Jake Luton Overview
Position: Quarterback
Height: 6’-6”
Weight: 224 pounds
School: Oregon State
Jake Luton 2020 NFL Draft Profile
After spending the past three seasons at Oregon State, redshirt senior quarterback Jake Luton is taking his talents to the NFL level. Luton is coming off his best season to date, completing 61.8% of his passes for 2,714 yards, 28 touchdowns, three interceptions, and a 107.6 passer rating. The yards, yards-per-attempt, touchdowns, and passer ratings were all career-highs for Luton since joining Oregon State.
Luton had an interesting road to Oregon State. Initially rated as a two-star recruit, Luton only received one offer from Idaho. After redshirting in 2014 and playing sparingly in 2015, the Washington native transferred to Ventura Community College for one season. After tearing up the Community College competition, he joined Oregon State in time for the 2017 season.
During his first season at Oregon State, Luton completed 83 of his 135 passing attempts (61.5%) for 853 yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 77.2 passer rating. These numbers didn’t exactly inspire confidence, but he managed to make a big leap as a redshirt junior. In 2018, Luton completed a career-high 62.5% of his passes for 1,660 yards, 10 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 92.5 passer rating.
Strengths
- Ideal NFL build with pro-level arm;
- Takes good care of the ball and rarely puts anything in harms way;
- Steady improvement throughout his collegiate career;
- Accurate deep ball passer when he actually stretches the field;
- Played well against the best competition he faced;
- Can stand tall and deliver any throw when given a clean pocket.
Weaknesses
- Maddeningly conservative – refuses to throw deep unless there’s no other choice;
- Falls apart under pressure;
- Short field accuracy leaves something to be desired;
- Immediately checks it down if first or second read isn’t there;
- Poor footwork, especially when evading rushers;
- Too often just forced the ball to Isaiah Hodgins regardless of the coverage.
NFL Comparison: E.J. Manuel
Teams With Need at Position: Cincinnati Bengals, Chicago Bears, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans
Projection: 5th/6th Round
Bottom Line on Jake Luton
Jake Luton has a few interesting traits that should earn him a late-round look from a team looking for a backup quarterback. Based on physical traits alone, Luton’s 6’-6” height and arm should comfortably translate to the NFL. The most important thing for the quarterback is to take care of the ball, and nobody does it better than Luton. He held up fine against elite college competition and actually throws a decently accurate deep ball when he wants to.
However, there is a lot standing between Luton and sustained NFL success. A large reason for his minimal turnovers is that he refuses to ever test the deep part of the field. If his first read isn’t there, you can almost guarantee he’s going to check it down and play it safe. Ironically, this conservative style of play doesn’t even align with his strengths, as his short-field accuracy leaves something to be desired. He spent the majority of the season throwing to Isaiah Hodgins regardless of the coverage, but that could have just been due to Hodgins being better than everyone else on the depth chart.
Barring something completely unforeseen, Jake Luton will never become anything more than a solid backup in the NFL. He’s not the type of guy that can drag a team to victory, but he probably also won’t be the reason you lose. He’s the perfect backup to fill in for a game or two, stay out of the way, and let everyone else do the heavy lifting. As far as late-round quarterbacks go, you could do a lot worse.
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