This FCS level quarterback could be 'the next Carson Wentz'
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The leading candidate to be the next Carson Wentz isn’t quite comfortable in his assumed role.
It’s Saturday night, and Montana quarterback Brady Gustafson just led his team to a 20-14 road upset over Northern Iowa in front of a crowd packed shoulder-to-shoulder at the UNI-Dome. Gustafson didn’t play great—14 for 30, 118 yards, scoreless in the second half—but he’s doing all the right things otherwise. He pats an opponents shoulder on the way off the field; he credits the defense in his post-game press conference. Now, he’s leaning his 6-foot-7 frame against a cement hallway wall during an interview.
When I say his footwork looked far improved from a handful of plays I had seen on film, Gustafson turns to self-deprecation: “I mean, look at me,” he says, pointing to his size 15 feet. “I’m kind of a goofy guy, I’m kind of awkward. So yeah I needed to work on my footwork and I guess it’s getting there.”
On the Wentz comparisons, he is downright bashful: “It’s very humbling. I mean, I played against the dude, I talked to him a couple times, mostly in passing, but he’s just a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal story. And O.K., I just want to reiterate: It’s very humbling.”
As for off-field interests? “I’m an O.K. golfer,” he says. “Just to give you a little bit of an idea, the best round ever I shot was a 76. And O.K., I don’t want to be that guy… but I did hit a hole-in-one before. Again, I’m not trying to be that guy. I’m really sorry.”
Over the next seven months, Gustafson is going to need to keep working on that footwork, and stop apologizing for his ascension: At the moment, he’s an intriguing, if not special, NFL prospect.
The leaders of the 2017 quarterback draft class are becoming defined. Clemson’s Deshaun Watson, the dual-threat playmaker, headlined the summer. Big-armed Brad Kaaya of Miami is considered the most-ready to plug into an NFL system. And Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer catapulted onto the scene after a dazzling first two weeks of the college season.
But ever since the Philadelphia Eagles traded up to select Wentz, of FCS North Dakota State, in the first round of last April’s draft, the question has remained: Could another top prospect be hiding at a small school? This was only amplified after Wentz’s solid Week 1 performance.
Perhaps that’s why so many NFL teams are considering Montana’s Gustafson, a fifth-year senior. One NFL scout called him the best quarterback in the West. Another scout had major hesitations, citing Gustafson’s uneven footwork and inconsistency. If you’re wondering how NFL teams unearth a player like this, consider: One scout discovered Gustafson during the last draft cycle, while evaluating Wentz. The scout wanted to watch the one game North Dakota State lost last season. In doing so, he was captivated by the opposing quarterback: Gustafson.
The Billings, Montana native looks the part. His 6-foot-7 frame is filled out with a thick, muscular body. One evaluator said Gustafson is like Sean Mannion, but with a stronger arm. Gustafson’s arm is impressive; during warmups I watched him throw tight, beautiful spiral after tight, beautiful spiral. In the game, the ball zipped out of his hand. And the parallels to Wentz are eerie. They’re both high honors students. Not only did they play in the same conference, but Gustafson—like Wentz—missed time with a significant injury his junior season. (For Gustafson, it was six weeks with a broken leg). 2015 was his first year as a starter, and Gustafson could enter the NFL with less than 20 career starts at the collegiate level.
Gustafson is a sub-60 percent passer (57.5 percent this year, 57.2 percent career), but he has been victimized by a lot of drops. The game I saw felt like a microcosm of his inconsistencies: He flashed on a couple beautiful plays, including a pump fake and a gorgeous 30-yard touch pass (his wideout bobbled the ball), and a deep out from the far hash for an 11-yard gain on third-and-10 in the fourth quarter. He also had a hard time drawing the safety away with his eyes (“this is the last part of his game that needs perfecting,” says Grizzlies coach Bob Stitt) and had a few flat-footed throws, as well as one where he short-armed a ball that one-hopped a wide-open receiver.
All of those aspects of his game can be developed. Raw talent cannot.
Gustafson began playing flag football when he was eight. He was six inches taller than any other teammate, so he began on the offensive line. He was a prep standout for Billings West High School as a quarterback, but he had only one scholarship offer: Montana. This is the first red flag for NFL teams. If they are going to take a chance on an unseasoned product, they at least want to have the assurance of pedigree. (Think Jets 2016 second-round pick Christian Hackenberg, who had a rocky career at Penn State but was a five-star recruit in high school.)
Gustafson rarely played during his first three seasons at Montana. Then Stitt took over in 2015. The longtime coach at Colorado School of the Mines is a star among offensive football connoisseurs (his brush with relative fame came after designing a shotgun, fly-sweep play used by West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen in the Mountaineers’ blowout of Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl). Stitt had retained three coaches from the previous staff, which was trying to push Gustafson out of the program. “The o-line was in such terrible shape, they had a quarterback who was a runaround guy, they needed someone who could scramble around.” Two days into the job, Gustafson stopped by Stitt’s office. “I just want to let you know coach,” he said, “I’m not going anywhere.” A day later, in the first quarterbacks meeting, Stitt agreed. “Brady just got it,” the coach says. “He was the only one who could pick up what we were doing.” Gustafson beat out six other quarterbacks to win the job going into 2015. He won the job again in 2016, beating out Kentucky transfer Reese Phillips.
Stitt’s offense asks a lot of the quarterback; in one run play, for example, Gustafson has 14 checks he can go to. It’s a hurry-up offense. Gustafson often goes to the sideline for the play call—meaning he has pre-determined reads—but called several audibles in the Northern Iowa game.
Stitt vouches for his quarterback.
Coachable? “I can give him the worst call in the world and he’ll say, ‘I love it, I love it, let’s try it.’”
Toughness? “Our o-line struggled. He took shots last year in our first couple games, and he was hurting. There was one shot in the midsection at NDSU. But never said a word. I said, ‘Brady, you O.K.?’ Yeah coach, I’m fine.’… Even when he came back, the last few games, he wasn’t feeling great. He kind of told me after the fact. His leg still didn’t feel good, he played anyway.” (After Gustafson returned to the lineup, Montana scored 57 and 54 points, respectively, in the final two games of the regular season).
Ability to handle pressure? “All summer he heard, ‘Next Carson Wentz, next Carson Wentz, and in our first game, he tried to be perfect, he tried to be Carson Wentz. But he was able to adjust at halftime, and then he was Brady Gustafson and he had a heck of a game.”
His potential is exciting. The problem is, at this point in their careers, Wentz was far more polished. Gustafson has the tools, but due to inconsistent mechanics, he’s considered a project. And teams are increasingly impatient with quarterbacks taken toward the top of the draft.
So is Brady Gustafson the next Carson Wentz? Probably not. But because of Wentz, a prospect like Gustafson is going to get a long look.
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