I should say “Vick comes closest”, but only in terms of athleticism. Similar speed and arm strength. RG3 crushes him in intelligence, character, work ethic, leadership, and accuracy.
I’m pretty convinced, by the way, that the Cleveland Browns fanbase are the only fans in the entire world that could see a team be utterly futile for a decade due to poor QB play, have an amazing prospect like Griffin within their grasp, and say “nah let’s take a right tackle instead, we can’t draft a QB until we have hall of fame talent at every other position”
I haven’t watched nearly as much of the Combine as I’d have liked this weekend due to work and whatnot, but hopefully I can catch up on replays. I have been monitoring the big names results and listening to a lot of the highlights and I’m coming to a few conclusions.
SenorBeef is 100% right and justified in his feelings. RG3 is simply amazing. His size and times exceeded expectations and his intangibles are just flawless. There haven’t been many guys I’ve seen who I want to succeed and who I want to root for more than this kid. Just a feel good story all around. He’s basically Tebow with 20 times the skill and none of the douchey cliches and bible banging. This kid will sell tons of jerseys and the guys in his locker room will absolutely go to war with him. The only reason to doubt him is racism or that meme about running athletic QBs never winning it all. RG3 may fail, just like every QB has a high likelihood of failing, but it won’t because he lacks any particular measurable or because he is too much of an athlete. It also won’t be because he doesn’t have the smarts or work ethic. It would be a shame if he ended up in Washington, I can’t abide them having someone this easy to root for.
Even with everything I’ve said about RG3, Luck is still ahead of him on the draft board. He’s everything he’s cracked up to be and looks like a QB created in a lab to win Super Bowls. That he measured out as athletic as he did only reinforces his ranking. I knew he was good and I knew he was an athlete but I didn’t expect him to post jumping and running numbers like he did. And for a kid who’s been touted as the second coming for going on 36 months now he’s still coming across as humble and is taking nothing for granted. His interviews aren’t quite as natural as RG3s but he still comes across as human and likable. Really, what an amazing draft this is.
The price to move up to #2 overall just went way, way up. The Browns really should be in the cat bird seat, but I wouldn’t be too shocked if someone else bet the farm on RG3 and offered a Ricky Williams deal for him. The Browns might still match it since they have more to offer, but the price could end up being so high that it’s defensible to pass on him.
Kendall Wright disappointed some. He caught the ball well based on the little tape I’ve seen, but his speed and quickness seem to have underwhelmed. This might be bad news for the Bears since I’m hoping he’s the 2nd WR off the board ahead of Floyd and he hurt his chances today. It also might further boost RG3s stock if people come to the conclusion that he sort of made Wright a household name and succeeded with a mediocre #1 WR.
Floyd has pretty much locked up my opinion of him as the only option for the Bears in the 1st round. The downward trend on Blackmon’s stock and the Wright note above has Floyd sliding up draft boards and he may very well be the 1st guy off the board but for off-the-field red flags. It’s going to be a really tense few hours come draft day. I need to see more film of Floyd to see if I’m off my nut or not, historically WR has been my weakest position to scout. That said, Floyd looked extremely natural in pass catching drills and I didn’t see a single ball hit the turf. Great hands and great anticipation, he made tough catches look easy. Wright on the otherhand seemed to be fighting the ball a little at time.
Steven Hill was eye popping. If Floyd is off the board I’d love to see the Bears get Hill in the 2nd round, which would be a steal I suspect. He’s got amazing speed and he made a few highlight reel catches out there, something tough to do in a Combine passing drill. As always it’s easy to fall in love with size-speed combos when looking at WRs but Hill looked really natural out there. He might be a 1st rounder at this point.
Hill is one of 3 WRs who might be stars who had really mediocre production due to QB/system issues. Watch out for AJ Jenkins and Tommy Streeter as well. Ideal size-speed on both and both look fluid and natural out there.
Blackmon for all the bad pub he’s gotten, looked pretty great in drills. He was surprisingly quick out there, perhaps the quickest guy I saw getting in and out of breaks and getting his head around. He dropped a couple balls and battled a throws and left his feet a few times unnecessarily, but all in all I still think teams will still be in love with his production and he’s still a top 10 guy barring something unforeseen.
Was unimpressed with Brian Quick, Mohammad Sanu, Reuben Randle and Nick Toon. Each guy seemed to lack quickness off the line and seemed like they might struggle to get open. They seem like WR2s at best, not WR1s.
I need to watch more film but none of the QBs behind the top 2 really made an impression at all.
Haven’t had a chance to identify any late round WR or RB prospects who might surprise just yet.
One more thing, the only question I have about RG3 at this point is how he throws when he’s in a pocket that’s collapsing around him and he has pressure in his face. He had a pretty good line in college and played against some shabby defenses, and his scheme helped him get rid of the ball quickly. All QBs tend to struggle with this coming out of school, and it’s often what sets a pro apart. Running QBs sometimes run too soon, we’ll see if RG3 stands in there when he needs to.
