UW’s Jacob Eason and his arm look the part at NFL combine. But about those feet...
This week, Jacob Eason is gaining a fresh appreciation for Chris Petersen’s “Built for Life” program.
Eason’s new life is as an NFL quarterback. It’s beginning this week at the league’s scouting combine.
And thanks to his college coach at the University of Washington, Eason absolutely feels built for this.
“Coach Petersen is all about ‘Built for Life’ and making you a better man and a better football player. A lot of that translates into the NFL, both on and off the field,” Eason said on a podium reserved for the combine’s upper-tier prospects inside the Indiana Convention Center.
“Some of the things he did were pretty unique for what he did as a head coach in college football. And some of those things I will hold with me forever.’’
Such as Petersen’s demand of showing up five minutes early for every meeting, workout and session. That is coming in handy this week among Eason’s dozens of formal and informal interviews with teams across downtown Indianapolis, plus on-field workouts including the high-profile throwing session to receivers inside Lucas Oil Stadium.
So is the off-the-field poise he projects in front of coaches, microphones and cameras.
Eason sure looks built for this new life this week in Indiana. He towered over the podium he spoke behind. He appeared to be the tallest guy in the expansive room among the top quarterback and wide-receiver prospects paraded into the convention hall to talk to the media.
His size is NFL-prototype (6 feet 6, 231 pounds). So is his cannon arm strength. His height and that strength to rifle the ball into any receivers darn near any place on the field reminds many long-time scouts at the combine of Carson Palmer, the Heisman Trophy winner from USC who was the first pick in the 2003 draft.
The combine showcases Eason and his best attribute: his arm. After all, there are no defenders from here to Lake Stevens for him to have to try to escape.
Ask Eason to compare his skills to that of a current or former NFL quarterback, and he evades the question as easily as many scouts wish he could evade pass rushers.
“Yeah. I’m not into comparisons and the showing off part of it. I’m just looking forward to going out and competing,” he said. “Obviously, it’s a big opportunity and the combine is a huge deal. And to go out there and do what I love in front of all you guys and a bunch of NFL coaches will be a great opportunity.’’
Eason’s criss-crossed road here
Since he was a teen, Eason has always been a huge deal.
He was the top pro-style high school quarterback recruit coming out of Lake Stevens High School, the 2015-16 Gatorade national player of the year. He chose Georgia and the lure of the regal Southeastern Conference, 2,700 miles from home. He started as a true freshman there in 2016. He completed 55 percent of his passes with 16 touchdowns and eight interceptions for a Bulldogs team that went a very-un-Georgia-like 8-5 and played in the Liberty Bowl.
He began the ‘17 season starting for UGA. But he sustained a knee injury in the opening game. Freshman Jake Fromm replaced Eason—and took to the SEC championship, the College Football Playoff and the national title game against Alabama, which Fromm and the Bulldogs lost in overtime to Alabama. That was the end of Eason at Georgia.
So, Jacob, why wasn’t Georgia for you?
“Georgia is a great place for me. It wasn’t that it was the wrong place,” he said. “I’m super glad I took the chance to go down there and the opportunity. I had a tremendous 2 1/2 years and met a lot of great people, a lot of great coaches, and really immersed myself in that culture, some things I’ll never forget. I wouldn’t take it back if I could. I had a great two years down there and ultimately transferred home.
“But that’s the thing about being a quarterback: you can only play one on the field at a time. There isn’t an opportunity to play three or four, like a receiver or a running back. So in terms of my own personal career, the best decision for me was to go elsewhere and try to compete elsewhere.
“The biggest thing I took away from that was playing in the SEC as an 18-year-old freshman. There was a lot going on, it was a lot to handle. Getting that exposure early was huge. It allowed me to take it in and learn from it, then progress through my career.
“Granted, I got hurt my sophomore year and didn’t play until my redshirt year. But the experience of that whole situation was something that has kind of molded me into who I am now.”
He came back home to UW, and had to sit out the 2018 season per NCAA transfer rules.
One, enticing season
A year ago, some were asking whether Eason would become an “out-of-nowhere” number-one pick—as in, the very first pick in the 2020 draft. He wasn’t even UW’s starter this time last year, not officially. That didn’t happen until August.
Petersen named Eason the starter over Jake Haener in late August. He started all 13 games for UW and completed 64.2 percent of his throws (260 of 405 passes) for 3,132 yards. His yardage was the fourth-highest by a quarterback in UW history. His 23 touchdown passes in 2019 ranked sixth. He had eight interceptions last season.
In some games, such as Washington’s 45-19 dismantling of BYU in September, Eason looked like a first-round draft pick. He fired impressive darts that stuck into the chests of Huskies receivers all that Saturday afternoon.
Yet there weren’t enough of those Saturdays.
In other games, Eason took far too many sacks with deep drop backs he sometimes made deeper with ill-fated scrambles to nowhere. The Huskies under-performed as a team in his only season leading UW. The Pac-12 champions and Rose Bowl team the year before with Jake Browning at quarterback. Washington lost five conference games, including at home to California, Oregon and Utah. The latter two played in the Pac-12 championship game instead of the Huskies, who finished 8-5 and third in the Pac-12 North.
Time to go
Some assessed Eason had more to gain by finishing his athletic eligibility at UW and coming back for the Huskies’ 2021 season. He played only 29 games in his time at Georgia and Washington.
But Eason had been in college, between UW and Georgia, longer than many seniors. He surprised no one when he declared after UW’s blowout win over Boise State in the Las Vegas Bowl in December, weeks after Petersen announced he was leaving coaching, that he was foregoing his final college season of eligibility and entering the NFL draft.
“A lot of it was just me feeling ready and ready to take on that next challenge, that next opportunity,” he said. “I was in college for 4 1/2 years. Long enough for me, I felt.
“I felt like I maximized what I was going to be able to do in terms of school and college and everything around that area. The NFL has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember and I felt ready and I wanted to go take on that challenge.’’
Now about that loud knock against Eason: his relative lack of mobility.
Then again, if he could move effortlessly and gracefully at 6-6, 231, he’d be at the NBA combine, not the NFL one.
“There are several things, whether it’s the speed or the pocket awareness, footwork, all that type of things (among his perceived weaknesses). There are several things to work on and there is always room for improvement. And I’m always looking to improve.’
“Yeah, I mean I’m not afraid to tuck and run. It’s not my biggest strength but to get a first down or whenever it’s necessary I’m comfortable enough to go make a play. Like I mentioned before, everybody is going to have their nit pickings about this and that, but my job, I’m a confident player and I am going to go out there and compete my best.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 6:16 AM.
