This is just a very shaky point though. Newton played (on the field) for Florida in 2007 and 2008. Tebow was the starting QB but Newton actually got snaps also both seasons. Then he went to Blinn College after the laptop theft incident and won the National Junior College Championship there as the starting QB. Then he went to Auburn and won the National Championship there as the starting QB. He was a senior that year and had 4 years in college football programs, albeit only two as a starter and one at the JUCO level. That's a lot different than Mariota having two years of experience as a sophomore. Cam Newton was two years older when he was drafted than Mariota would be if he was drafted next year. There's never been a sophomore QB drafted to an NFL team. That may well change next year but I think it is unlikely to produce a storm of sophomores to the NFL. Johnny Manziel may not be the perfect pro prospect but he has a lot of noise around him. Mariota really doesn't. People are only looking at him because they're looking at Manziel. If Manziel wasn't there nobody would be talking about the potential for Mariota to get drafted next year. Lots of college QB's have had excellent sophomore seasons. That doesn't make them instant candidates to get drafted. A 20 year old kid cannot walk into an NFL locker room and be a leader. They just don't have the chops to do that.
Oh please Bradway, Cam Newton's ~50 total snaps in two years does not mean anything. He wasnt the starting QB, thats all there is too it. Mariota, and Manziel for that matter, are not a true sophomores. He's a redshirt sophomore that was still in a CFB program his true freshman year. Otherwise he wouldnt be draft eligible. He's still been in one of the best football programs in the nation for 3 years. And 2 of those years he's started and played exceptionally well.
So where do you place Sean Mannion, Oregon State? Can't wait to see what he does Friday night against Mariota. I believe Mariota should be top 3 QB even though all his offensive teammates are NFL quality and it may be smoke and mirrors like Geno was.
Haven't watched anything on him. Edit: Just watched his Utah game. He has nice touch on his pass but his decision making didn't seem too good (at least in that game) and he just seemed kind of mediocre. I'd probably put him below all those other QBs and I think he would be a late round pick.
Sean Mannion playing pretty well, other then that interception in the RZ earlier on, he has recovered pretty nicely.
He played pretty well. Made a nice throw on the last drive that shoulda been caught and put them in FG range for the win. Your boy Fales balled out.
Big fan of Fales and his NFL potential. Fales is a tough QB, he goes through his progressions, and his accuracy is prob 2nd best to Bridgewater this coming draft. The kid is coach-able and has plenty of starts in college as well. He would best fit Marty M's west coast offense (accuracy, quick decisions). He doesn't have the strongest of arms, but his accuracy completely makes up for it. My rankings ... 1. Bridgewater 2. Mariota (potential wise - but I would rather draft Carr or Fales) 3. Carr 4. Fales Not a huge fan of Marcus Mariota's translation to the NFL - this read option BS is no go, plus he's surrounded by NFL talent. I like college QBs that don't have much to work with but continue to succeed. Carr has the better team around him, Fales has done less with more. The knock is the competition he's faced, but how many good QBs do we see today that have played in lesser conferences?
Mariota is a very young player playing with good players around him in a college offense. There are so many different transitions that he needs to make that the odds on him succeeding are low. If somehow he winds up in the NFL the place he really wants to be is on a good team with a veteran QB who has at least two years of effective play left. He wants to be on the Aaron Rodgers plan. Even then he's not any kind of lock to be good.
I think this "he has good players around him" argument is a load of shit. Josh Huff is a solid WR, but he isnt a great one. He lost lyerla for most of the season. He has some very good RBs along side him, but none of this says anything about the type of player he is or will be. Andrew Luck had 2 very high picks at TE in Fleener and Ertz. RG3 had Josh Gordon and Kendall Wright to throw to. Russell Wilson had one of the best run games and offensive lines in the country at Wisconsin. Johnny Manziel has the a top 2 WR in the nation to throw to, and a very good offensive line, with two left tackles that will be top 5 picks. Tajh Boyd has/had a top 2 WR in the nation to throw to in Sammy Watkings, another great one in Deandre Hopkins, and a very good RB in Andre Ellington. Matt Stafford had AJ Green for a season. ... The list goes on It seems like some of you are using this excuse of good players around Mariota to prove that he is raw or something. Fact is, if you look through the NFL and some successful QBs, youre probably going to find that they werent throwing to garbage
That's a fair point, that's why it's important to disregard the performances against inferior competition, and only look at how they play in big games. TB has played big in big games, Mecklenberger has played big also, and what I like about them is that they play in NFL style offenses, the transition should be much easier for those guys. But truly at the end of the day, with the exception of a few, If you have to argue about whether they should be drafted high or not, that means they are not Elite at their position.
