he also steps into a throw coming across the left side of his body and hits Toney perfectly in stride. If Trask makes Toney come back to the ball at all, he doesn’t hit the second level with a head of steam.
To recap, Trask bought time to allow Toney to make that absurd double move, he was willing to take on a shot from middle linebacker barreling down on him and he delivered an on-target throw while moving to the left side of his body.
Call me crazy, but that’s the sign of a pretty darn good quarterback.
If you’re going to argue that Trask is average, I suppose that’s your business. I see someone who has immensely improved his footwork in the pocket (PFF had Trask as the No. 2 graded FBS QB outside of the pocket after his first 2 games) and is delivering on-target throws to his ridiculously talented pass-catchers. Maybe Trask doesn’t get the top grade for throwing what appears to be a jump ball to Kyle Pitts in double coverage. I get that. Pitts does the heavy lifting.
But there’s a certain rapport that a quarterback needs to have with his pass-catchers to trust them to make plays. Watch Florida for 5 minutes and that rapport couldn’t be more obvious. Watch someone like Jake Fromm for 5 minutes last year and you’d see that lack of rapport with his pass-catchers couldn’t be more obvious.
I don’t care about what PFF says about Trask’s EPA (expected points added). You don’t complete 68% of your passes and record a 40-8 touchdown-interception ratio in your career as an SEC quarterback by being average. I’m sorry if that’s too much “lazy box score” analysis.
I, too, have watched every game that Trask has played. I’ve watched that offense soar to new heights with him. That’s why Franks is at Arkansas. That’s why Emory Jones still can’t get a start in Year 3 at Florida. That’s why the offense has averaged 41 points in its last 5 games even though it didn’t even run for 100 yards in 3 of those games.
If you have questions about Trask as an NFL prospect because you don’t think he has the arm strength or that you wonder how he’s going to look once he doesn’t have Mullen dialing up plays, sure. And if you think among SEC quarterbacks that Mac Jones is the best signal-caller, I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, either.
But let’s not overthink this — Trask is an elite SEC quarterback in every way.
This is one thing I have always said about Trask… If he was so good why didn’t he start over Franks? Coaches are making way too much money to play favorites or not hurt feelings. They sit in meetings, watch film, and practices. So I’m under the assumption they are going to put the best product on the field to win. (Sometimes UGA may not seem like it lol)
But I will say Trask has looked really good. He has a ton of weapons also. I’m not sold on him being elite, but he is very good QB.
TJW, when Mullen first came, most said that Franks and Trask were even and then Trask got a foot injury during practice. Plus, Franks is more of a runner, which Mullen would in a vacuum prefer.
Then, Trask was supposed to take over in 2018 against Mizzou when Franks was horrendous. Trask got another foot injury, Franks was put back as starter and played very well to end the 2018 season. Moving into 2019, you don’t typically change QBs especially considering how Franks ended the year. Then, Franks’ Kentucky injury forced Trask into the spotlight which he obviously took advantage of.
Also, there are some players that are just “gamers” they do a lot better in the game when the light shines brightest than they do in practice. Not sure if that’s Trask but it does seem like he does well under pressure (see: Kentucky 2019, as well as other games)
Franks started that Mizzou game, was horrible and was pulled after the half and replaced by Trask. I vaguely remember the home crowd cheering whenever he was replaced. I also remember Trask immediately lighting up the Mizzou defense and leading a long scoring drive for FLA in his first series.
Sorry, you’re correct, I meant was supposed to take over after Mizzou* not against
This has been addressed before. The big concern for Mullen we he came to G’ville was the lack of leadership on the team and he was very vocal about that. Franks carried a lot of influence with the team, has an outgoing personality and was always first to speak up at team meetings. Trask on the other hand has a very quiet demeanor, doesn’t show a whole lot of emotion and is a bit more reserved. With that criteria in mind, while trying to instill a new culture, Franks ran away with it. The team really looked up to him and he carried a lot of weight in the locker room.
