Louisville Football: Cardinals offense won’t miss a beat with Jawon Pass

The only thing for Louisville football to really work on this off-season is adjusting the offense to a more balanced scheme under Jawon Pass.

Louisville football has to deal with one of the nation’s toughest departures in star quarterback, and the 2016 Heisman Trophy winner, Lamar Jackson. With Jackson leaving for the 2018 NFL Draft, the Cardinals likely have to groom his replacement, Jawon Pass. If Pass can take over without really missing a beat, in place of Jackson, the Cardinals can continue to be a tough out in the ACC in 2018.

Considering Jackson was so widely regarded as a tremendous threat to opposing defenses, Pass has some very large shoes to fill. Few teams across the country lose a bigger threat at the quarterback position than Louisville does with Jackson. Really only the USC Trojans, UCLA Bruins, and Oklahoma Sooners can claim the same fate.

However, Pass is no slouch, and could even be a better pocket passer than the Cardinals’ offense had with Jackson. In limited action last year, Pass racked up 238 passing yards and two touchdowns, with zero interceptions. He also completed nearly 70 percent of his passes last year.

Louisville is the type of offense that relies a ton on both the arm and legs of their quarterback, to spearhead the entire attack. Pass has the raw talent to succeed, maybe not quite at the level that Jackson did statistically. The thing that Pass can improve on is the reliance on his teammates.

At times, Jackson tried to do way too much, and took away some of the role of other players along the Louisville offense. Pass saw the faults in Jackson’s game, and can also takeaway the large number of positives from his skill set too.

This Louisville squad still has the skill necessary to compete at a high level in the ACC this season. Most of the burden of their success will fall on the shoulders of Pass, but he should have the experience necessary to carry that pressure.

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The Cardinals do not need Pass to replace the 50 plus total touchdowns that Jackson put up the last two seasons. However, they do need him to manage the game a bit better, and more consistently, than Jackson did.