Look....I have been as vocal as anyone on this board in my desire to stay away from this kid. But, what I have been consistent in saying is that it isn't because of his prospects of being a good QB in this league, it's been because he needs more work than the other QBs in the draft. He needs to get to a level of consistency that many of the other QBs already have. That's the biggest concern.
In breaking him down during the pre-draft process, the biggest issue with him is not his accuracy......it's his footwork. Far too many times his footwork was jacked up and he was throwing off balance or off his back foot. That led to the completion percentage being low because his throws were too inconsistent. HOWEVER, if you watch him when he is at his best, when he is throwing with the proper mechanics, in rhythm and on time, he was as ACCURATE as any QB in this draft. The problem was, he didn't do that nearly enough and not as much as the other QBs in this draft did and therefore his completion percentage suffered.
There were other things that didn't help him either. His offensive design for one was very basic and was based on a vertical passing game. His WRs, especially this past season were, let's just say, not NFL caliber. And I'm not sure he has the best QB coaching, and coaching in general around him.
As I said, I was not a big fan of drafting him because I look at him as a bit of a project and as someone that will take longer to see the field. But, make no mistake about it, my preference not to draft him and to go another direction had nothing to do with the talent he has. When he is on, and everything is on time and on rhythm, he was as good as there was in this draft. There were times he looked like Dan Marino. But because of the inconsistency with his footwork, there were also many times he didn't even look like a first round prospect.
Us as Bills fans need 1 thing with this pick. We need our coaching staff to get through to him and fix his footwork. If they can make him consistent with his footwork, most of the issues he had will take care of themselves. He will also need better coaching so he can anticipate when and where throws need to be made so he can be better going through his progressions. He does leave the pocket early a lot, but I do think that fixing his footwork and rhythm may help a bit with that. It may take him longer than others in this draft, but if he does figure it out, he could be special. Will he be able to figure it out, though? That's the question.