the game was not broadcast in my area I was unable to DVR this game so I can only go on what I remember about Manuel. The only knock on Manuel when he came here was his mechanics. He always had a high release point(he threw above his ear), and he also had a bit of a hitch in his throwing motion. The hitch seems to be gone and the release point has also lowered a bit which is a credit to Fisher. The main problem this weekend though was his floating of the ball. Manuel is not flicking his wrist aka putting zip on the end of some passes. Flicking it means to roll it smoothly off the rotating fingers in natural flow of the wrist snap. I was not seeing that this weekend. Also in a perfect throw the elbow leads the throw..meaning during the motion, Manuel’s elbow should go above his shoulder line and accelerate ahead of his wrist. If the elbow travels below that shoulder-to- shoulder line to the front, it will not get ahead of the wrist and therefore it will not “lead” the throw. This is not good and happened a few times this weekend. They have been working on Manuel’s mechanics though and I think he will be fine. Here’s some good things about him.

His footwork looks good and his mobility is excellent(mobility doesn’t just mean can he scramble for gains it also means can he step inside and outside the pocket and extend a play)

His leadership ability is off the charts. I have heard from numerous people that this kid is mature beyond his years and just has the “it” factor.

Ponder getting injured might actually be a blessing in disguise. Fisher can now truly evaluate Manuel in a game and see how he progresses through his throws and offensive reads and can also correct any other problems in his throwing motion. I think this kid is the real deal even though he had some growing pains this weekend.

I will really be paying close attention to Manuel this weekend and obviously will be able to DVR the game and take a second look at some things. Hopefully some of this helps though.