DCOrange

Okay, following up with some notes on this year's crop but if people want to check out the actual website: https://draftqbs.wordpress.com/2024-draft/overall-grades/. This link will take you to the overall page for the 2024 class but there's a drop down in the top right to open each of their profiles. Drake Maye - 91 (Top 5 pick) Caleb Williams - 86 (Top 10 pick) J.J. McCarthy - 79 (Early 2nd round pick) Bo Nix - 77 (Late 2nd/Early 3rd) Jayden Daniels - 76 (3rd round) Michael Penix Jr. - 75 (Late 3rd) Spencer Rattler - 73 (4th round) Michael Pratt - 70 (Late 5th) Joe Milton III - 66 (7th round) Drake Maye The prototype everyone thinks of when creating a QB. Size, arm strength, and athleticism is all there in spades. Oozes arm talent, with the velocity and willingness to make tight window throws, the touch to take something off when needed, and the flexibility to accurately deliver passes even when he doesn't have a clean base to throw from. Uses pump fakes and his eyes to manipulate coverage, diagnoses pressure pre-snap, and throws with anticipation on intermediate and deep passes to really put a lot of pressure on the defense. Costs himself time with various technical issues: some slow dropbacks, patting the ball before throwing, having a slightly elongated release, and general hesitancies in the short game. Footwork has room for improvement and currently costs him some of his consistency as a passer. Too willing to test tight windows sometimes. Caleb Williams Doesn't have the same size as Maye, but his physical tools are out of this world. Flexible arm to throw from various angles and comfort throwing from awkward platforms, off the wrong foot, etc. Not the fastest QB around but he's as elusive as they come both in and out of the pocket. Has that playmaker gene that is so in-vogue right now. Arm talent is ridiculous but ball placement can be a bit spotty. Pre-snap reads leave a lot to be desired. Inconsistent reads in the read option game. Simply improvises far too much right now. J.J. McCarthy Just turned 21, youngest passer in the class. Good athlete. Good vision and contact balance as a runner despite relatively small size; think he could have been utilized in the run game more than he was at Michigan. Pretty good timing as a passer, especially on deep passes. Keeps his eyes up when he rolls out. Every pass is thrown on a rope; almost zero flashes of throwing with touch. When he misses, he tends to sail it over the receiver's head. Bo Nix Good athlete and knows how to protect his body. Accurate 20 yards and shorter. Takes good care of the ball. Doesn't use his legs enough to generate power behind his throws. Oregon system makes it difficult to evaluate him due to the ridiculous number of quick hitters. Infamously terrible dealing with pressure at Auburn but got the ball out so quickly at Oregon we didn't really get to see if he's improved when under duress. 24 years old already. Jayden Daniels As close to Lamar as it gets in terms of running in the open field. Nowhere near as good in traffic as Lamar. Works side to side in his progressions more than most in this class and gets the ball out on time. Throws with good timing and placement on curl routes, slot fades, and squatters against zone coverage. Historically bad in terms of pressure to sack ratio and responds to pressure terribly. Does not keep his eyes up when on the move. Does not protect his body on the move. Often misses behind the target on horizontal routes. Tends to leave deep ball short and force his WRs to box out/contort their bodies to catch the ball. Will turn 24 as a rookie. His center did a terrible job snapping the ball. Michael Penix Jr. Maybe best in the class in terms of getting through progressions. Manipulates coverage with his eyes, huge hands to really sell his pump fakes, etc. Best in class in terms of pressure to sack ratio; mostly from knowing where his check downs are (though there are issues here still). Good placement on deep throws, out routes, and curls. Lots of passes batted at the line due to low release angle. A sitting duck inside the pocket. Shies away from contact/would rather throw it up for grabs than take a sack. Accuracy under pressure falls off a cliff. More area accuracy rather than pinpoint. Turns 24 in a couple weeks. Spencer Rattler In terms of size and physical tools, he's fairly similar to Caleb Williams. Can throw the heater as well as the changeup when needed. Playmaker's mentality, both the good and the bad. Not as athletic as he thinks he is; scrambles very often but isn't able to get away from pass rushers. Not as strong as he thinks he is; often thinks he has the arm to throw off his backfoot/while backpedaling and leaves the ball hanging in the air. Constantly late on reads and gives DBs a chance to recover. Struggles to recognize blitzers. Tends to get stuck on his primary read. Will turn 24 early in his rookie season. Michael Pratt Experienced, calls protections at the line, throws with touch. Mediocre arm and mobility, spotty ball placement, limited ceiling. Needs everything around him to be perfect to succeed. Joe Milton III Cannon for an arm. Might have been a worthy developmental project if he were younger. Horrendous accuracy; strong candidate for a position change in the NFL.

Yes after playing WR every other year. It’s not like Luke McCaffrey where he was actually a QB and transitioned to WR in college.

Yeah it’s entirely possible they just felt good enough with how day 2 went and didn’t want him to mess anything up from there but we’ll never know for sure.

Legette, Junior Colson, and Kingsley Suamataia

Think it was an ankle injury if I remember right and he pulled out after the second practice. This is a myth. He played WR basically his entire high school career.

Tom Pelissero did mention him as one of the 4 guys to watch out for as a surprise 1st rounder.

