Las Vegas Raiders 2022 Draft Profile: Nevada QB Carson Strong
By Nick Bailey
Las Vegas Raiders 2022 Draft Profile: Nevada QB Carson Strong
Who is Carson Strong?
Strong began at Nevada in the 2019 season beating out three other quarterbacks to start for the Wolfpack. In that first season, he threw for 2,335 yards, 11 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a 63.4% completion percentage that performance was enough for him to be named as one of the top newcomers in the Mountain West Conference.
He only improved from there, passing for 2,858 yards and 27 touchdowns and four interceptions in a short season in 2020, and 4,186 yards 36 touchdowns, and eight interceptions last season hitting for 70% completion percentage in both of his last two seasons.
Strong has one of the strongest arms out of most of the quarterbacks in the draft and he is pretty accurate with the ball when he gets time in the pocket. Strong has the arm to make every throw and he also can escape the rush while still being able to get his throw off. Josh McDaniels not only has had success in the past with Tom Brady but literally showed he can develop a quarterback with Strong’s skillset with Mac Jones last season, who was a rookie that led the Patriots back to the playoffs.
One thing Strong would have to work on if drafted by the Raiders is taking snaps under center. At Nevada, Strong worked mainly out of shotgun formation. McDaniels has had his quarterbacks work out of the gun and under center about 50/50 percent rate whether or not it was a run or pass play.
Most college quarterbacks do mostly work out of the shotgun nowadays and the way things are going in the NFL as a copycat league many offenses work from the shotgun and not as much under center. That would play to Strong’s skillset.