Easton Stick: What do the Chargers have in their new QB?

Easton Stick: 2018 (Sep. 29) vs South Dakota State

Stats: 9-20, 182 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, one interception, 63 rushing yards (15 carries), one rushing touchdown

So flash forward about two years, and Stick plays another school (albeit not a ranked team) with some talent in South Dakota State. At this point, just trying to see if anything found from the Iowa game has improved, worsened, or remained the same.

The good news is, Stick is still elusive and had a much better rushing outing (roughly four yards per carry) than the Iowa game. He shows great footwork within the pocket before he attempts to move outside, and when he does run outside of the pocked he doesn’t necessarily go right for a rushing attempt. Instead, he keeps his eyes downfield and tries to find a receiver before resorting to running the ball himself. That’s good news, because it doesn’t look like “panic”, but rather a quarterback trying to extend the play and not attempting to run the ball every time the pocket isn’t perfect. He even has an incredible run on 3rd-and-21 where he breaks a tackle and makes three defenders miss en route to a first down. It easily is reminiscent of his Iowa scamper, and shows how much of a threat he can be with his legs.

Some problems do carry over two years later, though. As mentioned previously, he takes a lot of contact on his scrambles. At 6’1″, 224 pounds, that’s problematic in the NFL. Again, the team should not do anything to force him to remain in the pocket, because his athleticism is a massive part of his game. But, Stick needs to take less hits if he’s going to last, more importantly with a Chargers’ team that has an iron man at quarterback.

There’s also a problem with some of his throws across the middle, many of which were over the head of the receiver. That’s an interception waiting to happen. Stick also stares down a receiver and gets picked off, and has a fumble in the same game as well.

Easton Stick: 2018 vs Delaware

Stats: 17-26, 280 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, no interceptions, 41 rushing yards (five carries), two rushing touchdowns

Had to watch this one: It’s second round selection Nasir Adderley vs fifth round selection Easton Stick. The first completion? Tackle made by Adderley. But let’s continue with Stick…

Delaware didn’t bring the blitz much against Stick, and he made them pay for it early with a big completion and eventually a nice rushing touchdown on the outside. It’s great to see Stick actively using his feet and working his with his eyes before finally tucking the ball and running. Later on, he’s got a designed run in which he flies up the field before cutting left towards the sideline on another scoring touchdown. There was some chatter about Tyrod Taylor having some package plays within the games as a runner, but there’s no reason that shouldn’t be Stick out there. He runs so well.

In the second quarter, Stick shows great deep ball accuracy after working through his reads and hitting his man in-stride for a 40-yard completion:

NDSU QB Easton Stick has all day to throw this beauty, but even though he doesn't make it in time, Delaware $ Nasir Adderly (#23) shows serious range coming from nearly the opposite hash – pic.twitter.com/uDY97L8hM8

— Michael Kist (@MichaelKistNFL) December 15, 2018

He had a few good deep shots against South Dakota State, too. Much of the good stuff from the first two mentioned games is on display here: Great runner, not bad with the deep ball, is a thrower first and a running quarterback second, and works through his reads fairly well. Delaware really did him a favor by bringing absolutely no pressure through the whole game, though…