Jake Fromm will likely be making his first career start for the NY Giants Sunday against the Chargers, and opinions of the Georgia alum are split inside the league
The NY Giants will likely be forced to start third-string quarterback Jake Fromm Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers, with backup Mike Glennon concussed during Sunday’s loss against the Dolphins and Daniel Jones still recovering from a neck injury, but opinions of Fromm inside the league are split.
“We did a lot of work on him,” one NFL personnel executive told FanSided of Fromm, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about a player on another team. “And, honestly, at best, he’s just a guy.
“He doesn’t have a lot of arm strength, he isn’t mobile, he’s just not an NFL quarterback.”
That kind of assessment of Fromm is probably a main reason he slid to the fifth-round of the 2020 NFL Draft, before being chosen by the Buffalo Bills.
However, one former NFL head coach studied Fromm’s Georgia tape extensively and has a different evaluation of the 23-year-old, who completed 63.2 percent of his passes across 43 college starts for 8,224 yards with 78 touchdowns to just 18 interceptions.
“I loved the way he managed the pocket and made a lot of throws and good decisions,” the coach tells FanSided. “This is a kid who won a ton at Georgia, against top-tier competition.”
The coach cautioned that NY Giants fans might be “disappointed” by Fromm’s lack of arm strength, but believes that a game plan can be built around the foundation of Fromm’s skill-set.
While Sunday would be Fromm’s first career NFL start, it also comes under unenviable circumstances — being in the NY Giants’ building for less than two weeks, in just the third game with Freddie Kitchens calling plays for a stagnant offense, and with quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski on the COVID/reserve list.
"“When you go from Daniel to Mike, you want to push and stay as close to the offense as you possibly can, and you expect them to go out there and execute the game plan,” NY Giants head coach Joe Judge told reporters Monday. “For a guy who’s only been here in your system for a couple days, you’ve got to select more of a menu of what he can operate in and that’s not always limiting based on his ability, it’s just based on being new in a scheme.”"
But, Tony Racioppi, who trained Fromm at the Manning Passing Camp thinks that Fromm’s temperament is such that he has the chance to weather such a storm.
“He’s a smart, quick processor,” Racioppi tells FanSided. “Has quick feet in the pocket, and very accurate with the football, for the most part.”
Fromm might have a depleted supporting cast around him, after Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney missed Sunday’s game against the Dolphins and will be thrown into the fire shortly after signing off the Bills’ practice squad, so expectations should be tempered. As the evaluations of Fromm inside the league would seem to indicate they should be.