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Beware the QB Savior

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PlayAction

PlayAction

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It's safe to say that most Skins fans are not confident that Campbell has what it takes to make the Skins a winner. Some don't like him at all and others will reserve judgement until he has a decent OL. So many fans are looking at the QBs in the upcoming draft as potential saviors for the franchise. We've been in this situation before. Skins had a high #3 pick in 1994 and were looking for a franchise QB. We picked a QB that had tremendous success in college and could make all of the necessary throws. Unfortunately, Heath Shuler was a bust in the pros. He scored extremely low on the Wonderlic test and wasn't able to read coverages....a weak OL didn't help him either.

Now, many years later the franchise is again faced with QBs that have done well in college but are uncertain prospects in the pros. The hype on some of the prospects has reached a frenzy. Quite frankly, if QB wasn't such an important position the risks/concerns on the players would preclude any of them from being a top 5 pick.

Bradford:

Positives: extremely bright and performed extremely well in passing exercises. The hype though is off the charts: "Impressive. Best ever. As good as advertised. That was some of the praise that evaluators heaped upon Sam Bradford to describe his scripted workout Monday in Norman, Okla., almost five months to the day since he had surgery on his right throwing shoulder.

"What else could you want," one evaluator said. One team official confided that the biggest concern about Bradford was not even about his shoulder. It was about his left knee, on which he wore a bulky brace for protection and which at times he gingerly set on as a junior."

Negatives: When you watch Oklohoma games Bradford never had to make any defensive reads. The offense would line up; then Bradford would stop and look over to the sideline for a long time for the call; then they would finally execute the play from the spread offense. Bradford may wind up being a franchise QB if he's able to sit on the sideline for years(s). But is that type of player really worth a top 5 pick?

Claussen - performed well in a pro-style offense. But he scored below-average on the Wonderlic. The Wonderlic may not be equivalent to football smarts but I place more value on it for the QB. Schuler scored really low on the Wonderlic as well. I know we shouldn't make judgements based upon appearance but did you guys see the picture in the Washington Post of Bradford and Claussen standing together? Claussen "looks" dumb. I just worry that this guy = Schuler. Cerrato's endorsement of Claussen is the kiss of death.

Colt McCoy - spread offense again. What's the difference between him and Colt Brennan?

Tim Tebow - High character guy and extremely athletic. But he didn't play in a pro-offense and has horrible mechanics (feet and throwing motion). Didn't have to read defenses. Supposedly he could do well moving from QB to H back or full back. Skins don't need an H back. The last Florida(?) QB to change positions from college to the pros (picked in the first round) was a bust (moved from QB to WR - forget his name).

If the Skins were picking low in the first round and Bradford was available I could understand the logic behind drafting him. He could sit on the bench as long as Aaron Rogers did in Green Bay and would hopefully flourish in the long run. But, the #1 or #4 pick is under pressure to save the franchise right now.

Am I being overly critical or cautious regarding these QB prospects? I find myself agreeing with Todd McShay that none of these guys should be picked in the top half of the first round. I think Bradford will be picked high but whether he should be is another question.

How do you guys get around the drawbacks for each of these potential QB picks (assume Skins have no trade opportunities so they must use either the #4 pick or the very high second round pick).?

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Brett81

Brett81

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Colt McCoy was not strictly a shotgun qb and he faced pressure pretty regularly.

Agreed.

Colt McCoy faced defenses that made the defenses in the WHACK conference look like the defenses on the old electric football game where the guys spin in circles and you hope your guy can rattle down the field.

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Tay

Tay

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Agreed.

Colt McCoy faced defenses that made the defenses in the WHACK conference look like the defenses on the old electric football game where the guys spin in circles and you hope your guy can rattle down the field.

LOL! There are some things I actually like about McCoy. I think he is a gamer. He knows how to step it up in pressure situations. I just don't think he is a good QB.

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bobzmuda

bobzmuda

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I just don't agree with anyone that says that Bradford is not in the same class as Sanchez, Stafford, Flacco, etc. Those guys had even greater questions. None of them won a Heisman (much less as a Sophomore), or got their team to the BCS NCG.

Bradford, IMHO, is the best QB prospect to come out since the 2004 class.

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Sweet Sassy Molassy

Sweet Sassy Molassy

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I sorta like how the write up on Clausen is, "He didn't do great on the wonderlic", "Vinny likes him" and "Looks dumb." No mention of his accuracy, ability to read defenses, pocket presence or ability to throw on the run. I know its not a "pro" write up, but if you're going to spend an entire paragraph and a half each on the pros and cons for Bradford using more objective arguments, then write one-liners about other QB lacking any real substance it sorta causes the argument to fall flat, in my eyes.