I’ve seen multiple people compare him to Antonio Brown. I can see it in terms of how they move but Brown was a rare undersized guy that had great ball skills in contested situations. I don’t see that with Ladd unfortunately.

It would make me sad for multiple reasons: (1) because I want to see him given a decent landing spot to blossom and New England doesn’t seem to be that and (2) If they are able to build around him I think he’ll be a thorn in our side.

I’m absolutely dreading watching them draft Maye

I think Diggs was good enough to be great in the playoffs. He just didn’t play up to his normal level for one reason or another. I don’t expect McConkey to get to that level and certainly don’t expect him to be someone that beats press coverage consistently. But if we could get a Diggs level player at 28 I would take that in a heartbeat. I’d trade up into the top 10 if I had to. I don’t really see that potential for Legette either but he is at least strong enough that he could be an X WR with time.

Love reading this post each year and seeing where you and I align and differ. I’ll probably try to come back and throw my abbreviated scouting reports in here when I get back home so we don’t clutter up the board with multiple QB breakdown posts. I think I have two more games of Rattler to get through before I’m done with the main scouting reports for the year and my guess at the moment is Rattler will end up ahead of a couple of these guys on my list but it could go either way still. I also have an even more abbreviated scouting report for Joe Milton and potentially will do Devin Leary and Jordan Travis if I have time. I think my current order for the guys I’ve scouted is: Maye Caleb JJ Nix Penix Daniels Pratt with 4-6 all being close to one another.

If a Diggs ceiling isn’t good enough for you, nothing will be. If Diggs as his ceiling is actually accurate, with where his floor probably is right now, he’d easily be WR4 in this class and maybe higher than that.

The red helmet is a cool idea but it probably won’t match the red jersey since the helmet seems to be chrome. The H helmet is gross and pointless. The rest is maybe a slight upgrade on what they previously had.

He’s not really a converted QB. He filled in at QB for one year and was mostly just running wildcat. McConkey also played QB his senior year and threw for 20 TDs as well as 10 rushing. Luke McCaffrey and Isaiah Williams are legitimately converted QBs and Adonai Mitchell dabbled with it a little in high school as well.

I think the vision would be for him would be to play as both the Z and the slot depending on the situation. The trickier part is that’s probably the plan for Samuel. If we plan on rotating WRs a lot they can all play but we don’t have anyone that projects as an X right now besides Shorter who I am not willing to assume will ever make an impact for us.

I don’t really know what to make of that either to be honest. You put on the tape and Thomas plays hard and has no issue shedding press coverage, making downfield blocks, all the high effort stuff. Worthy doesn’t do any of that but he’s more talkative so he’s the one with an edge to him? That sounds like a bad thing to me. Again, I always enjoy reading these confidentials; just confused by some of it every year where I see basically the opposite of what they see.

I feel like the Thomas notes were just a mixed bag. A lot of complimentary stuff and a lot of concerns too. Feels like that’s kind of the case with everyone beyond the top 3. The mentality stuff with Worthy is interesting. Mel Kiper echoed that too, saying he’s one of those guys that will play through injury and do whatever it takes to help the team win. That just doesn’t show up on the field IMO. His effort blocking is a joke and he has the same effort issues on his routes that Mitchell has. Feels like more bark than bite to me. Always a good read even if I sometimes feel like I’m watching different players from the guys they’re describing. Like the Nabers > Harrison stuff…at least these guys are going fairly in depth about why they feel that way. Same with the Daniels > Maye stuff even if I don’t see what they see.

I’d guess we trade up. I think somewhere in the 17-23 range is most likely so I voted for the earlier option of the two.

I probably wouldn’t take either at 28, but McConkey is an early 2nd type to me so he’s close. Legette is not IMO. The concern with McConkey (beyond the injury history) is I think he mostly gives us more of what we already have rather than giving us something new.

I don’t expect either to go in the first, but I’m guessing one or two of those teams that rely pretty heavily on analytics will have Franklin high up on their WR big board. I don’t think we are that team.

Currently 34.5 at the one I’m looking at.

They’re very bland and the white helmets are absolutely atrocious. Besides the white helmet, mostly inoffensive but just pretty boring.

We have a source off between Russini saying she hears Penix will go earlier than expected and Allbright saying the exact opposite

Adding on to this, his advanced metrics just aren’t very good and I think his tape at UNC was frankly very bad. He’s basically just a flier based on his physical tools but he’s nearly 23 years old which isn’t ideal for taking that sort of gamble. I think he’s a fine Day 3 pick but I’d be disappointed if we take him anywhere in the first 4 rounds or so.

McConkey’s YPRR this season against man was pedestrian (granted small sample size since he missed time), especially compared to his YPRR vs. zone where he was dominant. Matt Harmon has McConkey as #4 in the class vs. man coverage out of the 16 he’s charted now. I agree with the concerns about too many similar skillsets and particularly with none of them being a good fit at the X. For comparison’s sake, Harmon has Legette charted as the 16th out of 16 against man coverage (though I know his numbers on Tez Walker will be dead last once he publishes him on the website; he has Tez as I believe the worst he’s ever charted lol) and has Legette at the the bottom against press coverage too (McConkey is also at the bottom).