Carter's Classroom draft profile: Brad Kaaya, quarterback

While the Steelers do have concerns on the defensive side of the ball, they also have concerns with filling in the depth chart at quarterback.

Ben Roethlisberger is the long-time franchise quarterback nearing the end of his career, but also is still the man that will be expected to lead the offense to a Super Bowl. Behind him are the more pedestrian Landry Jones and Zach Mettenberger, the latter of which is most likely going to be gone after training camp.

Neither of those two can be expected to be a potential starter for the franchise after Roethlisberger's departure, and trusting the offense to Jones when Roethlisberger is injured has shown only marginal improvement over his four years in the NFL.

The need of a temporary backup and a potential successor as franchise quarterback to Roethlisberger leads to a lot of speculation as to who that player should be. While the Cowboys scored in finding a full-time replacement for Tony Romo in Dak Prescott, the Steelers have to attempt to find similar value in this draft class since their picks are towards the end of each round.

That means they will need to look into quarterbacks that won't go until, at the earliest, the 30th pick of the first round. Considering the pressing need at outside and inside linebacker, that might mean that pick won't be until the third round.

This rules out prospects like Mitch Trubisky, who is slated to go as early as in the top five picks of the draft by some experts, and possibly Patrick Mahomes and DeShaun Watson. Unless the Steelers use one of their first two picks, those prospects will definitely be off the board when they consider quarterbacks.

That leads us to consider prospects like Brad Kaaya of Miami:



Kaaya didn't participate in any combine events, and that did not help the perception created from his tape about his lack of mobility or NFL-caliber arm strength.

What Kaaya excelled at in his NCAA career was his ability to read defenses pre-snap and determine where he should go with the football, while keeping in rhythm of his designed play. Kaaya was adept at understanding situational football as well as his limitations as a quarterback, and he gave his team the best chance to succeed by taking what the defense gave him.

That mental part of the game is vital to the success of an NFL quarterback, as being able to process the offense, defense and the situation faced on any given down is all part of what makes quarterback the most difficult position in the sport.

PRE-SNAP READS

Kaaya excelled at identifying the weaknesses in defenses throughout his time at Miami. His decisions often seemed very predetermined and watching his tape showed that plenty of the times his team needed a big play, he would identify and target the best matchup for him to test.

Watch this example on fourth down in a do-or-die situation, when Kaaya targeted a young defensive back who was mismatched against one of his top offensive weapons.

Kaaya starts the play staring down the middle of the defense to not tip off his hot read on the play. This is something he has shown in many of his games when his reads turn out to be correct. The inside move turns into a wheel route and Kaaya throws the perfect ball:



Kaaya appears to be a good student of the game. When he's got a good grasp on what he's facing, he knows how to look off safeties in order to give his intended target the optimum space to succeed.

Watch as he does that to Florida State again, keeping his eyes in the middle of the field in order to distract the safety from the intended hook pattern by the flanker:



Also worthy of note his how on-time the throw is to the receiver when Kaaya only spends half a second to look that way before throwing the ball.

That timing is something that Kaaya has worked into his game and is evident throughout all of his tape. If there's a timing underneath pattern and he recognizes the defensive look he faces, he will most likely be able to get the ball out in rhythm with the receiver.

When a defense lines up in man coverage, Kaaya quickly identifies it and starts scanning for matchups in his favor. When someone makes a mistake, like West Virginia did here, he is quick to find it:



What's also interesting is how this was one of Kaaya's longer touchdown passes of the 2016 season. He has definitely thrown passes that have gone for more yardage, but many of them were due to big plays by the receivers after the catch.

Kaaya could connect on deep throws when he recognized an open man in space. There were problems with the deep ball in many other situations, but we'll come back to that later.

POST-SNAP ADJUSTMENTS 

Kaaya sometimes depends too much on his pre-snap reads, though, and it can get him into trouble. While on the play below he completes his throw for a big gain, notice the direction his head is facing immediately from the snap.