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J-bomb

J-bomb

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I just don't agree with anyone that says that Bradford is not in the same class as Sanchez, Stafford, Flacco, etc. Those guys had even greater questions. None of them won a Heisman (much less as a Sophomore), or got their team to the BCS NCG.

Bradford, IMHO, is the best QB prospect to come out since Jason White, oh wait what?

Sometimes all those accomplishments mean nothing it could be just the system! But we will see!

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Mr. Sinister

Mr. Sinister

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The Wonderlic is a joke IMO, unless you score in the single digits. Dan Marino didn't have a great Wonderlic score,so did a lot of other solid QB's over the years. As for Bradford, you're way off. The fact that he looked over to the sidelines for the plays has ZERO to do with what happens after the snap, where the reads really count. Pre snap reads in college are'nt that hard anyway. And as far the spread offense detractors, Bradford played under center as a redshirt freshman in '07, and played pretty damn good.

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TheLongshot

TheLongshot

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There are always going to be questions about QBs coming in from college, and considering the mixed result of the draft, it isn't a certainty that the best prospects will be anything.

That being said, if you have the need, then you probably will want to roll the dice at some point. Do your homework and see how well a guy fits in with what you are doing and if he can compete with what you already have.

I tend to agree with the philosophy, tho, that you should always have QBs in the pipeline. You should always have a young guy developing that you can either turn into trade bait, or as a potential replacement if anything happens with your incumbent.

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maskedsuperstar

maskedsuperstar

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It's safe to say that most Skins fans are not confident that Campbell has what it takes to make the Skins a winner.

Campbell doesn't have it. He says the right things but doesn't translate on the field. The offenses have been scaled back. Why?

So many fans are looking at the QBs in the upcoming draft as potential saviors for the franchise. We've been in this situation before. Skins had a high #3 pick in 1994 and were looking for a franchise QB. We picked a QB that had tremendous success in college and could make all of the necessary throws. Unfortunately, Heath Shuler was a bust in the pros. He scored extremely low on the Wonderlic test and wasn't able to read coverages....a weak OL didn't help him either.

Campbell can't read coverages. I mean, I remember in the Dallas game, he missed the corner sneaking up to the line of scrimmage. He never looked left. Missed the simple read, and got sacked. Its been 5 years and he is still making silly mistakes.

Bradford or Clausen will be drafted with the #4 pick. Many fans seem to think Campbell will be fine with a decent OL. Thats BS. Even with time, Campbell is still late on throws, forces throws, can't read coverages etc.

He never seems to go through his progressions. If the primary WR is covered, he dumps it to Cooley. Now, do you honestly think Shanahan is going to stand for that? Shanahan wants the ball down the field. He will not scale back the offense for Campbell. Its time too move on. The future is now. Stop making excuses for Campbell. He simply can't do it. Campbell is a nice guy, very good attitude. Back up at best.

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mdpell

mdpell

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So we shouldn't try to get a good quarterback until one comes out of college with a perfect wonderlic and perfect everything else? Thats they same as saying to never play a hand in poker unless it's Pocket Aces. You have to take a chance at some point or you will never get better.

We have a very high pick right now which means we have the opportunity to get a good prospect at a position that the coach and gm feel we need to upgrade. So why shouldnt we?

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Passizle

Passizle

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So, who had #12 in the "When will Campbell be brought up" pool?

You know what even funnier? I get a real kick that for ever Campbell hater, or at least most that I have seen, the title of "No New Threads" are tagged to them. I wonder why that is?

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skinsdude

skinsdude

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So we shouldn't try to get a good quarterback until one comes out of college with a perfect wonderlic and perfect everything else? Thats they same as saying to never play a hand in poker unless it's Pocket Aces. You have to take a chance at some point or you will never get better.

We have a very high pick right now which means we have the opportunity to get a good prospect at a position that the coach and gm feel we need to upgrade. So why shouldnt we?

I was thinking the same thing. It sounds as though some folks on ES think that you should never draft a quarterback low in the first round because it is too risky.

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Mr. Sinister

Mr. Sinister

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I don't know if you know this or not, but there IS a difference between football intelligence and real intelligence. You could be a Harvard law grad, and not know how to play a single sport, but that would'nt make you dumb would it? Saying someone can't play is one thing. Calling someone dumb is quite another.

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