Strengths: Carson Strong is a gunslinger. Strong displays great arm talent, putting nice zip on the ball with great arm strength, as well as possessing the ability to get the ball down the field when needed. He shows confidence in his passing ability, often taking deep shots when they are available, and has often connected on long touchdown passes. He displays a quick, effortless release, and the ball pops out of his hands. He has solid ball placement all around the field, often putting the ball in advantageous places for his wide receivers to catch the ball. He displays a very good ability in placing back shoulder throws along the sideline and in the endzone, and is known for putting the ball in spots where only his WRs can get it. He shows a willingness to take risks and trust his receivers, throwing contested balls that his receivers can go up and get. Strong displays great timing and accuracy on short, in breaking slant routes, as he finds his receiver rather quickly and puts great touch on the ball to allow the receiver to catch the ball in stride and get yards after the catch. He also shows very quick decision making, often finding his open receiver, and does not waste any time getting him the ball. Strong is in a pass heavy offense at Nevada, so will enter the NFL having thrown a lot of passes. Standing at 6’4″, 215lbs, Carson Strong has a nice frame for an NFL QB, possessing prototypical height, and has the frame to add on a few more pounds. Strong is also a great team leader, as he was elected team captain as a sophomore. Strong’s live arm, quick release, and good ability to quickly read the field and make decisions gives him a lot of really good qualities for a top QB in the 2022 draft class.
Weaknesses/Areas to Improve: Although I do like what I see from Strong, there are some things that I would like to see improvement on in the 2021 season. Although I do like Strong’s aggressive nature when pushing the ball down the field, I would ideally like to see him tone it down a little bit. At times, the play isn’t really there, or his receiver isn’t really open, and he just throws the ball up expecting his WR to make a play. While that may work at Nevada, I don’t think he will be as successful with that at the NFL level, as NFL CBs have much better ball skills and may create some more interceptions than he had last year. Strong also can tend to force some balls into extremely tight windows from time to time. Another area that I would like to see Strong improve in 2021 is footwork. Strong has good footwork at times, but he can fail to set his feet and can simply miss on balls, either overthrowing or under throwing his receivers. He also can fade away from his passes as well when pressured, which has occasionally led to misfires. As the game shifts to more dynamic athletes playing from the quarterback position, Carson Strong may not be for everyone. He isn’t a bad athlete, but he also doesn’t necessarily wow you with his running ability. He is not a guy who will be able to run read options and tuck the ball and run, nor is he a great scrambler. He also struggles picking up pressure at times (although many young QBs do), and can tend to throw off platform and miss throws when pressured up the middle. Lastly, Strong needs to improve his ball security, as there were quite a few strip-sacks on tape.
Bottom Line: Carson Strong is a very intriguing quarterback prospect in a seemingly large 2022 QB draft class. He possesses a great variety of important qualities for a quarterback prospect. He has great arm strength and nice ball placement, with a gunslinger mentality. That gunslinger mentality leads to him making some risky throws, which can turn out great sometimes and not so great other times. Strong’s lack of athleticism may also turn some teams away, but I still think that he can be successful even without the elite athleticism. If he cleans up the big weaknesses mentioned above, he can definitely be a top tier QB in the 2022 draft.
