Washington QB Jacob Eason should return to school, former QB says

Washington quarterback Jacob Eason certainly looks the part.

At 6-foot-6, 227 pounds, the junior would be one of the biggest QBs in the 2020 NFL draft, should he decide to come out. He’s also got the arm strength and temperament pro teams are looking for.

And the former Georgia transfer has fared well in his first year for the Huskies. Eason has passed for 2,472 yards, 20 touchdowns and just7 interceptions while completing 64 percent of his passes.

So it’s come as no surprise to see Eason gradually work his way up various prospect rankings, with many publications and draft analysts predicting he will land somewhere in the first or second round.

But has Eason’s rankings plateaued?

One NFL draft analyst, Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm, said Eason is a “complex evaluation for scouts,” noting the “glaring concerns about his consistency.”

Edholm said he talked about Eason recently with former Washington State QB and now-ESPN analyst Ryan Leaf prior to the team’s game against Oregon State.

Leaf’s message? Stay in school.

“He’s got to come back,” Edholm writes when discussing what Leaf said about Eason in a recent phone call. “He’s regressed a bit from where he was earlier in the season. He struggles a lot at stepping up in the pocket. His thing is, if he feels any pressure coming towards him, his immediate reaction is to plant that foot and spin out of the pocket. It’s really gotten him in trouble.”

Leaf said Eason should take a page out of Justin Herbert’s book after the senior returned to Oregon for the 2019 season. However, many draft analysts thought Herbert might have been the top QB selected had he elected to leave school early. Now, most analysts peg him as the third- or fourth-best QB in the 2020 draft.

Eason is currently ranked as the No. 24 overall prospect by Fanspeak.