LOL. I love how the MuLLLen and Trask slurpers in the media can’t get over this fact that the guy is a dink and dunker who thrives on passes that never travel more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage.
Everything I said before the season continues to be proved out by continued statistical analysis.
I love how Connor’s entire argument boils down to, “I don’t like this data analysis, so I’m just going to say it’s wrong without similar evidence and then ignore it.”
I bet you wish you had Trask under center this past Saturday when Bama was whooping up on your beloved pups. I bet he wouldn’t have thrown 3 ints and gotten 10 balls batted down at the line of scrimmage.
LOL^^^This^^^100%
Hey bro, I’ll take Trask over Jamie Newman(Oh wait), J.T. Daniels(my bad), D’Wan Mathis(LOL), and Stetson Bennett 4th (string qb.)I know you love attention and don’t care to be the dumbest dude in the room to get it. So congrats. Everything that I said before the season continues to be true also. Georgia reached their ceiling 2years ago and are stuck in neutral. 1980 BABY WHOOOAAA!
Ditto
And what will you say when we beat the pants off y’all and Sideshow Dan the Clown and Trask again?
Gonna guess the fact that you think Trask is better than he is won’t matter much after that.
40 freaking years. Loser.
I think you mean ten years, a decade the Dawgs owned the Gators. Here’s to another.
I’ll take a 40 year sample over 10 year and so would anyone with half a brain.
I heard prevalence helps.
Hahahahahahahaha o Corch, you truly are a Grade A dumb@**
“I think you mean ten years, a decade the Dawgs owned the Gators.”
Dude 2010-2020 was one of the worst Gator football decades in a long time and UGA was still only 6-4 against UF this decade.
Meanwhile Stetson Bennett is worse than Jarrett Guarantano because at least Guarantano can throw for more than 20 yards
Good enough to whip Tennessee.
You completely missed his point corchy. I know it’s difficult to see past literal but you’ll get there one day, hopefully. Fingers crossed.
Also, you, dumbs and especially Negan can go in on a Costco box of prevagen. Just tryin to help.
From the wisdom of Corch:
“[Trask’s] passes that never travel more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage.”
And one of his comments on another recent article:
“Justin Fields has no pre-snap reads to make, no audibles to call, and no protections to call in Ryan Day’s offense.”
And finally, my favorite:
“You can be a pro-style spread offense. That’s what Mike Leach runs.”
There is nothing out of any of the snippets that is wrong.
Please elaborate what you THINK is wrong, so I can then make fun of you for not knowing anything about football.
40 years man!
OK Corch, since you asked…
1. On Trask passes that “never travel more than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage…” Never is a long, long time and this is obviously not true. But facts: 39% of Trask’s pass completions are 15 yards plus and 10% are 25 yards plus. Obviously, not all those completions include significant yards after catch.
2. On Ryan Day’s offense… There is no major college offense in America that does not, at minimum, require the quarterback to count the box, identify overloads and locate the safeties. On a pass play, he makes a pre-snap read of the coverage (man, zone, mixed), locates specific edge rushers and identifies personnel match-ups in coverage. The idea that Day’s offense demands less of a quarterback than Cheney’s is ridiculous.
3. Mike Leach runs his own, completely unique spread offense. The biggest difference between his offense and either the NFL, or most college offenses, is the run-pass balance. It’s the ultimate air raid, in which his running backs are lucky to get 10 carries a game. The second big difference from both the NFL and college is that Leach has no tight end in his scheme. Instead of three wide receivers and a tight end/H back, Leach plays four wide receivers. Third, Leach’s offense is far less complex than either an NFL or most college offenses, with a playbook of at most a dozen plays.
Hey, poodle, you got your ass kicked by Bama, roll tide. Trask is going to tear it too, so go sniff some rear end….isn’t that what you dogs do? No wonder you are so ugly!!! you don’t have much time left!
Georgia wishes they had Trask. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and that’s not even something that should be in question.
