Jordan Travis scouting report: Exploring the Florida State quarterback's strengths and weaknesses

A top-1000 overall recruit in 2018, Jordan Travis spent one year at Louisville before transferring to FSU, barely seeing any action in either debut season. He took over for the Seminoles mid-way through 2020 with mixed results, before becoming one of the gutsier signal-callers in the ACC from that point on.

In 2022, Jordan Travis completed 64% of his passes for 3214 yards and 24 touchdowns, compared to only five picks, plus another 417 yards and seven TDs on the ground, making him the second-team All-ACC QB.

This past season, he ascended to the conference’s Player of the Year, despite missing the final couple of regular season matchups with a gruesome-looking ankle injury, as he was right in line with his averages from the year prior, but accounted for 27 touchdowns compared to only two picks.

Profile: 6-foot-1, 200 pounds; RS SR.

Breaking down Jordan Travis' scouting report

Physical make-up & arm talent:

• Like a machine as a thrower, staying on a line on his drops and being uber-consistent with his delivery
• The way he can loop passes over the heads of defenders and then make the nose of the ball dive back down to let his receivers get underneath them – even whilst on the move – is tremendous
• Willing to release the ball early and test some tight windows over the middle between hook-droppers
• Can shorten his throwing motion and release the ball without his feet in the ground perfectly, if he sees an opening to hit hook routes and other spacing-based stuff (underneath)
• For a guy his size, Travis feasted over the middle of the field, with a lot of beautifully layered throws – he went 68-of-106 for 1005 yards and 12 TDs vs. two INTs between the numbers in the 10-19 yard range
• Any type of RPOs or play-action are on the table, especially from the pistol where he has to abort the fake or open to the same side for the RB as where the route is coming from and quickly flip his hips around
• Capable of putting more pace on the ball whilst falling away than you’d anticipate
• Whether he has to softly flip it to guys on slide routes to the right, drive it towards the sideline or flip his shoulders in order to more zip on the ball or rolling/spinning to the left, he’s a really good passer on the move

Processing & decision-making:

• Very quick decision-maker and accurate distributor, who likes to spread the field and share the wealth between his receiving corp
• Regularly is able to lead his offense to positive plays on early downs by just taking leverage throws that set up second-and-short or medium
• In particular when the defense doesn’t bump out with the back and the run off coverage outside, there are several nice gains flipping it to the back in the flats
• Showcases big-time anticipation throws and great timing with his footwork married to the receiver’s break
• When Jordan Travis has time to set up, Travis will get all those cleats into the turf and really rip throws over the middle of the field, especially off play-action – FSU loved those backside glances to the isolated receiver
• Seems to always read the positioning of his receivers on fade route correctly, when to put it out in front or put it on the back-shoulder, giving his guys chances to make plays for him – often times truly “throwing them open”
• Consistently has a plan on third downs of where to go with the ball is able to deliver it accurately for several key conversions
• Had a tremendous big-time throw to turnover-worthy rate of 27-to-8 in 2022, followed up a 20-to-8 last season

Playmaking in & out of the pocket:

• Has a knack for extending plays and understands how his receivers are likely going to run secondary routes, while being able to get the ball to them with the appropriate trajectory
• One slippery son of a gun, capable of making pursuing rushers overrun him by coming to a sudden step, redirecting and finding ways to extend play
• Keeps two hands on the ball as he works out to the sideline at all times – only two fumbles last season (neither lost)
• Along with basic zone read plays, Florida State used Jordan Travis on some designed runs with pullers, such as GT counter, where he showed an understanding for pressing one shoulder of those blockers and sliding inside of them once he had cleared the lane for himself
• Great balance and much stronger than his size would indicate to slip out of grasp of would-be tacklers or spin off guys
• Does a nice job of tip-toeing the sideline and getting a few more extra yards than he should
• On 90 carries over the past two years (just under half of those being scrambles), Travis forced 51 missed tackles and 34 of those resulted in 10+ yards
• Super tough guy, who got rocked and shaken up on multiple occasions these last couple of years, only to get back up and help the Seminoles win games

Weaknesses:

• You see too many little extra shuffle steps instead of a clean top to his drops, as he tries to shorten the distance to the target already
• Lacks top-tier arm strength to push the ball out to the sidelines and you see him cheat a little bit at times, slightly drifting to the side he wants to set up and throw up towards
• Has a tendency of falling away on some throws, where he feels like he needs some more time to release it, while kicking out his legs in drastic fashion when attempting more challenging throws when it comes to necessary arm strength
• When Jordan Travis doesn’t feel comfortable in the pocket early on, he gets a little jumpy and is ready to leave early, and he doesn’t have the type of arm talent to consistently hit big-boy throws with the space around him being crunched down
• Would rather try to run away from rather than replace blitzers with the throw at times, leading to seven sacks and a couple of batted passes across 139 dropbacks when blitzed

Jordan Travis' 2024 NFL Draft prospect

Jordan Travis is the most “what you see if what you get” quarterback in this draft. This is a tough, competitive leader of man with quality decision-making and the requisite arm talent to deliver the ball accurately to where it should go.

On top of that, he adds a dimension as a scrambler that made him one of the most effective players at the position in college football over the last couple of years. He didn’t transfer, but hung in there with the Seminoles and helped turn them from a 15-20 program over his first three seasons to double-digit wins these past two and the only reason that the undefeated Seminoles didn’t get a bid in the College Football Playoff in 2023/24 was the fact that Travis himself got hurt.

Unfortunately, there’s a capped ceiling with this type of player, who’s slightly off starter-quality arm talent and is on the smaller end, to where you worry about what things will look like in a compressed NFL pocket.

If Jordan Travis can continue to widen his field vision, get to solutions vs. the blitz earlier and learns to not bail against pressure as much, I can certainly see him becoming a multi-year starter in the right environment. At worst however, he should be one of the top backups in the league, who the locker room will love and he can rally the troops when called upon.

Grade: Fourth round