Alabama QB Blake Sims
BLAKE SIMS. Someone brought his name up today and I decided to take a long look at him, before the circus that is the NFL Scouting Combine kicks off. While I still believe that Chip Kelly will try to move mountains to grab Marcus Mariota, there are things about this Sims guy that really caught my eye today.
My source was Youtube. I wasn’t looking for highlights, I was looking for mechanics and what sort of decisions he makes. Basically I wanted to see what he’d be bringing with him besides his suitcase on Day One of rookie minicamp in May.
Keeping in mind that he had WR Amari Cooper as a primary weapon, I choose to omit any throws that Sims made to him, and instead looked for passes to everyone who wasn’t wearing #9. Once again let me repeat, what I was looking for was whether or not his skills offered anything to an NFL club on Day One.
I mostly liked what I saw. For one thing he doesn’t dance in the pocket, and his general delivery is NOT off of his back foot. He has good arm strength and has nice touch on his deep ball. While I didn’t see him throwing the ball into any tight windows, I did see him throw a couple of receivers open. Oh yeah, and the guy can hurt you with his legs.
He isn’t without fault though. His release point is a little low, and being “only” 6 feet tall, teams will hold that against him. Also (as you can see in the picture), his wind-up is too long, and far away from his body. But those are habits that coaching can usually clean up. Aside from that, I read he only has 12 starts under his belt. While there is the obvious statement about a lack of experience, there’s also the old coaching axiom about not having a chance to reinforce any bad habits.
His lack of experience makes him more of a blank slate, and his game will have few if any mental crutches that he relies on. Considering how different the Eagles Offense is from most NFL systems, a lot of experience in a standard system won’t be much help anyway.
The guy right now has a round 6 or 7 grade on him. He looks to me right now like a poor man’s Russell Wilson. But let’s see how he holds up at the Combine. If he even looks good (not great) I say reach and grab him in the 4th. In that case we stick with Nick Foles for 8 games, and use that top pick on a CB.
EAGLEMANIACAL.com 
Interesting as always Eagle. I learn something, often many things with each blog your write and post. I’ll be watching for the name Blake Sims.
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If Chip Kelly truly tries to move mountains to go for Mariota I then would wonder if this guy is as good as everyone claims he is. For him to allegedly be such a forward thinker I don’t know how he could be so short sighted. So many errors to get to this point. First off last seasons draft. Chip should have just traded out of the first round in general. He should have taken as compensation the Browns first round pick for next season. Remember several years ago now when the Eagles traded away their first round pick (I believe to the Panthers) and the following year flipped that pick into Jason Peters? A forward thinking Chip Kelly could have and should have done the same. He also could had played Barkley and other young players against the Vagiants (which probably would have resulted in a loss) and perhaps then the Eagles would be looking at the 15th pick instead of the 20th pick. Now imagine having the 12th and the 15th pick in the draft at our disposal to try and move up to get Mariota? Now it doesn’t cost us as many future draft picks especially if we were to throw Foles into the deal. Now the Eagles may have to get to five (actually need to get to two) just to get in front of the Jets. The Redskins gave up three number ones plus a number two just to move from 6 to 2. How much more will they ask from us just so we could move in front of the Jets to get Mariota. Mariota has .00000000000000001 percent chance of being an Eagle. Far too many teams ahead of the Eagles with quarterback problems that frankly can offer better deals and on top of that our forward thinking genius of a coach wasn’t forward thinking enough to see that planning ahead and stockpiling picks for this draft could have gotten him at least a shot at getting Mariota.
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EZ, I didn’t get that either. I wrote here https://eaglemaniacal.com/2014/12/22/start-matt-barkley/ that we should do exactly what you just said for exactly those reasons. Seems to me that if fans can figure that out, an NFL Head Coach should be able to as well.
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It’s why I don’t feel Chip is all that sold on selling out for Mariota. If you’re selling out then you’re doing it scorched earth style. You’re pulling a Sixers type move at least for the short term. What he’s doing now seems (if he’s doing it at all) seems impetuous and frankly a guy who supposedly has it all together shouldn’t be thinking on this level. His decision not to play Barkley is also why he’s put himself into a position where he really can’t draft a young QB unless he’s totally done with Barkley. I can’t see how he can go into a season with Foles, Barkley, and a rookie. That’s three major question marks. Let’s say Foles comes back and plays well. That’s fine, but what happens if he gets hurt? Can they trust Barkley? We don’t know, but he had his chance to find out and instead played a guy who likely won’t be here. Can he go to a rookie? Well other than Mariota himself I doubt there’s anyone who can come in and be as effective (in the short term) as he will need to be. Chip’s put himself in a possible bind here.
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