Buffalo Bills scouting report: what does Nathan Peterman bring to the offense?

In a surprising move, the Buffalo Bills have decided to start rookie Nathan Peterman against the Los Angeles Chargers this weekend. What I want to do today is examine what Peterman has done well in a Bills uniform, what he will bring to the offense, and also look at some things that could get him into trouble.

Strengths

Anticipation
One of Peterman’s biggest strengths is his anticipation. What I mean by this is if he sees post-snap what he thought he was going to see pre-snap he will throw the ball to receivers before they are open.

The pass to Kelvin Benjamin on Sunday is another good example:

Tight window throws
Another strength of Peterman is his ability to make tight window throws. This one against the Philadelphia Eagles in preseason is an absolute dime. Tight underneath coverage and a safety coming down hard:

Getting rid of the football
Peterman gets the ball out on time and this is just a basic example, but more often than not his back foot hits on his dropback and he is getting rid of the ball. I would imagine the Chargers will focus on the short stuff on Sunday because of this.

Pocket Passing
He will stand in the pocket and take some shots, he doesn’t have nearly the escapability that Taylor has. This is both good and bad, you don’t want you QB getting beat up. But you also want a guy that isn’t afraid to stand there and deliver the football.

Weaknesses

Footwork
One thing that I have seen from Peterman is that his footwork can get messy at times. Here he makes a great throw to Jones and Zay’s catch is fantastic. But I wanted to look at the footwork on this throw. Now, no QB has perfect footwork all the time, but as a rookie, the speed of the NFL can cause problems and throws that would have been fast enough in college get defended in the pros. This one just happened to be perfect, but don’t confuse process with results.

“Gunslinging”
I use this term because it is what Micah Hyde called the young QB. Peterman looks like he is the type to always think he can make a play, this can have some negative consequences. You can’t let a bad play become a disaster and this is what almost happens here.

Anticipation
I wanted to end on this one because I think that while Peterman’s ability to anticipate will be one of his biggest strengths it also might be the trait that causes some turnovers to occur as well. Peterman tries to throw the 2nd slant through, thinking that the 1st slant would occupy the defender. He’s incorrect and the Saints almost had a defensive touchdown to add to their collection. Peterman is still a rookie and will get fooled at times. As we all know getting fooled and not waiting until you see it can lead to interceptions.

I hope I was able to illustrate some of the things that we will see from Nate Peterman on Sunday. The offense is going to look a lot different with Peterman under center, hopefully it looks more good than bad.