The ESPN expert on NFL drafting said that Jameis Winston was “unathletic”, despite not bad scores.
What does that exactly mean in this context, “unathletic”? Relative to who? Did he fatten up during the short off season? Or does it mean his arm is great but not his body?
Also the guy diplomatically implied that Winston was “unstrategic” (dumb) compared to Mariota.
That’s pretty ridiculous, if anything it was the complete opposite on both.
Who said that? Mayock said his football intelligence was high, that fact his 40 was slow was inconsequential since he’ll probably be a pocket passer and really that main deterrent was that he throws a whole lot of picks.
“Unathletic” sounds like code for “black QB that’s not a running threat.” It’s prejudice that leads to poor decision making. Scouts will find an NFL player to compare prospects to, but skin color as part of that is short sighted and racist. It happens to white WR when Jordy Nelson is the invariable comparison.
I really wanted to not like Winston. His off-field transgressions and playing for a team I despise, and his QB-prospect competition was from my favorite college team. But no, dude’s pretty damn good QB. His pocket instincts, defense reading, and anticipation are superb. He can zip and float passes and knows when to do which throw.
Whoever said those things wasn’t watching the right guy.
It was on the screen when they listed his “plus” and “minus” traits. I forgot what the others were, just that ‘unathletic’ surprised me the most.
Well he is unathletic compared to most college QB’s. But so are Brady, Manning, Brees, Roethlisberger and Rivers, who IMHO are the best QB’s in the world. And as far as football IQ, I’ve heard the exact opposite. While he’s made some dumb decisions off the field, Winston is considered by most to have a football IQ that’s off the chart (on the good side).
Unless he gets injured or does something crazy before the draft, I believe that he will be the 1st QB selected.
The only thing that puts Winston in the “unathletic” category is that he’s not a particularly fast runner. It’s not that he’s slow- he just isn’t a speedster like RG3 or Cam Newton or Vince Young or even Mariota.
That’s probably NOT a drawback, except to a coach like Chip Kelly. Most pro quarterbacks don’t want their quarterbacks to do a lot of running. Mike Shanahan and Jay Gruden have spent a lot of time trying to get RG3 to STOP running!
If Winston were white, I bet this would be a non issue. Tom Brady isn’t any faster than Winston, but so what? He makes the reads and he makes the throws.
If Winston is quick enough to move around a little in the pocket, or to roll out in seach of a secondary receiver, or to pick up an occasional first down, that will be PLENTY “athletic” enough to suit most NFL teams. Apart from that, Winston has the arm and the football IQ to be a good pro quarterback.
ESPNs Todd McShay apparently has Winston as the second highest qb rated ever behind only Andrew Luck.
So I am going to echo the crowd and say it’s just because he isn’t running WR times he’s apparently bad
Watch his interview with Steve Mariucci and tell me his football IQ is low.
Also, according to another article, 80% of the NFL now thinks he will be the 1st pick of the draft.
An NFL exec told Freeman, “I think he’s probably the smartest player I’ve ever interviewed.”"
Another exec told King, “He killed it with us. You don’t have much time with him, and he was able to dissect a few plays pretty precisely. You heard a lot about his football IQ going in, and he didn’t disappoint.”
You guys who keep invoking Tom Brady do realize that Brady was a 6th-round pick, right? A slow 40 might not be the kiss of death, but it’s not as good as a fast 40, and it surely doesn’t have anything to do with him being the next Tom Brady.
Okay, forget Brady. Anybody remember what Andrew Luck ran in the 40? Or Matthew Stafford? Or Philip Rivers? Or Matt Ryan?
Luck isn’t slow either, but he’s not going to race for 50 yard touchdowns. He can scramble a bit and pick up a first down with his legs from time to time. That’s more than good enough in the NFL.
Wiki has 4.67
I read that as “Columbine” and, seeing as I’ve put in an intentional effort to forget the shooter’s names, I thought this was going to be a completely different type of thread. Only after I clicked did I notice it was in the Game Room.
For reference, Jameis Winston ran a 4.97 and was similarly bested by Luck in the other drills. 4.97 is fairly slow even by QB standards, but I would still say that calling him unathletic is reaching for negatives.
Sometimes a prospect is over-analyzed, that people deliberately try to find flaws and over hype the ones they do find.
In case you’re wondering, Michael Moore ran a 40-second 40.
Only in the context of the NFL Combine could running a sub-5 40 be considered “unathletic”. Amazing.
The concern with Winston isn’t his ability to play. Everybody knows he can play. It’s his character that concerns people. Even with that (and his “unathletic” showing) he’ll almost certainly be the first pick.
Frankly, I thought it would take him even longer still to move from left to right.
Well, yeah. It’s not like anyone is comparing pro prospects to the general population. If they were everyone would be amazingly athletic.
Winston’s athleticism worries me less than his propensity to throw the ball to the wrong team or his off field antics.