Iowa Football: 3 reasons to select Nate Stanley in 2020 NFL Draft

1. Valuable experience

Experience is something that can’t be substituted for. The only way to get experience in anything is by actually doing it and Nate Stanley is a guy in this draft who has plenty of it. However, the majority of quarterbacks in this draft class have plenty of experience so it may not be something that sets him apart from other guys but it’s definitely noteworthy that he’s started for three years in the Big Ten — an impressive accomplishment.

Stanley has experience against some of the top defenses in college football and competing at a successful level against them. His experience as well as coaching has led to Stanley being one of the more polished “pure” passers in a loaded 2020 quarterback class. Not only is he able to make every throw in the pocket, but is athletic enough to move around and throw on the run as well.

Fast forward to 40 seconds in to this clip and you will see Stanley showcase his ability to escape the pocket and throw on the run.

A few areas of improvement in Stanley’s game

Every quarterback has areas to improve on, and here are a few we gathered from Stanley’s film.

• Improved accuracy: No, he did not complete over 60 percent of his passes in any of his seasons starting. Some of that was on him as he tends to put too much juice on the ball a times and gets in trouble when he hesitates and double clutches on his throws, like most quarterbacks. However, he had his fair share of drops go against him as well.
• Consistency: When you talk to Iowa fans, they claim consistency was one of the biggest things holding Stanley back. While that may be true as he would make a great throw one play and a head scratcher throw the next, that is not all on him. He was asked to do a lot his senior year and as his passing touchdowns were down from his sophomore and junior year, he had to do a lot of things well in order for Iowa to have a chance to win. So the fact he was probably pressing a bit his senior year could have led to some inconsistencies in his game.

Overall, Stanley is a talented quarterback who has what it takes to be successful at the next level. Now it waits to be seen to see who ends up taking him and what that teams plan for him is at the next level.