Overvaluing A QB Prospect

Last week Junior Oklahoma QB Landry Jones said he received a high 1st round grade from the NFL Draft Advisory Board. This would have made sense before last season in which he came in receiving a consensus top 5 selection in this year’s draft but, after he lost his number one option Ryan Broyles he struggled the rest of the season. Jones made evaluators double take, leaving some to think was his success an aberration or his true form a marginally successful quarterback at the collegiate level. Maybe it’s a little of both but why would an inconsistent quarterback be valued so greatly? The easy answer is supply and demand.

In the last year’s draft many people raised eyebrows at the selections of some quarterbacks in the top 15 picks. Blaine Gabbert at 10, Jake Locker at 18, and especially Christian Ponder at 12, were all thought to be over drafted. The three were thought to be at best middle to late 1st round picks. With an emphasis to win now and not build for the future and with that being pressed onto a GM or coach they are projecting onto a quarterback who they want them to become. With names like Ryan Tannehill and Brandon Weeden being pushed into the discussion of the 1st round and a bottom feeding team like the Bills will reach and set back their franchise.

Just as I was writing this the Washington Redskins traded one 2nd round pick, two 1st’s and swapped 1st round picks with the St. Louis Rams to most likely select highly praised prospect Robert Griffin III. When a true legit face of your franchise is there you must do everything possible to get them and not watch someone else take them because if you don’t do it everyone will get fired anyway. With there only being so many out there the emphasis turns to drafting them and hiding them behind a great run game and defense (Sanchez, Flacco, Dalton) while putting them in position to succeed while masking their weaknesses and that only works so long until a new management comes in and starts everything over again.