Top 10 quarterbacks in the 2021 NFL Draft

#8 2021 NFL Draft Prospect: Jamie Newman (Georgia)

6' 3", 235 pounds; RS JR

Jamie Newman

A top-20 dual threat quarterback back in 2016, Jamie Newman redshirted his first year at Wake Forest and then was backing up Sam Hartman in 2018, until the former got hurt in the NC State game. Newman led a comeback over the Wolfpack, before leading the team to a 3-1 record as a starter the rest of the way.

In 2019 – his only full season as a starter – he completed 60.9% of his passes for 2868 yards and 26 touchdowns, compared to 11 interceptions, while adding another 574 yards and six scores on the ground (180 carries) in 12 games, making him an honorable mention All-ACC selection. In the next off-season, he transferred to Georgia as a graduate student but opted out for the year.

This guy can really spin the ball and is looking to push it down the field, where he drops a numbers of dimes. Newsome keeps that front-toe open to not force much of a wind-up and when those deep balls arrive at the target, it always seems to be helmet or higher, which allowed his tall receiving corp at Wake Forest to take advantage of it, with defenders not being able to swipe through the ball a lot.

Overall, he completed 28 of 63 passes of 20+ yards for just under 1159 yards and 10 touchdowns, compared to three INTs. Off those go-balls, he has also been very effective on timing-based routes on the outside, with hitches and curls off the receivers pushing vertically. He has very soft feet operating from within the pocket and can hold safeties with his eyes, to set up opportunities at either sideline.

He can arc the ball over defenders on deep balls, where they almost go straight up and down, but also seemingly power it through a wall, when he drives it down the seams. Despite not having a lot of talent around him with the Demon Deacons in 2019, Newman came through for them routinely and at one point had them inside the top 25 with a 7-1 record.

While the 11 interceptions would suggest that Newman just throws the ball up for grabs, PFF actually says that only 2.7% of his plays were turnover-worthy. When he puts it all together, it can be a beautiful thing.

Newman has the tools and was put in position to make throws off platform routinely, with his feet parallel to the ground or releasing off the wrong foot. He can put some passes on the screws, whilst alreading getting wrapped up by a defender, and has a very strong lower body in general, to get defenders off himself late.

The Wake Forest offense was helpful for Newman to some degree, but they also asked him to make throws from weird settings. There were plenty of RPOs, with glance routes and those built-in pump fakes, but then also having to make them while walking up to the line of scrimmage on those weird RPO mesh points they have.

So when you evaluate the consistency with his base and release points, you have to consider some of the odd spots he was forced into and how he couldn’t get his body pointed at the target a lot of times. You can’t underestimate Newman’s impact as a runner.

He was less than 50 yards shy of leading his team in rushing yards in 2019. Wake Forest used his running ability quite a bit on zone reads and quarterback draws – oftentimes with a lead blocker in front. Has some shake to him, to make defenders miss in the open field, but then finishes runs in a very physical fashion, to where he can bounce off tacklers and slide over guys at the goal-line, when a pile is built in front of it. Against North Carolina, he scored a touchdown, where he gained about four yards through contact with multiple defenders draped all over him.

Nevertheless, Newman was a completely different player it felt like once his number one receiver Sage Surratt went down and then he obviously transferred to Georgia, but we never got to see him play for the Bulldogs. He doesn’t fully rotate through, but rather kind of pivots off that front-foot and chucks it out of there at times or gets it out with more of a flick of the hips often times.

I’d like to see him bring that weight forward a little more. He also pads the ball a lot before releasing it and because of that the arm-angle tends to break. You see him literally fall backwards at times, when he feels rushers crashing in on him, but then other times, he doesn’t take the space to step up, with somebody coming off the edge.

There are too many wasted steps, with kind of tippy-tap footwork and gathering. The pocket movement isn’t very effective and he lacks some awareness for the rush around him, while needing to speed up that internal clock and not taking as many sacks, when nothing is really there.

Newman tends to stare down his primary target at times and still has room to grow in terms of manipulating defenders post-snap to open up what he saw beforehand. There’s not a lot of higher-level anticipatory throws or layered balls in-between zones. He had a couple of really bad turnovers and was benched late against Virginia Tech in 2019.

During Senior Bowl week, the ball really jumped off Newman’s hands, but it also showed that he hadn’t played in over a year, especially on a rough third day of practice, when he threw a couple of picks. I believe he has physical traits of a starter, but he’s just so all over the place with mechanics and accuracy because of that.

For me, he’s a developmental player, who has the tools to become a quality starter, but is far from it at this point. However, he has been described as one of the hardest workers by the Wake Forest coaches and competes at a high level, regardless of time and score, while staying level in late-game situations. That gives me hope that he can actually come close to that potential. I prefer him to some of the 'safer' options, which I look at as career backups. He just needs time and a quarterback drill sergeant, to be able to get it done consistently.