dave mcbride

A couple of things - football scheming (offense and defense) is a lot more complex now than in 1984, and more is asked of qbs than ever (that is, it's more of a passing league than a running league now than it was then). Secondly, people of privilege -- and in this i include ALL draftable qbs who play at big time schools and get invited to the combine -- get far more prep on this sort of thing than in the past. I really don't think people took these sorts of tests as seriously in the early 1980s as they do now. Hence I don't think invoking marino/kelly tells us anything about about the present. That's why such a low score scares me. (And for the record, kelly was a great player, but he ran a really simple scheme that relied heavily on talent (great o-line, receivers, and rb). Bottom line: it's less easy to get through life in the nfl as a meathead qb than it was 30-40 years ago. I firmly believe that.

yes, i know. All of those FSU QBs were "accurate" using completion percentage as a measure because someone was literally WIDE OPEN on almost every play. Those teams were loaded. Over a four-year period between 2012 and 2015, 33 FSU players were drafted, and 13 in the first two rounds.

He's glacially slow and can't beat CBs over the top. He's not a true #1.

Manuel wasn't actually that accurate in college. Those Florida State teams were LOADED (eg., Devonte Freeman, Kelvin Benjamin, Nick O'Leary), and given that opponents (almost all markedly inferior in terms of talent) pretty much always played zone against them, someone was wide open on pretty much every play. Christian Ponder was pretty accurate in his final two seasons, and Winston was at 66 percent in both of his seasons too. When Manuel had to play against real defenses in the NFL, the lack of accuracy became apparent.

Interestingly, Jameis Winston only hit 55 mph at the combine, but his fastball sat in the 93-94 mph range when he was a pitcher for Florida State.

Didn't he basically cost Carolina a victory vs NO in their playoff game this year? http://larrybrownsports.com/football/kaelin-clay-drops-touchdown-video/420171 also: http://larrybrownsports.com/college-football/utah-kaelin-clay-celebrates-touchdown-video/246789

See immediately above!

More, and from a Buffalo scout in 2005 no less: "Marc Ross, Buffalo: "[Aaron Rodgers] is a little short. The thing you worry about is those (Jeff) Tedford guys. They don't do anything for a couple years and then they have a good year or two. Who of his quarterbacks has done what they're supposed to do? None of them. Is he just working magic with great college quarterbacks or just manufacturing guys?" http://archive.jsonline.com/sports/packers/203116571.html/

Even that's problematic. Being attached to Jeff Tedford (coach of Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller, and AJ Feeley) led to Aaron Rodgers dropping 20 some-odd draft slots. Lesson: Always, always judge the player and disregard the rep of the school and the system. The latter path is lazy thinking.

I think we should spend two firsts on a 2014-draft year receiver before we get a QB.

I agree with that. I just think he's replaceable. It's a great draft year for RBs, and to my eye Bell is no better at this point than Kamara. There will be another Kamara this year; there always is. The Steelers are pretty good at finding those guys. Christ, DeAngelo Williams had a GREAT season the year Bell went down four games into the season: 907 yards, 11 TDs, 4.5 ypc, 40 receptions on 47 targets, and 9.2 yards per reception.

The Steelers have decades of history of replacing skill-position pieces with good newcomers as long as the QB is good. I trust their process.

I think cold logic will dawn on Gettleman (and it may have already) and he'll do what's obviously right: draft the next franchise qb.

After 2004, the Steelers let Plaxico Burress go. They won the SB the next season. After 2009, they let Santonio Holmes go. They went to the Super Bowl the next season. Both Burress and Holmes were really, really good for the Steelers. The team didn't miss a beat after their departures, however, because they had an elite QB and other good young talent who replaced the people who left fairly easily. To paraphrase Charles DeGaulle, the graves are filled with indispensable running backs.

I watched Lamar Jackson all the way through because honestly I saw very little of him. I must say that outside of his runs, I wasn't particularly impressed. I didn't think he was awful or anything like that, but overall I thought his mechanics, pocket presence, and ball placement were pretty spotty. I hesitate to use this comparison, but he reminded me of Vince Young while at Texas. To be fair, I think Young could have been a solid pro if he had been willing to put the work in. He wasn't, but my understanding is that Jackson is the sort of person who will.

Awesome. Thanks.

That's my gut feeling too. I think they love Darnold but realize he's not a realistic option.

That's mostly right, but really, only on the game day coaching front. The defensive players were drafted higher on average, but they will have two likely first rounders from the offense this year and quite possibly 4 offensive players overall (Rosen, Miller, Lasley, and Quessenberry). Of the 25 selected before this season since the 2013 draft (5 years), 13 were defensive and 11 offensive. There was one punter too. Regardless, 25 over 5 years is really strong. Anyone who thinks this number is unimpressive is crazy. In that same time frame, ND had 24 players selected, USC 22, Oregon 17, Georgia 21, Michigan 22, Texas 10, and Auburn 17. I could go on - these were simply the first random top tier schools I looked at. Agreed about the Bills and Rosen. I have a hunch they don't like him or want him.

Then whoever is assigning those stars is full of crap because they have been raking when it comes to NFL draft picks. That to me is a FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR(!) better measure of recruiting acumen than high school rankings. And it'll be 5 first rounders in 6 years after this draft, not three in 8. He started coaching there in 2012. Two Bruins are likely to go in the first round this year (Rosen for sure and in all probability Kolton Miller). Sorry, Yolo, but you're just factually wrong on this. Look at the number of NFL draftees UCLA had in the four years prior to his arrival. It was a truly meager total.

This is incorrect, Yolo. UCLA recruited *extremely* well while he was there overall. http://dailybruin.com/2017/04/27/mckinley-likely-to-be-bruins-fourth-first-rounder-in-five-years/ and

Mora is a bad coach. I am a UCLA alum and know of what I speak. He did recruit well, which is of course at least half the battle. But game day coaching? He's awful. Consistently outcoached by the better coaches in the Pac 12 in games in which the talent level was more or less even.

Man, Mora's comments are being wildly misinterpreted here. He also said that Rosen is perfect for both NY teams and that they should take him like that.

And a lot of people think that the Bills regard Darnold as the surefire best QB of the lot.

And they scored 10 points!