Breaking from some Combine news, the Bears cut DT/NT Anthony Adams today. Interesting move for a couple reasons, first Adams was one of the Bears key free agents during the lockout and they resigned him quickly last offseason to a modest 2 year deal. He’d been a solid but unspectacular player up front and is considered one of the locker room leaders and is one those “Lovie’s guy” who always toed the company line and was an all around great teammate. That the Bears let him go indicates that they intend to resign Amobi Okoye and perhaps add another DT in the draft or free agency. It also indicates that they might be moving away from keeping “Lovie’s guys” in spite of limited upside and limited role, perhaps this is the first impact we see from Emery being in charge.
Or, maybe I’m speculating too much and Adams just wasn’t very good in 2011. In any case the extra money might be useful if they plan to sign a few FAs.
Not sure if answered already, but Steve Young, John Elway, and maybe Aaron Rodgers all would qualify, IMHO.
I am absolutely fucking gobsmacked that RGIII ran a sub 4.4. What did Cam Newton run last year? Given the NFL’s new favorable environment for running QB’s (e.g. Tebow, Tim), is it crazy to think he should go before Luck?
Thanks for the thoughts on Sanu and Randle, Omni. I really hope they (the Texans) therefore either trade up for Wright (despite Hamlet’s very good reasons why that’d be a poor idea) or use the ex-Mario Williams money to go grab a FA WR that can also do some KR-PR duty. I’d take that silly knucklehead DeSean Jackson now. Wonder what the Eagles want?
Oh, you’re serious. Did he get a lot better with you guys than he did in Houston? He struck me as ‘just a guy’ here, albeit a great locker room influence (so I’ve heard/read), but not someone you’d build around. I guess that’s unfair, but my vision is tinged by the mid 1st rounder the Texans burned to get him (and, to be true, I thought it was a good pick at the time too.)
Edit: Re-reading your long post, Omni: is it that Luck’s physical measurables are what’s keeping him ahead of RGIII in your eyes or is it that he’s demonstrated that he’s mentally ahead of RGIII, or both? IMHO, physical gifts are great, but it’s really what between the ears re breaking down defenses that makes the QB. (which is why Marino’s low Wonderlic really doesn’t matter, in the great scheme of things.)
Newton ran a 4.58. I don’t think it would be out of the question to draft RG3 #1 overall, but that may just be the further research I’ve done on RG3, since Luck is out of the picture.
The Bears see him (and used him last season) as a low cost rotational player with upside and the ability to occasionally make dynamic plays. At 24 years old he’s got far more upside than Adams. As a 1st round pick he’s a major disappointment, as a $2M a year player rotating in on passing downs along side Peppers and Melton he’s very solid if unspectacular. I’d be curious to see what Okoye would look like lining up as a DE on downs, I think he has the burst off the line to get to the edge and when playing inside he seems to struggle in traffic a bit and lacks the base to move guys off their spot.
It’s difficult to quantify but the upshot is that there just isn’t anything that Luck doesn’t do exceptionally well and he’s built like the prototype for an elite franchise QB. For lack of a better term, he looks and acts the part. NFL OCs will not have to think outside of box with Luck, he’ll slot right into the same system running the same plays as Rodgers, Brees, Brady or either of the Mannings and he brings even more physicality and durability than some of those guys. It’s just too easy to see him succeeding. There’s always a chance that he’ll not be able to react to the speed of the game or make the in-game and pre/post snap adjustments that are required, but I like his odds. RG3 is going to take a little more creativity than Luck, he does some things better than anyone but Luck is still better at the core skill set that NFL passers require. Will RG3s speed and elusiveness be incorporated naturally into an offense? Who knows. Will it simply end up being a quirk of his game that only shows up occasionally to little real benefit? NFL OCs in the past have gotten away from the time tested systems that work when provided with a QB like RG3, and while that can be exciting it’s not a sustainable system for success. However there hasn’t been a QB with his speed who can throw that well. For RG3 to succeed he needs to be a passer first, second and third and fourth a runner who can extend plays and get 3rd down conversions. Whether that 4th element is enough to elevate him over Luck is a question, right now I think not.
I was very impressed with Luck’s numbers. While it is nice the RGIII can run like the wind, it is pretty far down the list of essential characteristics for a QB. Of course RGIII does have most of the things high on the list, so the speed is like a cherry on top of the sundae. Now for WR, speed is one of the scoops of ice cream.
Yeah, the Combine talking heads have already declared him Ngata 2.0. I rather see him play a down or two in the NFL first(and Detroit doesn’t need DL, so I haven’t watched them much) But he does look impressively athletic at that size.
Poe is on my radar as D-Line rotational depth for the 49ers. The cons listed for him are the same for many big nose tackles: inconsistent effort and conditioning. If he can run like that at that size, those fears may be aleviated.
How the hell does a guy with those measurables manage a whopping 5 total sacks in his entire college career, including only one this year. It took him 3 years starting in a weak conference to match the tackles for loss stats that Vinny Curry, Merciless, and others had in one year. I’d expect a guy with those numbers who is playing against powerhouses like Austin Peay, Arkansas State, and Middle Tennessee State to have actual production.
