February 10, 2016

Comparing Carson Wentz, Jared Goff, and Paxton Lynch: Mobility edition

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Tim Sharp/AP

Carson Wentz is the best of the top three quarterback prospects at making plays with his legs.

As the offseason drags along and we all wonder what is to become of Sam Bradford's future with the Eagles, the obvious question if Howie Roseman and the gang decide to part ways will be, "Who's gonna replace him?"

If the Eagles were to move on from Bradford, they would instantly become prime candidates to draft a quarterback in the first round. And even if they kept Bradford, it might not be the worst idea anyway.

The consensus top three quarterbacks in the 2016 NFL Draft are North Dakota State's Carson Wentz, Memphis' Paxton Lynch, and Cal's Jared Goff. We'll compare those three quarterbacks trait-by-trait over the next couple weeks. So far, we've taken a look at the arm strength and their releases. Today we'll take a look at their mobility.

Mobility

First, let's take a look at Wentz's, Lynch's and Goff's career rushing numbers. To note, college quarterback rushing stats include yardage lost on sacks, so it's not a great comparison to what you're used to for those of you geared more toward pro football, but it does give an OK player-by-player comparison.

Player	Rush	Yards	YPC	TD
Carson Wentz	216	1028	4.8	13
Paxton Lynch	288	687	2.4	17
Jared Goff	170	-114	-0.7	1

My favorite quarterback among the three from a mobility standpoint is Wentz. For a guy who is 6'6, 235, Wentz is incredibly nimble. For example, I loved this play against Northern Iowa. He's going to be sacked, but he somehow stays on his feet and keeps running. You'll see wide receivers and running backs do this from time to time, but not often 6'6 quarterbacks:

North Dakota State called designed runs for Wentz as well. The tackling here isn't exactly stellar, but clearly, you can see here that Wentz can move:

And obviously, mobility isn't all about rushing yards. It's also above movement in the pocket, or extending plays and throwing on the run. Here you see a blitzer come completely unblocked. Wentz shows the ball, gets the defender to leave his feet, ducks under him, escapes to his right, breaks a tackle, finds a receiver down the field and hits him on the run. This is really good:

Jared Goff doesn't have that in his arsenal. Here you see a Utah defender with an inside rush that you would hope your quarterback can escape to the outside. Goff cannot.

Another view:

What Goff does a really good job of, however, is extending plays from within the pocket. He generally does a good job knowing where the rush is and calmly moves around away from it, buying himself time to find receivers down the field. Here you see Goff exhaust his options down the field, and takes off running for a first down. But you're not going to get much more than this out of Goff as a runner:

The rep on Lynch, meanwhile, is that he's some kind of dual-threat quarterback, or at least that's the perception I had of him before I sat down and really watched him. I'd be shocked if he ran something better than a 4.8 40 at the Combine. He is mobile enough to escape the pocket and make throws on the run at the next level, and he'll keep defenses honest if he's running zone read plays, but he's not going to be gobbling up chunks of yardage when a play breaks down at the next level.

Here's Lynch escaping pressure and picking up a first down with his legs. He has really good athletic ability for his size, but it's not like he's Marcus Mariota or Colin Kaepernick.

The thing I do like about Lynch as a runner is his feel for the game. I love the little pump fake to freeze the defender and then the presence of mind to stretch the ball across the marker for the first down.

Here's how we'd rank them so far:

Rank	Arm Strength	Release	Mobility
1	Carson Wentz	Jared Goff	Carson Wentz
2	Paxton Lynch	Carson Wentz	Paxton Lynch
3	Jared Goff	Paxton Lynch	Jared Goff