I thought they were still going to have a chance to talk to the players over video conferencing though, no? Maybe I'm wrong.
I think ProDays and interviews (whether in person or virtual) will be done if I'm not mistaken. That's going to be huge in evaluating the character, athleticism and football IQ on these QBs.. Also think this will end up raising Lance's stock.
That's interesting. I would think evaluating a div II guy who played 1 game and not having any real in person workouts would hurt his stock
The Pro Days will be in person no? That's the impression I'm under, but could be wrong. NDSU is Division 1 FCS football (formerly known as 1-AA), and they won the Championship in 2019. Division 2 is the next division down. In the 2019 championship year, he threw 28 TD's, with ZERO interceptions, and rushed in another 14 TD's. His deep ball and red zone accuracy was outstanding. They only played 1 game this year as the conference decided against playing during COVID. Missing the chance to expand on that excellent 2019 is exactly why the Pro Day and interviews will be so important. Teams need to know if his skillset can translate to the NFL level. I think once teams get that chance to evaluate him themselves, his poise, character, arm, and athleticism will bump him up boards.
Pro days have often been associated with sketchy results. Without the combine it will be harder to determine who really is the strongest or fastest. Having receivers and tight ends do passing drills with the same QB in the same situations makes for a better comparison then having their own QBs throw to them on their home turf. I think we will see a few more late round players make a splash this year as the combine usually does a good job of sniffing some of those sleepers out.
It's effectively division II, and they won championships 8 out of 9 last years. Basically a powerhouse, no worse than FBS teams, with superior talent playing shit competition. That's what makes it so hard to evaluate Lance. He could be great, but if you thought Mac Jones benefitted from playing with talent superior to competition, Lance's situation is taking it to next level. And in one game this year, he looked pretty pedestrian from passing perspective. Now, he could be great, he definitely showed talent last year, and he is actually a year younger than Fields and Wilson, but it's very risky. I can definitely see him climbing up the draft board, but I just don't see him beating BOTH Fields and Wilson as the Jets selection given such limited data set with superior talent against terrible competition. Even with good Pro Day.
Teams should be able to try out rookie QBs for a season or two then return them for their draft pick if they don't work out! Who's with me!!! I mean, if teams lose a good player to FA, the get a draft pick. But if they lose a high draft pick QB to suckiness, they don't get squat. That's so wrong!
I get the feeling Fields is going to be a star, similar to Watson and Mahomes, where we can clearly see his star potential yet scouts and gurus see flaws that drop him a little in the draft as teams like the Jets pass on him.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4_SLfhgVMB/?igshid=1wmce89tsxl9q How am I unable to embed the above post in the message? This puts a damper on my shit posting.
I don't see IG on the list of embeddable sites. Just glad to see somebody spell Brakes correctly. Probably every QB in the draft not named Trevor Lawrence is going to end up doing something like that though.
I go back and forth on him and Wilson. Big fan of both. Will be very happy if we take either guy. I definitely agree that people seem to be overthinking Fields a bit. He doesn't really have any glaring flaws other than "tOSU QB's bad". Lots of good accuracy metrics, good arm, fast, big, smart (high GPA/hard worker). I think Haskins has scared people off Fields a bit but they apparently have very different personalities and tOSU's offense was more pro-style with Fields than with Haskins.
It's FCS, formerly Div-1AA, not Division II. It's an important distinction as a lot of NFL players and QB's come out of the FCS, which cannot be said for Division II. I heard a lot of these same arguments about not drafting an FCS QB that high when Wentz was coming out, who was another prospect I really liked. Wentz went #2 overall, and was a lock for league MVP before getting hurt. He played for the exact same school as Lance. North Dakota State would beat most teams in the Mountain West, including Wilson's BYU program. In terms of playing on a stacked team, this is true. The same can be said regarding Lawrence, Fields, and Jones though. In terms of only having one good season, I agree this is my main concern. The exact same thing could be said of Wilson though. If no one played a season this year due to COVID, Lance's stock would be wayyyyy higher than Wilson based on 2019. So when evaluating Lance, I don't see it any riskier than Wilson, Fields, or Jones. They are all risky imo, and I'm not sure I'd use the #2 overall on any of them. With Lance in particular, he's younger and less experienced, so you cannot plan on starting him immediately. But I think when teams get to see him for themselves, they may end up liking him more than the other prospects. He doesn't have any physical limitations to worry about, his deep ball and accuracy are stellar, his athleticism is off the charts, and I suspect will have the intangibles every coach will love. That's what the FO will be looking into, and unfortunately is info we will not have access to.
