Yesterday a great article by Sports Illustrated’s Jenny Vrentas hit chronicling Jimmy Garoppolo’s drafting to the NFL, his move to San Francisco, Tom Brady’s mentorship and a host of other great stuff. I really suggest everyone give it a read.
There was one thing that was odd. Early on, the piece talks about Garoppolo’s workouts for NFL scouts. It talks about how the Patriots didn’t show their hand in the workout process, but also dropped this nugget:
In the three years before, just a handful of scouts had trickled through the FCS program’s campus. Then came Garoppolo’s senior season, when 31 teams sent eyes to tiny Charleston, Ill. Sean Edinger, the team’s strength coach, recalls a Jaguars scout commenting that Garoppolo’s hands were too small and his release too quick.
Too quick a release? Isn’t a quick release what a quarterback should have? Then again, we’ve seen the wait and windups that Colin Kaepernick was capable of, so maybe we just aren’t aware of too quick releases.
Small hands is an attribute that is strongly taken into consideration when evaluating a quarterback. Larger hands can hold onto the football more as opposed to getting it swatted away. This was one of the few knocks on Alex Smith coming out of college—hand size. When things were bad under the Mike Singletary regime, calling Smith “Small Hands” was a thing by some fans.
As for Garoppolo’s release being too quick, I don’t even know if that’s a thing. I opened the question up on Twitter to see if I could get some answers, but I was unable to find anything that really put the question away.
So anyone care to enlighten us about this quick release? Is that even a thing? If it was, you’d think it could be easily coached up (decision making?). It seems like the equivalent saying a quarterback can throw far too deep or runs too fast on the field.
I’m all ears.