Scouting Report: QB Kyron Drones

Following a breakout 2023 season, Hokies QB is poised to challenge for First Team All-ACC

This is the first in a series of articles providing detailed breakdowns of Virginia Tech’s most important players heading into 2024. Data are sourced from PFF.

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Over the course of about one month, Kyron Drones went from an unproven, run-first, backup quarterback to an emerging star and the unquestioned leader of the Virginia Tech offense.

As well as Drones played in 2023, he was really just scratching the surface of his true potential.

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Strengths:

• More accurate than completion percentage suggests

• Willing to throw the ball away rather than try to “force it”

• Seeks contact on designed runs and is difficult to tackle

Areas to improve:

• Dependent on play action

• Throws right nearly twice as often as left

• At times fails to identify the deep safety

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While Drones proved a better passer at this stage in his career than many anticipated, too often his success depended on good play around him. The reverse will have to be true in 2024 if the Hokies are to take the next step and contend for an ACC Championship.

Passing Concepts

Drones completed just 57.7% of his passes last season, but his adjusted completion percentage (ADJ%) of 72.7% is much more indicative of his accuracy.

Adjusted Completion Percentage = the % of aimed passes thrown on target (completions + drops / aimed)

In fact, Drones had a higher ADJ% than First Team All-ACC quarterback Jordan Travis (72.2%).

Travis, however, had a six-point advantage in completion percentage. That’s because the difference between Drones’s adjusted and non-adjusted completion rates was nearly twice that of Travis’s (15 points vs. 8.5)