Marcel Reed’s tenure as the quarterback for the Texas A&M Aggies has come with a lot of winning, but a lot of controversy. Through his first two seasons as a starter, Marcel is 15-6, tying the best start through that number of games since Johnny Manziel, and leading his team to the College Football Playoff.
All that said, it can be confusing sometimes to hear all of the criticism that gets levied towards Marcel, not only by fans of other teams, but by fans of the Aggies. It would seem like Texas A&M fans would support Reed come hell or high water, but that has sadly not been the case since he came to campus.
Whatever you think of him, though, most can agree that Reed is not the prototypical NFL passer— and yet, one of the biggest names when it comes to evaluating NFL talent just gave him some praise that not a lot of fans saw coming. Todd McShay was at the Manning Passing Academy this past week, and though he had the most to say about Notre Dame’s CJ Carr, his comments about Marcel Reed should catch the attention of fans.
Todd McShay praises Marcel Reed’s improvement in testament to Aggie QB’s work
On the most recent episode of McShay’s podcast, he sounded off about the Texas A&M passer, and the words he had to say were nothing if not surprising. McShay has been about as critical as anyone of Reed when it comes to evaluating him as a passer, but it sounds like Marcel may be changing McShay’s mind after what he showed at the Manning Passing Academy.
You can listen to his podcast “The McShay Show” on most platforms, and about three-quarters of the way through this latest show, he mentions how Marcel looked “better than [he] expected,” before diving into what he previously thought of Reed.
That’s where you can really hear the NFL talent evaluator in McShay come out; he’s complimentary of Marcel as a person, but as a passer, he is clearly down on him. Or, maybe it’s more accurate to say that he was down on him before this point.
I say that because McShay sounds consummately impressed with Reed’s performance, as many were out at the Manning Passing Academy. He specifically mentions not only Reed’s accuracy, but the gains he has made in the weight room and his confidence— to the point that he had to remind himself that this was the same guy that he had been watching last year.
Many Aggie fans are not bullish on Marcel’s continued improvement, believing he is who he’s shown himself to be up until this point in his career. However, Marcel is entering his first offseason after being the full-time starter for the whole year— it’s not all that crazy to suggest that he could take a big step forward for that reason.
If you listen to McShay’s evaluation, it sounds like he has done so. Reed needs to be the key for the Aggies in the upcoming year, and there are a lot of signs portending that he can be just that in a way he hasn’t been up until this point in his career as a starter. Hopefully, that’s exactly what we see out of him going forward.
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