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Post being replied to

Athletic enough to run some; indecisiveness holds him back by ThreeD

My armchair observations are:
- Coan is athletic enough to be moderately successful running, when used smartly;
- he isn't quite athletic enough to be a featured or reliable running threat as he doesn't seem to have quick acceleration or nimble feet;
- he would benefit from more decisive movement in and out of the pocket.

My $0.02, is that Rees should use a designed keep on the zone-read play early in the game. The play should still be an option, in that if it is clearly going to get blown up, he should give but the play should be meant as a keep. It's a set-up play, but one that is likely to be low-reward, low-risk. Gain 3 yards, but slow down the DE crash. He's athletic enough to make this work and even to run it with moderate success 2-4 times per game. Maybe they do this, but I haven't noticed it early.

Also, I think there has been an emphasis from the coaches on stepping up in the pocket (and still passing) rather than escaping the pocket. Coan makes good early decisions on reads when he throws, but stepping up and then finding a hot read hasn't been his strong suit to date. I think he's strong enough to run through some of the arm tackles, were he committed to scrambling, as opposed to stepping up for a possible late read. It makes me wonder if he's being coached more towards the latter and less of the former. The coaches trusted Book enough to allow the ad lib scrambles, but that shouldn't be expected of Coan. Thus, there is some deliberateness or planning (by our coaches and opposing ones). He's definitely stepping up and maintaining eyes downfield (or trying to) and not risking a fumble on a scramble -- he goes into protective mode.

On a 2nd down drop-back with pressure, I think he's capable of aggressively leaving the pocket and gaining positive yards. It seems like that has generally been there, but for a DT reaching out and getting a hand on him and him going to the ground on first contact. Compare Coan under pressure to the NC qb last week. It's a delicate issue, because fumbles there are prevalent. So, it may be a coach's decision type of thing. I just think he's strong enough to be more assertive in that regard.

Those two things could be helpful, but the first (designed keep on zone-read) would be more strategically helpful.