Height: 6’2″
Weight: 220 Pounds

NFL Comparison: Tyler Wilson

Scouting Notes

Shane Carden is a three-year college starter out of East Carolina University, who has accepted an invitation to play in the 2015 Senior Bowl. As we do annually in preparation for our trip to Mobile, Al., we’ve started breaking down college film of each prospect who has as accepted an invite, and have begun preparing detailed scouting notes on them all. Of course, we are always eager to see how the players actually stack up live and in-person, and if the past is any indication, many of our viewpoints will change during the week. Here’s our current analysis of Carden based on 2013 and 2014 game film alone:

In 2013, Carden played primarily out of shotgun and pistol formations, while displaying average arm strength with an average release. His release is somewhat deliberate. He shows some mobility, but little escapability. He appears somewhat athletic, however, he tends to look heavy-footed on the move. He doesn’t tower in height at 6’2″ but looks to have sufficient size in the pocket – Carden has a fairly stout build. His footwork in the pocket and during his throwing motion lacks rhythm and consistency. He too often throws with his arm, and not his legs and power base – often times not getting much hip-snap or torque on his body during the throwing motion. He doesn’t always set his feet at the launch point, and too often throws off of his back foot or out-of-balance. His best throw is the intermediate-to-deep fade outside of the hashmarks, he displays nice touch and accuracy on these routes that require loft, timing and touch instead of pure power. (Basically the anti-Ryan Nassib.)

These two clips against North Carolina reflect much of what we saw from Carden’s 2013 game film:

Highlights some issues- good down and distance, good field position, playing with lead- first read isn’t there – looks like safety is over the top to the right- comes back left underthrows into triple coverage for INT. If he had better mechanics and stronger arm to generate power could have possibly made an exceptional play if he could have out-thrown the coverage

Comes right back on the first throw of the next possession with one of his deep touch passes

. . .

Our susbsequent study of the 2014 game film was encouraging, as Carden showed progress in some key areas. Against South Florida, he started the game off hot in the quick game with short passes for completions, showing good quick decision making after his pre-snap reads. The coaching staff seemed to have integrated more designed rollouts to move Carden’s launch points and take advantage of his mobility, while simplify his reads. He also shows an improved ability to keep his feet moving in the pocket to avoid pressure, while keeping his eyes downfield with a passer’s mentality. His mechanics looks a bit cleaner, and his arm strength looks improved because of it. Carden shows the ability to throw the redzone slant pattern between the corner and safety, however his signature throw continues to be the intermediate to deep touch pass outside of the hash marks.

We are impressed with Shane Carden’s career touchdown-to-interception ratio. It’s an indicator of good decision-making – by a quarterback more than willing to throw the ball away when under duress. He also consistently maintained a high completion percentage throughout his college career, although that is likely somewhat a function of the offense he played in. We’re going to need to see what Carden looks like under center during the week of Senior Bowl practice is the bottom line. Currently, we consider Shane Carden a late-round quarterback prospect in the 2015 NFL Draft. We are intrigued to see if he shows us more in Mobile.

vs South Florida 2014

Example of the rollout we see more of in 2014, and one of his stronger-looking deep passes

vs Virginia Tech 2014

Another example of his touch on the intermediate deep ball to the outside