In his weekly Sunday column, the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Terry Pluto talked about how rookie quarterback Colt McCoy is fit for the West Coast Offense. His remarks were sparked by the Pro Football Focus article on quarterbacks throwing the deep ball, which we talked about here on Dawgs By Nature last week. If you missed it, McCoy had a high percentage of his deep passes (those above 20 yards) intercepted last year. Pluto took a look at McCoy's passes that were of shorter distance:
6. But McCoy did complete 62 percent of passes in the 11- to 19-yard range. That is in the upper half of the NFL. He was at 65 percent in the 1- to 10-yard range, slightly below the NFL average of 67 percent. The point is McCoy can be an accurate passer, assuming he throws the right kind of passes.
7. Welcome to the West Coast offense, which should underline his strengths and not force him to throw deep that often. It's an offense based on short, quick passes. It is designed to hit receivers on the run and to help a QB counter a blitz.
The rest of Pluto's article talks about how McCoy fared against the blitz compared to other quarterbacks, so be sure to head on over and check it out.