It’s hilarious, all off-season all we heard was the Gators lost 4 receivers to the draft and are going to take a major step back blah blah blah, and now that Trask is putting up huge numbers, he’s not as good as everyone thinks cause his receivers are so good. What a joke! PFF is a joke and I’m not sure how anyone can respect their analysis. It’s too surface level.
By the way, PFF has Jones at #1, did they take the ole miss game away from him? Are they discrediting him because his receivers get better separation than any receivers in the country? If you’re going to penalize Trask for these things then you need to be consistent across the board or you can’t be taken serious.
Good point, Alabama has 3 first round receivers. While Florida receivers are good, they aren’t first rounders (besides Pitts).
One thing I’ve learned from this article, Treash is Trash.
That was the Moron narrative about the WRs. But who cares what PFF and the Georgia Moron says as long as Trask continues to shine and makes them eat crow at the end
I’ll admit that I questioned the wr talent at uf heading into the season, with exception to what pitts was bringing to the group/offense. my questioning however was more in response to the respect of talent that was departing than an actual knock to what was returning. i thought jefferson was a top 7 wr in the league, i thought swain was possibly the most underrated wr in the league and i thought cleveland was one of the best blocking wrs in the league. outside of toney potentially staying healthy for the whole year, none of the other wrs scared me…..and to be honest, they still don’t.
trask has looked great and passed for almost 1,000 yds in just 3 games. remove pitts’ 274 yds and toney’s 237 yds and that leaves ~500 yds scattered amongst the other wrs (grimes, shorter, copeland and the heralded true freshmen that various gator fans were very outspoken about shining this season.
the #s can certainly change and another wr could step up, but with what’s been recorded on the field, uf has the best te in the country and a top tier wr……but a significant drop-off after that.
@P, Here are receiving yardage percentages of total receiving yards for five of Alabama’s receivers last year:
28.7% — DeVonta Smith
26.6% — Jerry Jeudy
17.0% — Henry Ruggs III
12.8% — Jaylen Waddle
0.5% — John Metchie III
Jaylen Waddle only accounted for about 13% of Alabama’s total receiving yardage last year. He’s at 35% through four games this year.
And I stuck Metchie in the list because last year he was a “heralded true freshman” (actually, unheralded might be more accurate). I think we can safely say that his share of receiving yardage last year said nothing about his talent. He’s at 22% so far this year.
The top two receivers are always going to account for the lion’s share of receptions and receiving yardage. Doesn’t mean the other guys aren’t good.
PFF isn’t “due” any respect. Their rating system is complete garbage
I am terrible at grading QBs. I have a long and consistent history of being wrong about who will or won’t do well in the NFL. However, I will say that I was never afraid of Florida when Franks was their QB. In the first minutes of Trask taking over, it was clear that he was a different beast. I think Trask is a natural baller who can move the ball and change the tone of game. I don’t think he is a first round, or even a second round, QB, but I think he is definitely a top tier college QB. I would take him at UGA.
Favre was no good either. Southern Miss. Bench at the Falcons. LOL.
Oh yes, let’s compare Trask to one of the greatest QBs to play the game.
That isn’t ridiculous at all. LOL.
Please see my post above. Broaden your thought process it’s not that difficult. You can start by letting lose of your “3” year chamber.
Sure Corch, no need to compare that, only comparison that matters is Trask will always be better than Bennett and in no way is that ridiculous. Seems Bennett will be at the helm for the remainder of the year.
Shut up crotch boy. Roll tide.
When Mullen came to Florida, he knew that Trask was a modern-day Rip Van Winkle, and he knew that he was still asleep. He knew also that he (Trask) would wake soon and be ready to go wide open from the go-get. As everyone knows, Trask woke last year during the Kentucky game just as Franks hurt his foot. Incidentally, many believe there was a little voodoo going on here. He took over the quarterback position from Franks and sent him packing. Mullen knew this was going to happen all along. Stricklin told him. Few know that Trask had slept through 155 straight games when he woke. That’s a Gator record!
