Height: 6’0″
Weight: 208 Pounds

NFL Comparison: Tajh Boyd

Scouting Notes

Blake Sims is a 5th-year senior from the University of Alabama. His experience largely contributed to the success of the Crimson Tide this season. At times, Sims is a difficult quarterback to watch, but he flashes the playmaking ability that make him worthy of the Senior Bowl Invite he received (and accepted).

It’s fair to wonder if Sims’ time on the bench behind AJ McCarron is an indictment of his ability. Nick Saban is an expert evaluator. We tend to believe that AJ McCarron is a pretty decent NFL QB prospect who was probably pretty hard to beat out.

The concerns with Blake Sims are certainly going to be his size and arm strength. It’s easy to believe he is a product of his surroundings, with an endless supply of playmakers and NFL-caliber talent at his disposal.

We wonder if his completion percentage (64.5%) is also misleading. There’s a difference between completing passes and being accurate. Often times, Sims completes passes to wide open skill players who are much better than the defenders guarding them. He also throws way too many floaters that sail high. In this way he reminds us of Tajh Boyd. In Mobile, we will be looking to see if he can throw into tight windows.

Admittedly, Sims is sneaky-athletic in the open field. Sometimes he plays with little awareness and escapability within the pocket, but once he breaks out he does add a dangerous element to the offense.

Yet, in that same game, he makes this horrible throw that should have been a pick six. This worries us more when than the run excites us when projecting NFL ability.

The Iron Bowl, in a tough matchup against Auburn, was the culmination of a polarizing season that kind of epitomized Blake Sims as an NFL Draft prospect. He started the game looking like an undraftable quarterback prospect, showing bad mechanics, a weak arm, and throwing three interceptions. Then he mounted a huge second half by staying tough, showing off his arm strength in the vertical game, and letting his athleticism take over.

:40 – bad decision, weak throw
1:20 – no awareness or escapability
2:10 – is just a bad interception – throws high floaters down the field
2:40 – stares down receiver then hesitates to 2nd read and floats it with a pee-pee arm for an INT
3:30 – a decent deep ball
3:50 – escapability then mobility
4:10 – game-sealing TD on the rollout; stayed patient- how much does it translate?

Statistically, Sims is a game manager. We currently view him as a third-string quarterback prospect, and probably a late-round NFL Draft pick. But. he’ll have the chance to turn heads during the week of the Senior Bowl, and we’ll reassess our stance after the week of practices.