Nobody needs to prove that Mariota is "raw". He's obviously raw. He's young, he's only been playing QB at any level for 3 seasons, he's playing in a non-NFL offense in a system that has been very successful over the years. Anybody who thinks that Mariota's physical ability means much in terms of whether he can adapt successfully to the NFL next year at the age of 20 is mistaken. His tests are going to be mental, they're going to be about maturity level, they're going to be about whether a room full of 22 to 32 year old players perceives him as a leader. They're going to be about whether he can master the mechanics required of adapting to an NFL offense. They're going to be about whether other teams can adapt to him faster with film study than he can adapt to them. If you look at the big picture the likely result of Mariota playing in the NFL next season is a total disaster. Could his physical ability over-ride everything else and let him prosper? Well to really answer that question we need to know who he is playing for and what the coaching and talent levels around him are like. We need to know whether the team involved decides to run some variant of Oregon's offense, making everybody else on the roster learn, or runs their offense making him learn. As a Jet fan would you be willing to take Mariota next year and go 5-11 in 2014 and 7-9 in 2015 in order to maybe get lucky and have a good record in 2016? These are the kind of questions people who want a sophomore QB need to ask themselves. The other thing is that nobody knows whether or not Mariota is Cam Newton or Jimmy Clausen. We'd all like to project him as Cam Newton but he could just as easily come in and look absolutely miserable, positively Geno-esque, in 2014 and then what happens? The only way to get real value out of Mariota coming out next year, absent a miracle, is to sit him for a couple of years behind somebody who can keep him on the bench. Then you have 3 years tops to figure out whether or not he is worth a big second contract. Obviously none of this is a precise science but good lord, taking a sophomore QB out of a read-option offense and expecting him to do well in the NFL is more like witchcraft.
Well some team will take him very high, and Im sure many teams who need a QB would gladly take him. Colin Kaepernick was about as raw as they come, he sat for a year and is now a good QB with the ceiling to be a great one. He may have to sit for a year, he may not, but Mariota definitely has the tools to be a great one. Also, most importantly, he is a pretty damn efficient QB. Entering this week he only had 2 interceptions on the year. He makes overall good decisions and thats a quality that you seem to not be recognizing. Also, this sophomore shit is getting old, because he's still been around a CFB program and coaching for 3 years. He's a 2 year starter, but has been at Oregon for 3 years. His age is the same as any Junior coming out, and I dont see you complaining about players not responding to Teddy Bridgewater's leadership ability despite them being the same age. Mariota may come out, he may not. Either way, he's going to be a top 10 pick and most likely wont be there for when we pick so it wont be the Jets taking a "chance" on him.
I agree completely and think he should be taken in the 2nd round but my bet is on a team overreaching and taking him top 15. All the people comparing him to Kaep are off, Kaep is a sub 4.5 sprinter who has one of the best arms coming out of college in the last decade and he was still taken in the 2nd round and sat a year. He also has arguably one of the best QB coaches coaching him up in Jim Harbaugh.
I guarantee Mariota runs at least a 4.5, and he's got a hell of an arm. The reason why Kaepernick was a 2nd round pick is because he's was as raw as they come and strictly ran the read option.
There are guys every year who have massive arms like Kaep, but he had no where the arm talent of Mariota in college. He was a 58% completion QB throughout college and Mariota is 66% and the TD to INT ratio isn't close. Kaep was much more of a runner in college, Mariota runs but he's not a 1100-1200 yard runner like Kaep. Mariota was much more of a pass first balanced QB in college, Kaep ran a lot. _
My question to you is simply where do you think he should go, I believe he should go late first early second round, hes had no experience in an NFL offense, hes only a sophmore at the moment, and he looks like hes one blindside hit away from IR. If he does come out this year which I don't think he will he needs to sit for a year. I love RGIII and Kaep but these guys are going to most likely end up injury prone unless they start to develop into Steve young type pocket passers who only run when necessary. You just can't survive in the NFL getting beat on by NFL LB'ers when you try to run a read option system.
Should or will? If Kaep were in next years draft where would he go, knowing what we do? He'd be top 5. Just like Mariota should. And will. _
