Luke Braun's Film Room: Drake Maye and What It Means To Manage a Pocket

Luke Braun's film room is back! This time, he evaluates draft prospect Drake Maye and digs into pocket presence -- and what it looks like to effectively manage a pocket beyond being an athlete.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The impact pressure has on a quarterback has been well-documented. No quarterback prefers pressure, but succeeding without an adequate response to pressure is impossible. So how do we tell who has that skill?

We have some crude proxy metrics with which to estimate this, like the rate at which pressured reps become sacks, or just statistical splits between pressured and un-pressured dropbacks. But those can only estimate a skill - they won’t tell you how that skill is developed.

Sometimes you have to break the pocket. Teams practice their scramble rules for situations where that is not possible. Ideally, though, it’s not necessary to turn a bad situation into a schoolyard mess. It’s better to adjust your launch point a bit and preserve the practiced plan. Doing this requires more control.

The pocket is a finite space. Imagine lines at the outside of the tackles. Once you go outside them, you can’t count on your offensive line to block. They don’t have the angle, they have no choice but to hold. So you’re on your own. Break the boundaries of the pocket, and initiate scramble rules. You’re on your own from there.

How QBs work the pocket

Before discussing technique, we have to acknowledge the mental strain of the situation. Defensive players dream of knocking the quarterback out of his shoes, and quarterbacks have to operate under that constant threat. It’s easy to lose your sense of calm under these circumstances, but the best pocket movers keep their cool. Perhaps no quarterback is better at this than Joe Burrow.

[Ed. note: I am not shocked that Luke missed out on an opportunity to call him “Joe Cool”]

If you can keep calm, you can stand at his original launch point and deliver the ball – but what if you don’t have that luxury? Quarterbacks who can adjust their launch point without breaking the pocket can nullify all kinds of mild pressure.

To do this, we have to remember what a good quarterback stance is. To be truly prepared to throw, you need your weight mostly on your back foot, say an 85%-15% split, and your feet need to be comfortably wide, usually around shoulder width.

At the top of your dropback, you should have a decent stance and be ready to throw. Once pressure comes, you’ll have to get back to that stance if you don’t want to throw off-platform. The goal here is to erase any impact from pressure. An off-platform throw will be less consistent and a scramble drill exposes you to all kinds of pressure-caused disasters.

That means keeping your weight on your back foot and maximizing the time with your feet in the ground. Think of any hitch, bounce or step as a cycle. Foot comes up, then foot comes down. You can only throw with your feet on the ground, so keep them on the ground as much as possible.