On today’s Gold Diggers podcast, Michelle Magdziuk returned from vacation with some numbers about Trey Lance’s rookie year that may surprise you. But fortunately, there’s good reason for even the worst of them to be better going forward.
To put it bluntly, Lance stunk against the blitz last year. Lance had a 51.3 passer rating against the blitz in a limited sample size. Fourth worst in the league, just ahead of Jake Fromm, Mike Glennon, and Mike White. He sported a -29% CPOE (completion percentage over expectation) against the blitz in those situations.
Conversely, Lance was fantastic when he wasn’t under pressure. Lance’s passer rating was 120.0 from a clean pocket, which would have been second only to Aaron Rodgers if Lance had enough attempts to qualify. Moreover, Lance averaged 9.9 yards per attempt when he wasn’t under pressure and 9.5 air yards per attempt in that situation. This matches what our eyes have told us about Lance thus far - he looks to hit home runs over doubles and doubles over singles.
Additionally, Lance’s average time to throw was 3.23 seconds. He never averaged less than 3 seconds to throw in any of the games in which he played. This, combined with his performance against the blitz, points to a player that simply isn’t digesting what he’s seeing out there fast enough.
This isn’t surprising considering Lance’s age and the fact that he’s coming off of a one-game season at North Dakota State and going into the NFL. It’s not hard to see both of those things improving as he gets more experience under center in the NFL.
There was one more area where Lance needs to get better, but you’ll have to listen to the whole show in order to find out what it is. Or you could just skip to the 19:32 mark and get right to it—your choice.
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