Tennessee football: PFF ranks Jarrett Guarantano No. 36 of 130 QBs

Here’s where Pro Football Focus put the Tennessee football Volunteers quarterback among 130 starters.

As he prepares to enter his fifth-year senior season as the starting quarterback for Tennessee football, Jarrett Guarantano will be looking to prove he is NFL material. Well, there are already some positives that show the New Jersey quarterback has pro potential.

PFF ranked the 6’4″ 215-pound product of Bergen Catholic High School in Lodi, N.J. No. 36 on its list of starting quarterbacks Tuesday. The list ranked the projected starter for all 130 programs despite 54 programs, at this moment, having postponed fall sports due to coronavirus.

Although Guarantano’s ability to stand in the pocket and limit turnovers were seen as major pluses, the outlet criticized his accuracy, which is something Tennessee football fans are very aware of. Here’s a bit of what was said about him.

"Accuracy is a massive issue with Guarantano — in terms of accuracy rate, he actually ranks last among FBS quarterbacks with at least 160 pass attempts that traveled 10 or more yards since 2018. He has, however, taken very good care of the football. Since 2018, his turnover-worthy play rate ranks 11th of 90 FBS quarterbacks."

One hindrance of Guarantano’s play, according to PFF, is that his accuracy is not likely to improve much this late in his career. However, Vol fans know he has shown flashes of it, so if he got more consistent, he could really shoot up the list.

It’s worth noting that Guarantano has averaged over eight yards a completion and completed over 60 percent of his passes with 28 touchdowns to only 11 interceptions ever since Jeremy Pruitt took over, and this is also his first season since arriving on campus in 2016 playing for the same offensive coordinator. As a result, he has lots more potential this year under Jim Chaney.

Last year, Guarantano completed 59.1 percent of his passes for 2,158 yards, averaging nearly eight and a half yards a completion, with 16 touchdowns and just eight interceptions. He also was benched due to poor performances after UT’s 1-3 start but was responsible for the go-ahead score in every game UT won down the stretch, finishing all but one of them.

With more stability and that proven clutch gene, you have to assume Guarantano’s numbers will improve this year. However, Tennessee football replacing Jauan Jennings, Marquez Callaway and Dominick Wood-Anderson could make that difficult on him.

Guarantano was sixth among SEC quarterbacks, behind Jamie Newman of the Georgia Bulldogs, Kellen Mond of the Texas A&M Aggies, K.J. Costello of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, Mac Jones of the Alabama Crimson Tide and John Rhys Plumlee of the Ole Miss Rebels. With a couple of improvements, though, he could move up a lot higher.