In this thread I'm going to break down one play from the spring game. I'm not trying to sum up Myles Brennan as a player in one play and I'm not saying he's good or bad. This is just an example of something I've seen on his "film" whether that be his high school highlights, him in the UAA game, in the spring game, or during last season vs various opponents.

Disclaimer: I'm not a football guru and I'll probably get something wrong

LSU lines up 3x1 in shotgun with this route combination:

Curl, post, spot, fade, and then the RB chips and runs into the flat

It's meant to be read that way, from left to right, with the RB being the 5th read.

The defense is running quarters match. The 4 DBs are each responsible for 1/4th of the defensive backfield and are taught to "match" where receivers line up and the routes they run so that there's no blown coverage. The 3 linebackers are responsible for zones 5-10 yards off the LOS where each has 1/3rd of the field:

Pre-snap, the QB should look at the defensive alignment and see which routes are most likely to be open. The #1 read will almost surely be open because the CB is playing so far off the ball and the safety has aligned himself to the #2 read, indicating that he is likely to be solely focused on this receiver.

The #2 read is slightly trickier to get right, but the QB can assume that with the defender's alignment, he's going to be playing him man-to-man. With a good route, some anticipation, and making sure the LB doesn't drop into the route, it should be a fairly routine throw.

The #3 read is a spot route to the middle which depends on the coverage the linebackers are in. If they drop too deep or too far apart, this route will be open. In this case, both the rover and mack linebacker pick it up rendering it an option but not a preferred one.

The #4 read is a basic 9-route. The CB is playing press. Because the safety is in the middle of the field, the assumption should be that this is man coverage with a cover-1 shell, cover 3/4 with a hard corner, or cover 6. With any of these coverages, the 9-route is viable. It all depends on how the deep safety reacts.

The #5 read is the last-resort. The RB blocks for a second and releases into the flat. Due to the timing of this route, it will almost always be open or at least viable.

With this, the QB knows that he has a 6 man initial protection (with the RB chipping). They should be easily able to pick up up to 5 rushers as long as there aren't any whiffs or poor blocks.

Brennan scans the field before the snap and looking left he sees Jamal Pettigrew, his #1 read, waving his arms presumably to tell Brennan that he's going to be open:

At the snap, the boundary linebacker drops and the field linebacker rushes, making this a 4 man rush, which should easily be picked up by the OL and the chipping RB:

Here's a gif of the play:

Brennan's first read:

Second read:

Third read:

Fourth read:

He steps forward to roll right:

Fifth read and throw:

If you look at the direction his head is pointing and where that receiver is, it's obvious that he's going through his progression far too quickly and not giving the routes any time to develop. He should know that he has adequate protection to make these reads. He finally rolled out so that he could see CEH leaking into the flat and tossed it to him as his last read.

Here's how the play had developed at the moment Brennan started to roll out:

I see Joe Burrow easily winning the QB competition, and I expect McMillan to transfer after being named the #2 QB. There are a ton more examples of Brennan going through his progressions very poorly like the play I've highlighted. Burrow is much more patient with his progression from what I've seen and has a lot more "pocket awareness"

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