Personally until we find a true franchise QB I'm all for drafting a QB somewhere in the first 3 rounds of any given draft, where depends on who's available when. Just keep drafting and having QB competitions until you get THE right guy to be a franchise QB. Don't hand the position to anyone until they demonstrate clearly they are a true franchise QB.
Personally I think the Chiefs got the steal of last years draft as a UDFA in Tyler Bray, though it will take 2-3 total seasons before he's ready to be a starter.
Excellent article from RotoWorld comparing the top 4 QBs: http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/cfb/45952/349/out-of-the-box
One of the things I found to be misleading from this article (it was posted on the Browns board I'm on) is the percentage of passes to different parts of the field. Carr, for example, is listed as having thrown 33% of his passes as screens while Bridgewater threw only 9.8% as screens. Those who wanted to rag on Carr decided that meant he was just a screen guy when the fact of the matter is Fresno State used the screen pass as their running game. If you look strictly at non-screens, Carr threw 440 passes and Bridgewater threw 385. Manziel and Bortles threw fewer. The other missing piece of information is what kind of routes they were running. A very high percentage of Bridgewater's completions beyond the line of scrimmage were to stationary targets. While I understand that it's statistically the best way to represent it, I dont equate completion percentage with accuracy. There's just no good way to chart ball placement. Just some things to keep in mind when reading this.
If we'd had a truly great QB in last's year draft, one of the no-brainer wonders, the only guy people would be talking about in this draft would be Manziel. The QB position was light on talent last year with only a couple of guys you could envision in the 1st round. Only 1 guy got taken there. So another light draft was followed like a hawk all year by the prognosticators and out of that we got this "great" QB draft that has only a couple of guys in it who should go in the 1st round, one of them a sophomore, after that the draft is just as shaky as last year's draft. It really is like 2011 minus Newton all over again. I'm curious which teams are going to fall all over themselves to pick Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder this time. The teams that did that in 2011 are all looking for QB's again to one degree or another and they may be the teams making the same mistake all over again.
Great article. Folks passing on Bridgewater are going to rue the day. And I still think Carr is going to be a player. Hahahaaa. Locker, Gabbert and Ponder were no where near the talents of Teddy, Manziel, Bortles, Carr. Not even close. _
You don't need a truly great QB to win in this league. Bridgewater is like a Matt Ryan and he's a pretty good QB - worth selecting in the top 5 for sure. Whoever passes on Bridgewater because he's "Skinny" or doesn't have the strongest arm will regret it. He's got the accuracy, the ability fit the ball in tight windows, he's got the football IQ unrivaled by anyone in this draft in my opinion. But he's too skinny and had a subpar pro-day. Unbelievable. Scouts and GMs are looking way too much into this. Imagine if the Texans get Manziel, and the Jags get Bridgewater? I think the Texans will regret that decision when Manziel is on the IR because he continuously puts himself in harms way
I pretty much agree with the Matt Ryan skill-level comparison. Now we need to look at why Matt Ryan succeeded early on and what the indicators are for Teddy Bridgewater in that regards. Matt Ryan was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in 2008. They added him to a talent base that included Michael Turner - who was an All-Pro RB that year, Roddy White - who was a prime ascending talent at WR, Jerious Norwood - who was a good 3rd down scatback, Michael Jenkins - who was a professional 2nd receiver and a solid offensive line. In the next couple of years they added Tony Gonzalez - a Hall of Fame TE, traded up for Julio Jones and added a 1st round LT in Sam Baker. They returned 4 of the 5 offensive linemen that Ryan started with as a rookie in 2009 and 2010. In other words the Falcons absolutely sold out on supporting their young QB and that's how he got over the top most likely. For Teddy Bridgewater to have Matt Ryan's early career he's going to need a similar level of support. Good weapons around him, a stable offensive line, an offensive plan that includes continually refreshing the pool of talent around him so that he has a chance to grow. If it was just too skinny and a subpar pro-day Bridgewater would not have wobbled in the rankings the way he did. The issues people are looking at now with him are the ones that were there all along. The spotlight has become much brighter because that's what happens when you have to fix a guy's worth in the draft. Bridgewater is still a very good prospect but he's not what teams look for in a franchise QB. He's not a Manning/Luck caliber prospect. He's not big enough and his arm is not good enough. That's just what it is. He can still be a great QB but coming in the door he doesn't look like somebody who is going to be that kind of player. He looks more like a good prospect who might make it or might fail, like 90% of the other guys given serious top 10 consideration.
