Drew Brees is the quarterback that Kevin Kolb should try to become. The New Orleans signal caller is a system quarterback who seems to always be a step ahead of the defense.
Brees is barely six feet tall with arm strength that’s barely above average, but he’s as deadly as any quarterback in the game today.
Brees has great feet and quickness in the pocket. He is one of the most accurate, poised and productive quarterbacks the league has ever seen.
Does it help that he plays inside a dome? Unequivacably, yes but it’s also true that he’s not throwing to a group of future Hall Of Famers.
There are three things that Brees does which sets him apart. The first is his ability to recognize the coverage and get rid of the football. This guy gets a great pre-snap read, then after the snap, he’s getting rid of the ball.
There are no wasted movements or hesitations. Most of the time, it’s one, two, three and that ball is out of there.
You can’t get to him with the blitz or the pass rush because he recognizes the coverage, makes a decision and gets rid of the football so quickly.
This is what Kolb must work on until he gets sick of it. He’s got to be able to recognize coverages and make decisions the correct decisions under pressure and he must do it consistently.
Secondly, Kolb has to work on his foot quickness. He should look at tapes of all the good quarterbacks and see how they slide around in the pocket and avoid rushers, yet keep their eyes downfield on the receivers.
He’s not going to be running away from anybody outside the pocket, so he has to get better operating in it. Brees is an expert at making these maneuvers.
I thought Kolb did a good job of throwing the ball with people in his face on Sunday but he’s got to learn to slide and move to avoid some of them while keeping his eyes downfield.
The other thing that Brees is able to do as well or better than any quarterback in the league is throw accurately. This guy’s accuracy is uncanny.
It’s even more amazing when you consider how early he releases the ball. Brees doesn’t have a gun for an arm so he has to anticipate his throws, yet time and time again, his throws are right on the money.
This is what Kolb has to develop. He must improve his accuracy. He doesn’t have a gun of an arm, so he’s going to have to learn to throw the ball early and he must be accurate.
Decision-making, moving in the pocket and accuracy will be the keys to Kolb’s success.
So far he’s been inconsistent in those areas, which is understandable as a young quarterback but it better change quickly, if he wants to be a top signal caller.
With the game in balance in the second and third quarters he led the Eagles on a couple of impressive scoring drives, but also missed some open receivers and threw an interception that led to three Saints scores.
We saw some positives on Sunday and hopefully we’ll see more this week from him, but he’s got to be more protective of the football.
