Our long national nightmare is over. Jake Fromm’s could just be beginning.
They call this foreshadowing. https://t.co/Br5Rs8kduU
— Dawg Sports (@dawgsports) April 25, 2020
After falling further than expected the Bulldogs’ QB1 found himself being selected in the 5th round by the Buffalo Bills.
It’s, well, it’s somewhere I guess. You may recall that the Bills’ new owners, the Pegula family, recently were chronicled in an Athletic piece that painted them as somehow both naive and imperious in terms of their ownership style, and implied that they’re preparing austerity measures which are likely to gut organizational morale. Buffalo is a small market team, one traditionally dependent on ticket sales for revenue. In short, it’s hard to imagine a team coming off a 10 win playoff season that could be in this tenuous a position.
But if anybody can make it work, it’s probably Jake.
Jake Fromm is a phenomenally intelligent football player. Has been since he was a high school underclassman. Everyone knows this. Fromm makes uncanny pre-snap and post-snap reads. He’s able to read the full field in a way college quarterbacks do with ever decreasing frequency, often working his way to third, fourth, and even fifth receivers.
He has most of the throws you expect from an elite QB. He augments that by anticipating windows and uses above average eye and body language discipline to feint receivers open at times.
Where does he struggle? Jake Fromm’s arm strength is adequate. It’s not great. Now, there are plenty of guys in the NFL with okay arms who make up for it with pinpoint accuracy. Only, Jake kind of struggles with that in 2019, going though a stretch of five games in which he completed less than 50% of his passes and just generally looked out of sorts. 2018 Jake Fromm is a 3rd round pick. 2019 Fromm is a 5th. If the former shows up in Buffalo, then the Bills got a steal. If the latter does, well, it’s pretty clear they’re not going to overpay for his services.
I would have liked to see Jake Fromm go to a smoothly run organization where he could learn from a future Hall of Famer and eventually take the reins. Instead, he’ll be looking to hang on the roster behind 3rd year pro/2nd year starter Josh Allen.
In short, Jake Fromm went lower in the draft to a worse situation than he probably expected. He’ll undoubtedly show up in Buffalo ready to work his butt off and contribute however he’s asked to because that’s what Jake Fromm does.
Jake Fromm drops a humble and hungry in the opening line of his video conference. Dude is meant to be a Buffalo Bill. #Bills
— Maddy Glab (@MadGlab) April 25, 2020
Still, it’s not the capstone to his Bulldog career that any of us would have forecast for a guy who this time last year was I. The discussion for the top overall pick in the 2020 draft. Until later...
Go ‘Dawgs!!!