I'm not saying Bridgewater can put the team on his back with sub-par weapons, I don't think he's a guy that will make everyone around him better. There are only 6 QBs that can do that. Brady, Manning, Rodgers, Brees, Wilson and Luck. Bridgewater definitely isn't a Luck / Manning type prospect, but isn't the point to win games? Bridgewater will require a good receiver that can run good routes, and a good TE but I don't think you need world-beaters on the outside for Bridgewater to fulfill his potential. Bridgewater is going to win a lot of games in the NFL. I think we both agree with this assessment of Bridgewater, but again Matt Ryan should have went #1 to the Dolphins that yr. Bridgewater can get stronger though, he doesn't really have any physical limitations - arm strength, size can improve over time with a good workout regime. I don't see any reasons why he falls out of the top 10 to be honest. I think scouts are overlooking his football IQ with his physical build at this stage. Whoever drafts him will have the best QB in the draft for sure.
Wrong! I got turned onto Bridgewater last year. Other Jets fans were raving about him the year before. Bridgewater's been talked about for several years and would still be in the conversation. Carr probably would be too if for no other reason than his older brother having been a 1st round pick.
The reason Bridgewater was such a hot topic last year was that the seniors didn't look all that hot and the seniors from the major conferences really weren't drawing a lot of buzz. The bowl game really helped but it was a lack of senior talent that caused the juniors and a couple of sophomores to get so much press. This year's QB class is basically an under-done souffle at this point. It puffed up to it's maximum extent about mid-season when people still thought that two other sophomores, Mariotta and Hundley might hop the party. It has been slowly deflating since that point as people began to realize that the actual talent at QB wasn't that strong this year. It's not uncommon at this point to hear professional analysts air the opinion that there are no QB's among the top 32 prospects in this draft. That's certainly an exaggeration of the state of affairs but it's not far off the mark. Bridgewater and Manziel both belong in round 1, although with big question marks. Bortles, Carr and Garoppolo don't deserve 1st round consideration. Top of the 2nd should be the ceiling for them, and really it maybe should be the ceiling for Manziel as well.
Blake Bortles is the only guy that reminds me of these QBs, but if the Texans grab Bortles #1 LOL... He's in that Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder class no doubt.
everyone talks about blake bortles potential and it's definitely there, but if you take what he is right now you have a career long journey man at QB QB is the one position i wouldn't want to draft strictly off of potential
Bortles is getting the look that he is because of Bridgewater. They played in the same mid-tier conference and Bortles was the guy playing lights out down the stretch. Add to that Bortles is a senior and was guaranteed to be in the draft this year.. Once the spotlight shifted away from Teddy, as it did by late mid-season, it was going to land on Bortles. Neither of them is as good a prospect as they appeared to be at the height of their candidacies. Bridgewater is a play-worthy candidate for immediate use and has a higher likely success rate as a result of that. Bortles is a physical candidate who looks the part of an NFL starter and will probably require much more grooming before he's fully ready to go. His overall chances of success are lower because once you have problems that need to be ironed out you also have the possibility that you can't fix those problems.
Bortles name started appearing because Mariota was returning to school. That's when people started talking about Bortles as a first rounder. Now as a #1 pick, Bill O'Brien prefers a QB that passes the physical test as you mentioned. Bridgewater obviously doesn't which is leading to this slide. That's my impression of the Bortles come-up in the past couple months. Bortles is a far worse prospect then Bridgewater. It's really not even close. If Bridgewater goes to the Jags, we'll see how the decision plays out really quickly, unless the Texans grab Clowney.