As you said yourself, North Dakota State is as strong as FBS teams, but it is playing FCS competition. This is not the case for Lawrence, Fields, and Jones. Yes, sometimes the other teams get outmatched, but even Alabama has not won 8 out of 9 championships. The gap between NDS and their opposition is much wider than between the other 4 guys and their competition. They are facing a combination of Cup cakes and teams with strong defenses, teams that are better than them even. Lance goes against cupcakes all the time and his team is great. That makes a big difference. And this year he didn't have impressive outing against another cup cake team. As far as one year wonder, Lawrence has been great for 3 years, Fields for 2, and Zach actually had a very good freshman year playing on what we now know a torn labrum. The only time he did not play well was after labrum and hand surgery. Then followed up with stellar year once all healed up. This is SIGNIFCANTLY more good data than one year by Lance on a superior to opposition team, followed by below average outing this year against a bad team. Nothing against Lance, looks like he has the physical tools and obviously he has talent. But it's clear there are also a lot more question marks there given he threw 300 passes in his entire career while a team vastly superior to its FCS cupcake competition and actually didn't do so well passing in the only game this year. Just a bit too much risk for my liking compared to Wilson/Fields at #2.
Ok, in terms of 1 year wonder, I pointed out Wilson specifically, not the other guys. And your defense of Wilson's bad performance was significant hand and shoulder injuries? That's not exactly a selling point for Wilson, as Lance does not have that injury history. In terms of competition Alabama, Clemson and Ohio St always have an edge over their competition, unless playing each other. 28 TD's, ZERO Int's, and another 14 rushing TD's....and accurate especially on deep balls and in red zone. Can't ask for much more even against lesser competition. With Carson Wentz literally coming from same program and succeeding, it's not like there isn't already a blueprint for this exact transition. I think you are overrating the other prospects, while trying to play down Lance as a 'risk' due to where he played. If you look at the physical tools, the game tape, and even more importantly the character, I think Lance is the best prospect outside of Lawrence. The only way I could truly verify that though is through interviews, which is why my initial point was the interview process is gonna be HUGE for all of these QB's. My hunch is that the rumor mills of Lance's stock rising will begin when those Pro Days/Interviews start. We can check back then to confirm if that happens or not.
Let's keep this debate honest. I said Wilson's 1st year was good in spite of injury, capped with perfect 18-18 performance at an MVP Bowl Game, and 3d year was exceptional capped with another MVP performance. That's 2 good years, not one. That makes a difference over a one year player who threw 300 times in a career. I agree that injury is a concern, which Lance does not have, so I do want to see Zach measure out well before taking him, and go through medial evaluation. Also, let's not disqualify Fields from this debate, who had two years of great production. I could see a scenario where maybe Lance can get passed one of them, but not both. As far as competition, again, I know you like Lance, and I do too, but you have to admit EVERY game he plays he basically has supporting cast that outmatches the opposing talent by A LOT. That is not true for Zach and Fields. Yes, sometimes it is true, but not all the time. They face some tough defenses, and the gap between talent against them is not as wide as for Lance. In balance you could see them playing mixed bag of talent level compared to theirs, unlike Lance, who always has a lot more. This year he was supposed to play Oregon, which seems to have a better defense, but unfortunately it got cancelled. Not his fault to be sure, but it doesn't help with the risk management. Last two years before Trey NDS had a short scrub QB Easton Stick. He put up in 15 games last year 2750 passing yards, 62+%, 28 TDs, 7 INTs. 17 Rushing TDs. 175 QBR. Trey was better and in 16 games put up 2786 yards, 28 TDs, 0 INTs, 67%, 14 rushing TDs, 180 QBR. Then in the very first game this year he put up very pedestrian stats. The point is that Stick is pretty far from elite, and he looked great too. Not as good as Trey, but it would be good to see what Trey would look like this year. Remember Sam's first year, when he was Heisman favorite for the following season. His second wasn't as good. With Trey, we just don't know if he would turn second season around after subpar first game. We don't know how he would do against better competition where talent gap is less. It's promising, but very risky, that's all I am saying, more so that the other two guys.
