Florida State quarterback coach Randy Sanders says one thing about Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston truly sets him apart: his vision.
"The one thing he is blessed with, you don't develop, God gave him this -- the vision," Sanders told the Tallahassee Democrat. "The ability to see. A lot of times, he can have his head over here and be looking over there. He's phenomenal that way."
Sanders said Winston's vision is "pretty rare."
"A lot of quarterbacks can see, but to be able to see as you're dropping back, truly see both sides of the field at one time, to have that kind of peripheral vision and your brain processing all the peripheral vision it sees at one time, is pretty unusual, pretty rare," he told the Democrat.
Winston's arrival at FSU preceded Sanders'; Winston signed in February 2012 and Sanders -- who has been a quarterback coach for 16 years, including at Tennessee (where he also was the offensive coordinator when the Vols won the national title in 1998) and Kentucky -- was hired in January 2013.
"Once I got here ... and was around him, you could see the potential, you could see that it wasn't just hype," Sanders said. "He has an unusual ability to play the position. Part of it is the ability to see; he's able to throw the ball where he wants it to go, and he's blessed with the ability to anticipate throws. It's hard to really quantify."
Sanders brought up former hockey great Wayne Gretzky as a comparison.
"They say one of the things that made Wayne Gretzky such a great hockey player was he could anticipate what was getting ready to happen and could really see the angles," Sanders said. "Jameis has a lot of that ability as a quarterback. He can anticipate what is getting ready to happen, see the angles and know where to throw the ball."
For all his positives, Winston still needs some mechanical refinement. Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has said footwork, eye movement and eye discipline are things Winston needs to work on, and NFL Media draft analyst Bucky Brooks wrote in June that Winston needs to continue to work on his footwork and fundamentals in the pocket.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
