What I’ve seen from him is when the defense does what it supposed to according to chalkboard football, he knows exactly where to go. It’s when the defense mixes it up he struggles.
That's actually true for almost every QB ever. There's a reason why QBs get better with experience: they've simply seen more. But even great QBs get thrown off by something they've never seen before.
At the end of the day, the QB, or his coach, needs to be able to quickly diagnose what a defense is doing and know how to counter it. Their speed of doing that is what separates the good from the great.
Very, very few QBs can do it on their own on the field over the course of a few plays.
The vast majority of them (even in the no fun league) need to have a coach talk them through what the defense is doing - with pictures - and then they can, and do adjust.
The really good QBs can do that on the sideline, during the game. Many (most even, especially in college) need a few days and practices to really see it and adapt.
Here's the thing though: you need both the coach and the QB to be good at this diagnoses and adaption, with good communication between them.
I don't know if Montez really didn't "get" this last year, and something clicked, or if Lindgren wasn't good at in - game diagnosis, communication, or both. But he's been a lot faster in his adjustments this year.
Montez is a year older and has shown more maturity in other stuff too, but he also has Roper on the sideline to talk him through things. My money is that it's a combination of all of the above.
I always had the sneaky suspicion that Lindgren was one of the absolute best at diagnosing film and figuring out how to effectively counter a defense Sunday through Friday, but on Saturdays his diagnoses, adjustments and/or his ability to communicate them to his QB wasn't exactly a strength.