Kaaya locks onto his target and sticks with him the whole way into the throw. In the NFL, that can be a cardinal sin that gets you into trouble. It's the same problem that Roethlisberger found himself in during the AFC championship game against the Patriots:



When it doesn't lead to disaster, nobody really notices the quarterback who stares down receivers based on his pre-snap reads. That's the first stage of dissecting a defense and a very important one, but there are plenty others and Kaaya's improvement needs to come after the snap.

Remember that cornerback he picked on for a touchdown in the earlier fourth down play we showed? That was a player he looked for throughout the entire game because he saw on tape that he was the biggest liability in Florida State's secondary.

That's where Kaaya is a good student of the game, he's big on preparation and making sure his pre-snap mental processes are in order. But when that pre-snap read isn't there, Kaaya struggles to move on to his next progression.

Take this corner route for example, as Kaaya's focus stays on this receiver and never moves:



Even when the corner route is completely blanketed on a second down play, he never scans the field for a second read or a check-down throw. If you read around on scouts' interpretation of Kaaya, you'll see lots of praise of his mentality as a quarterback. While it is every bit deserved, this was the major component to his mental game that I thought needed work from his tape.

ARM ISSUES

The most significant criticism that faces Kaaya is something he can't do much about, and that's his size and arm capabilities. Many of Kaaya's best plays come when his read leads to plenty of open space to throw so that he doesn't have to fire a sharp pass into tight coverage, much like the deep touchdown pass we saw earlier.

But when Kaaya has to put some zip on his passes or put a charge into a deep ball, that's when he starts to falter. Look at this third and short situation, where a simple out route from the backfield could have continued the drive and possibly scored:



Kaaya sees the underneath receiver and tries to put some mustard on the throw, but ends up overthrowing his intended target by a long shot.

His accuracy is a major concern for teams and for good reason. Kaaya had a good roster with weapons at Miami and plenty of opportunities for deep balls on the season that should have led to touchdowns but they often didn't materialize if the defense could force him to have to make an accurate deep throw rather than one with a large window:



The above play for instance is one which he does lead the receiver, but the ball hangs in the air and floats out of bounds. You see sailed passes a lot on Kaaya's tape when anything goes past 20 yards. Sometimes it goes beyond just sailing and ends up being a lame duck of a pass.

Throwing a ball like it's a punt isn't a good thing, especially when it's in triple coverage like it was on the below play:



The ball was intercepted, though it was called back on a sketchy pass interference call, and Kaaya's lack of arm strength would lead to more plays like this in the NFL. Everything is faster in the NFL, so if you don't have a strong enough arm to zip passes fast enough to stop the extremely quick defensive backs who are in the NFL today, you better be the best dink-and-dunk quarterback of all time if you want to make it.

STEELERS STOCK

Kaaya's place on the Steelers' roster would be to challenge Jones for the backup quarterback spot. If his mental game can elevate to the NFL level, he might stand a chance to unseat Jones by taking command of the playbook and utilizing the many weapons the Steelers have on offense.

But a big part of what Kevin Colbert has built into the offensive roster is the deep threat, thanks to a big arm being a specialty of Roethlisberger's. Kaaya's arm doesn't match with Jones' in that department. While Jones' accuracy is equally questionable, he can heave a deep ball now and again. Kaaya throwing the deep ball is something that, unless something drastically changes about him physically over the next few months, could be a problem that he can't overcome at the NFL level.

Still, a quarterback that has a command of the field can be an asset in the NFL and Kaaya is worth a look. But for the Steelers, this should only be a look if they haven't taken a quarterback and it's the fifth round. There are plenty of other quarterbacks in this draft who may be a tick behind Kaaya's pre-snap abilities, but their physical advantages far outweigh what Kaaya brings.

Reading defenses and developing rhythm in the NFL can be done, significantly pumping up your arm strength is something that is much less likely. The Steelers should look to other prospects at the quarterback position that would be available in the third round, like potentially Tennessee's Joshua Dobbs, who visited with the Steelers back in the beginning of April.