Once again,
1. Trask did not beat out Feleipe during their first two years because Trask tended to be tentative and took too long to get rid of the ball.
2. Trask was scheduled to start after the Missouri game in 2018 and was taking starter snaps when he fractured his foot in practice and was out for the rest of the season. After that point, Feleipe played much better.
3. Trask has had exceptional throwing mechanics since the day he set foot on the Florida campus. But he is night and day better this year in two areas: his read progressions and his pocket presence/movement.
4. 39% of Trask’s completions — almost 4 of every 10 — have been 15+ yards. About 10% have been 25+ yards.
5. Knocking any quarterback based upon his receivers’ yards after catch is absurd. Think of all those 7-10 yard Alabama slants last year that turned into 25+ yard touchdowns. Do they diminish Tua as a quarterback?
6. Trask’s completion ratio for the first three games this season has varied by less than 1%, from 71.4% to 72.4%. That’s consistency. His best was against the best secondary he’s faced (South Carolina).
7. PFF has no way to divine when a receiver runs the wrong route or makes the wrong adjustment. That’s not just me talking. It’s Bill Belichick.
Concerning 7 – You are absolutely right. It’s kind of why it is hard to look at their advanced metrics, as interesting as they can be. I watched an interview with a former NFL OL and he said the same thing about their ratings. PFF doesn’t know the blocking assignments on every single play, so players can easily be blamed for allowing a sack because someone else screwed up.
I wasn’t sure about Trask until the LSU vs FL game in Baton Rouge 2019. Even though FL lost, I saw him turn the heat up with competing. After that game, I knew he would bring it up a level in 2020. If he takes a W with GA, I would say he’s on his way to being a first round QB. He first needs to prove that he can beat a really good defense.
“In case you were wondering, there was no mention of Florida’s poor offensive line that Trask had to deal with.”
Wow! An SDS column that mentions an offensive line!
Yes, it’s one sentence in a 3,000-word column about a quarterback…. but still! That’s an improvement! Miracles never cease!
I’m pretty sure we Gators want to forget Mac’s offensive line and his non recruitment of them.
No doubt, my point is that if PFF didn’t mention anything about an offensive line, they have a lot in common with every SDS column.
Oh look, another column about Kyle Pitts!
Lol. I know, but you aren’t the only one noticing lack of O-line articles. Strange there is no attention given to them. Only when they’re ineffective.
I dont know….cant get my head around the “elite” tag. More time I guess or I have a different take on the definition of elite. Some talking heads have said the same thing in the past about Nix, the inventor of the backward spike.
Elite is Tua and 2019 Burrow. Trask is absolutely great, no doubt. But elite entails exceptional mobility, improvisation, and the subjective “IT” factor. Trask, in my humble opinion, isn’t elite, but I don’t mean that as a way to diminish his abilities or what he’s accomplished.
Solid response, can’t argue that. But, to Trask’s defense he does pick up 1st downs running though not spectacular. He’s good at seeing the lanes. He’s actually faster than he looks cause of his size. But he’s no Tebow or Prescott for sure.
True, that’s a good point
He’s also doing it with no run game.
4.8 YPC and 122 YPG through 3 games isn’t exactly setting the world on fire but it’s definitely better than nothing.
Georgia is averaging 4 YPC with 165 YPG.
Trask and Jones are elite. Tua, Lawrence and Burrow are the elite of the elite. Burrow’s combination of mobility, talent and football IQ is generational.
Why is Lawrence elite? I don’t watch or read anything concerning Clemson, but I feel like a lot of his production is that Clemson has such a better team from top to bottom than the rest of the ACC. He has done really well in the post-season, but that does come with a lot of extra preparation between conference championships and the start of the Playoffs.
This is bizarre. You are pretending as if ACC athletes haven’t done very well against SEC players and gone on to do well in the NFL. And why hasn’t the success that these guys have had against ACC schools been replicated by other conferences? Why don’t Pac-12, Big 10 and Big 12 schools – who have a single victory in playoff/title games against the SEC combined: Ohio State vs Bama – do as well as the ACC? Why hasn’t it helped those schools against Clemson, whose ONLY losses in the playoffs have been to Alabama and LSU?
