Over the Summer I had a discussion with an aspiring NFL draft talent evaluator. His breakdown of Easton Stick was as good as anything that I've seen on our quarterback but I disagreed with a few of the points that he made. The one that I am planning to address the most specifically this season is to pay close attention to the running of our quarterback. As a prospect being able to run can be an asset but being a running quarterback in the NFL lead to many injuries that "pocket passers" may not experience. I can count on one hand the number of running quarterbacks that have succeeded for many years without serious injury over the last 20 years in the NFL. Sure Stick could be the exception but I'm not ready to count on that and don't think you should count on that either. Think as you wish, but that's my recommendation.
The challenge I'm going to give myself it so to go game by game, watching whether his runs seem to be a part of the designed offense or because it's still a basic instinct & primary facet of his game. At the end of the season maybe it will help shed some more light on our quarterback as a pro prospect.
The official box score has him down with 15 runs. I watched the game from start to finish and can't quantify where the other nine rushes come from or when they happened so I'm going to go with what I saw & count as runs. A week removed from a less than stellar outing by the man with his legs he showed a return to the kind of decision making that he had showed over the first two games of the year.
I marked his fifth run as a bad decision because of the fumble that came in correlation with it but if not for that it would have made a 6/6 on good decisions. As a runner in the NFL that would be imperative for both his long term health & success.
I won't go so far as to call two games a trend but this marked the second straight game with more than five runs, even by my interpretation of the action. What's more, it was the second time this year where half of his carries seemed to come as a result of what he sees on the field or what his instinct is. The guy that I got into a discussion with which lead to this was of the opinion that he ran primarily as a part of the larger offense. I disputed that at the time and continue to do so but am watching whether I am right in that or not. Over the last two games I would say that he runs as more than just a facet of the offense but I'm not close to coming to a firm conclusion on it.
I'll get to more on Mr. Stick in the pick six but those are my thoughts on this one element in particular.