I’m making a couple of assumptions here, so please bear with me.
It feels like the biggest factor that makes or breaks a quarterback’s NFL career is the ability to read defenses and react accordingly.
Guys like Brady and Manning weren’t the greatest athletes, but they were off-the-charts with this aspect of the game. Meanwhile, guys like Zach Wilson and Justin Fields seem to read defenses about as well as I read French.
Is it fair to say that this ability is one of the toughest things to assess in a quarterback coming out of college? Or is it that teams that are bad at drafting quarterbacks pay too much attention to the 40-yard cross-body throw and not enough to the more cerebral read/react parts of the game?
This post is over-simplified and filled with misconceptions. You absolutely can evaluate how a QB is reading the field as well as the degree of difficulty in what they are being asked to do. Teams also have interviews and personal workouts that will tell them plenty about the skill of the prospect. At the end of the day, there are 10 other players on offense as well as 100’s of coaches and staff. All of that matters in how the offense performs. Personality, communication skills, ability to get along with other players, and work ethic matter just as much as being able to read the field.
If you think Zach Wilson and Justin Fields are at the same level in reading defenses, then I don’t know what to tell you… maybe watch more football? I would be embarrassed to make a statement that stupid.