In any event, evidence that Lawrence is elite is quite simply the difference between him and the guy that he replaced: Kelly Bryant. With Bryant at QB, Clemson couldn’t score against Bama. With Lawrence at QB, Clemson gave Bama their worst title game beating ever, and that was with taking a knee in scoring position. And Bryant wasn’t horrible. At Mizzouri in the SEC, he was playing himself into the NFL draft – likely would have been a 5th or 6th round pick – until that cheap shot to the knee by some Troy defensive lineman basically ended things for him.
Trask currently having a better season than Tua in 2018
Trask is very good. He’s played his first 3 games at least as good as any other SEC QB. I certainly would be pleased if he was our starter right now. UF’s a team top ten for sure. Thats in no small part due to Trask’s play. But, I haven’t seen him individually take over a game yet. Elite QB play draws the defenses primary focus AND prevails with often spectacular athleticism and FB IQ. He may very well perform to that level this year. It’s just a bit premature to trumpet he’s achieved that level yet.
The seasoned version of Wuerffel was great. So far, Trask looks better.
If we are talking about elite college QBs in 2020, I would rank Trask third behind Mac Jones and Trevor Lawrence.
Trask has the acumen of top pocket passers. Imagine if he had the arm of Franks.
“The seasoned version of Wuerffel was great. So far, Trask looks better.”
No.
“If we are talking about elite college QBs in 2020, I would rank Trask third behind Mac Jones and Trevor Lawrence.”
With the Big 10 and Pac-12 yet to play and a ton of new or ineffective QBs in the SEC and ACC, that isn’t saying as much as you think.
“Trask has the acumen of top pocket passers. Imagine if he had the arm of Franks.”
Imagine if Franks had UF’s current OL last year.
I want you to remember something: Franks actually beat quality teams that year he went 10-3. By contrast, Trask has lost to UGA, LSU and Texas A&M while beating up on unranked and overmatched teams. As LSU seems to be having real issues this year, that leaves his tilt against UGA as his one shot to beat a quality team with comparable athletes (which does not describe Tennessee this year or South Carolina, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss etc. practically ever). Beat the Bulldogs and then we can talk about Wuerrfel comparisons. Even then, not really as UGA has a walk-on at QB and nothing close to the Chubb/Michel tandem that Franks had to be a combination punching bag/tackling dummy against during that 4-7 season.
I feel you.
I never said he will end up better than Wuerffel. I said, “So far…”
I can’t place a QB that has yet to take a snap above those that are playing. I get that Justin Fields is incredible but what has he done in 2020? Get me some stats and I will adjust accordingly.
We have seen Franks play with a decent line and he made the same types of decisions he made with a lesser unit.
I understand you think Franks was good. He got better but I don’t think he is better than Trask.
Seems like they are criticizing him for playing well? Going in to the season I said he was going to have to cut down his turnover worthy throws, and he has. I don’t subscribe as much to “big-time throws”, those to me feel a little more subjective. He definitely has improved in those areas. The one mark against him this season isn’t actually all that serious. It’s that his receivers get a TON of YAC. But we can’t punish Trask because his receivers are making plays. From what we’ve seen, if every receiver got tackled the spot where they catch it, he would just continue to complete passes all the way down the field. Good receivers means he can get down field in 1 play instead of 8.
What you said is true. I would add that his timing and ball placement is a big factor in YAC. Not every catch this year has lead to a Toney touchdown.
That’s true on some but it’s not like even with the best timing and ball placement, the average WR would take it to the house, or an average TE would be able to catch anything thrown near him. Again, those should not be used to knock Trask, but rather to celebrate Pitts and Toney. It doesn’t make Trask less elite, it just means he has elite weapons as well.
So Montana sucked because Jerry Rice. Got it.
SDS 1
PFF 0