Redskins UDFA Spotlight: Steven Montez adds upside to already young QB room
What Montez must improve
One of the major issues with Montez is that he was often streaky during his time at Colorado. While he has a good skill set, prototypical size, and everything you could ask for in terms of raw tools, he was prone to rocky stretches.
Take the start of the 2019 season. Montez came out hot and helped lead Colorado to a 3-2 record. During that span, he completed 67 percent of his passes and logged 10 touchdowns compared to just two picks while totaling 1,463 passing yards. At that time, he looked like a potential Day 2 pick.
But in his next two games against Oregon and Washington State, the wheels fell off. He completed just 54.6 percent of his passes for 260 yards and tossed six picks and no touchdowns. That type of inconsistency is maddening to witness, and that’s one of the main reasons that teams passed on Montez during the 2020 NFL Draft.
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That said, consistency can be coached. And perhaps working with Ken Zampese will give Montez a chance to work on parts of his game and emerge as a better, more consistent passer with some extra development.
Beyond his consistency, Montez could stand to improve a few other areas. Notably, he makes a lot of risky throws in part because of his strong arm. He was able to get away with that at the college level, but those tight windows won’t stay open quite as long at the NFL level. So, he’ll need to get better at reading the field and finding truly open receivers instead of forcing a pass into tiny pockets of space.
Also, by avoiding those throws into tight, crowded areas, he’ll set up his receivers to better make plays after the catch. Because of the risky throws, his receivers were often getting hit immediately after catching the ball which limited the offense’s overall big-play potential.
Additionally, Montez’s deep-ball accuracy could be better. He has an excellent arm, but too often he overthrew his receivers when they may have had a chance to make bigger plays downfield. That can certainly be improved and if he hits on more deep balls, perhaps he will avoid checking the ball down too much which is something that happened frequently during his collegiate career.
Montez’s flaws are all coachable. But when coupling all of them with Montez’s subpar record as a Colorado starter, it was enough for him to fall to the ranks of the undrafted. But Washington is certainly lucky to have him and there’s a chance that he could make an impact if given a chance to properly develop in the coming years.