Eh, I actually think his *arm* is every bit as big as Bryce’s—Bryce isn’t really a mahomes or Allen type firing laser beams and cannon blasts—it’s more the processing and accuracy where rickie falls short of Bryce (and that’s not even a criticism. Bryce was about as good as it possibly gets for a HS prospect in those areas).

I’m no scout by any stretch, but the biggest thing that sticks out to me as a potential weakness with Collins when I watch his tape is his mechanics on throws inside the pocket. He has the raw athleticism and arm talent to absolutely sling it on the run and off-platform, but his footwork and throwing motion seem to vary quite a bit on throws from inside the pocket. That being said, I think that’s to be expected and isn’t really his fault: His OL is absolute tissue paper—I swear there are games where he’s pressured on 75% of his dropbacks—so he’s really not getting the reps necessary to develop that consistency. Like… it so bad that part of me almost views his inconsistent mechanics in the pocket as a *good thing*—he’s already good as hell but has more “low hanging fruit” in terms of improvement than just about any other QB recruit of his caliber. If he’s a good, coachable kid, he seems like the type who could make absolutely enormous strides once he gets to campus.

The way he runs actually reminds me a LOT of jayden daniels. And daniels has the same mechanical issues. The differences are (1) we will have the chance to coach Rickie up from day 1 and he will presumably be receptive, whereas JD by all accounts went the first 3 years of his career with a “can’t tell me nothin” attitude and very little real instruction, and (2) Rickie seems to have no fear of throwing into tight windows.

I think a fully-actualized Rickie Collins looks a LOT like how jayden daniels looked this past weekend against Florida.

Tl;dr - Rickie’s arm is just as good as Bryce’s; it’s accuracy and consistency in the pocket that set Bryce apart. Rickie doesn’t have those things yet, but his OL is so bad that he hasn’t really even had a chance to develop them. Once he gets some stability he could blow up.

This post was edited on 10/20/22 at 8:07 am