FCS championship game live on ESPN now. Bison QB Carson Wentz is a draft wildcard. Could go late 1st round if someone (Arizona?) wants to pick up a guy to work with a bit. He's having a good game so far. Some technical stuff with his feet to look at, but he has the arm and the size and is pretty accurate.
-
-
Nile Davis 106 yard return to open the play offs for the Chiefs.Comment
-
Kickoff TD, three and out, punt, interception, interception, fumble. Ugly start. (At least there's a linebacker named "Mercilus" playing. What a name.)
This year's Flacco?Originally posted by Hollowman View PostComment
-
Wouldn't go that far. Flacco was a known quantity, having been recruited by Pitt, and scouts liked him in a class that wasn't any deeper than this year's. Him and Ryan were the only QBs worth considering. Wentz's first round prospects are much slimmer, and I can't see him starting anywhere day one, but for anyone who is looking for a mid-term replacement they want to bed in, then his small-school status shouldn't scare them off. I would expect him to be the next off the board after the three biggish names - Goff, Lynch, Cook. Possibly could even trouble Cook. Certainly, I'd take him before Jones, Hackenberg, Prescott, Hogan, Kessler, etc.
I like Hackenberg in theory, but he's been so beaten up and is now so familiar with losing, that I'd have worries. Like Jimmy Clausen. Just couldn't shake the habits from that awful Notre Dame team.
Wentz was injured for a lot of this season, had surgery on his wrist. I think if he'd played the whole season there would be more hype about him (much in the way Lynch is taking advantage of a pretty ordinary quarterback class). The Championship game was his first game back in several months and he controlled the game. His accuracy fluctuates (as I said, he dances about a bit), but he has guts. Sees space in front of him and knows when to tuck and run. Took it to the house twice in the title game and threw another TD. He also throws on the move a lot. The Bison deliberately keep him mobile, throwing short and medium completions, so he already comfortably handles more passing lanes than a lot of college ballers do (and it might also mitigate some of the accuracy concerns). I see him going somewhere in the 25-55 pick range.Comment
-
Any time a prospect is compared to an already-successful QB there are going to be a lot of mitigations, just because the position is so hard to succeed at. Definitely Flacco was a better prospect. But it's easy to forget that he was seen as a reach at the time and was meant to back up Kyle Boller for awhile (lol) before Boller got hurt. It's not often you see a big, toolsy FCS quarterback as a late riser in a poor QB class who threatens the back half of the first round. In that sense, if in no other, think Flacco's a decent comp. Obviously very different players though, I admit. And seems like you've seen more of him anyway.
Hackenberg is so strange. He's got a good arm, he's clearly a smart guy capable of doing pro-style stuff, and he looked great under O'Brien. Franklin's not a great coach, so maybe getting out of there will help if the rot hasn't set in like you said, but he makes so many unforced mistakes it's crazy. There's something there, just need the right environment. Houston, maybe, given the O'Brien connection. Though they need a more immediate solution.Comment
-
Yeah, I really liked Hackenberg that first year, and you can still see the natural ability. Clearly, he didn't just suddenly become rubbish. Perhaps being a mid round pick might end up being the best thing for him, as he won't be playing against expectation. I'd love to see him make it somewhere.
You seen much of Rosen this year at UCLA? Started as a true freshman, so has another two years with the Bruins, but he's exciting as hell. Would go top ten in any draft between now and when he can come out, on potential alone. Very promising player.
Next year's class looks a little better than this year's. I like Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes. Baker Mayfield and Mason Rudolph are interesting.
QBs are curious right now. The rules are making it easier than ever for pro quarterbacks, but when you look at all the draftees over the past five or six years there are less than a handful who have really made their mark. Cam. Wilson. Luck. College offences are making dudes like RGIII more often now I suppose, but there's no longevity on Sundays for players made of biscuits. Pro teams have to bed too. Carolina worked hard to find good schemes tailored for Cam, and Seattle gave Wilson the read option to help him out.Comment
-
I haven’t watched Rosen much outside of the bowl, since West Coast games are hell on timing. But his numbers for a true freshman are ridiculous. The same was true of Hackenberg, of course, and but Rosen seems to be in a better place and doesn’t have Hack’s funky mechanics. Be a major upset if he wasn’t #1 whenever he comes out.
I don’t think the league’s figured out what to do now that QBs are changing. You have a small number of can’t-miss types (Cam and Luck) and then a wasteland of guys who aren’t ready to step into the league, either because they lack the skills or because they’ve played their whole lives in a spread that doesn’t prepare them for the pros. The rules are better for QBs now, but the game is harder for them and they're asked to do a lot more, too.
My own theory is that teams are better off throwing a lot of low-cost assets at QB and seeing what sticks - mid-round picks, trades involving mid-round picks, cheapish free agents - rather than trying to find a guy in the first round. Historically it’s just been impossible. Teams are so desperate for a QB that anyone with a good chance of success goes 1 or at worst 2; after that you have teams, still desperate, reaching for average guys, most of whom need time and a good situation, which they won’t get because their team just spent a #1 pick on them (a pick which could've been used strengthening the team elsewhere). Here’s the list of guys who went from pick 3 to pick 30 since 2009 (excluding Bortles, since it’s too early to tell with him): Manziel, Tannehill, Weeden, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, Tebow, Mark Sanchez, Josh Freeman. Tannehill is the only one of those who isn’t an unmitigated failure, but is he any better than average? The pick after Tannehill was Luke Kuechly — tough to think they wouldn’t be better with Kuechly and some random replacement-level QB.
It’s into the second round through ~pick 100 where you start to find value again. Teams who are better, who are giving up less, who are more patient. That’s where Wilson came in, Cousins, Dalton, Kaepernick. Wilson/Dalton/Kaep were able to come into really good teams, and Cousins was given four years before he became a full-time starter. Neither of those things will apply to a team drafting a QB in the first round, and that's why those QBs will keep struggling.
I don’t know how long that’ll be the case, but until coaches figure out how to translate spread offenses it’s going to keep being a problem.Comment
-
Oh, and what a horrendous weekend of games this has been so far. Fingers crossed Washington-Green Bay brings something watchable.Comment
-
Like a 'skins winOriginally posted by Hemingway View Post
I don't need a lift, I need ammunitionComment
-
#rayfinkleComment
-
Taxi for Norwood!Comment
-
Laces out. Whoa.Comment
-
Bama/Clemson was a 15 round heavyweight strap fight. That was nuts. Where the **** did OJ Howard and his two bills come from? Did Nick Saban even know what a tight end was before tonight?Comment
-
I see The Rams are moving back to LA.
It's a long, long time since I followed NFL (I didn't even realise that the Rams had moved to St Louis
), but the seemingly arbitrary process by which cities host sports franchises is something I just can't my head around.
Looks like The Raiders might even be homeless next year.
Last edited by dom9; 13-01-16, 12:24 PM.Oh I don't know.Comment
-
Could they move to Wembley?Comment
Comment