The Reason Trey Lance’s Passes Have a Slight Wobble

Trey Lance is one of the most gifted young quarterbacks I've ever seen.

He has a rare combination of arm strength, size, quickness, speed, intelligence and passion for the sport. He has just about everything a quarterback could want.

He just doesn't throw a tight spiral.

His passes tend to wobble. You've probably noticed this if you've watched him throw, particularly in slow motion. The nose of the football tends to flutter up and down slightly, which makes his passes more difficult to catch than if they were spirals.

There's a mechanical reason for the wobble, and it has to do with the way Lance finishes his throws.

Lance tends to throw a football the way one would throw a fastball. After he releases the ball, he snaps his wrist down so both his palm and thumb point to the grass, then he whips his arm across his body. This is how he generates spin.

But throwing a tight spiral is more like throwing a screwball than throwing a fastball. After a quarterback releases a football, he is supposed to pronate his hand so that his thumb points down, his pinky points up and his palm is perpendicular to the ground pointing away from his body. This generates more spin and the best spiral possible. This is how a quarterback is supposed to finish throws.

Lance doesn't really finish his throws the way best spiral-throwers in the world do. He muscles his throws with his arm. He lacks an elegant wrist flick at the end.

Does this mean he will fail as a quarterback? Of course not. Peyton Manning famously threw wobblers as well, and he was one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. So Lance can work around this limitation.

But he might not be able to fix it. He has been throwing a football the same way his whole life -- the muscle memory probably is ingrained by now. It would be easier for him to change his footwork or the way he reads defenses than his throwing motion at this point.

But he's only 22. Maybe he'll learn to pronate his wrist and finish his throws with time. He certainly will put in the effort.