2017 NFL Draft: Quarterback questions
Every year, we end up looking forward to the NFL Draft with two eyes squarely focused on the quarterbacks. This spring is going to be no different, despite most of the top players residing on the defensive side of the ball. In April, we are likely going to be seeing men like Myles Garrett, Jonathan Allen, Teez Tabor, Jamal Adams and Jabrill Peppers get plenty of spotlight, but they won’t be the main talking points.
No, those will be reserved for the young men who throw the pigskin. While we are still more than three months from the Cleveland Browns being placed on the clock by commissioner Roger Goodell, we can already see the class coming together. For all the world, it looks like Mitch Tribusky, DeShone Kizer and Deshaun Watson are going to be picked in the first round. Then there is Patrick Mahomes, son of Major League Baseball pitcher Pat Mahomes, who could come out of Texas Tech and either go late first or early second.
Right now, Tribusky is getting the most love from around the internet. He’s a kid with only one year of starting experience at North Carolina, but he has a good arm, nice accuracy and quality size. While his experience is a serious concern and his Sun Bowl performance against Stanford was bad, many believe he will become a very nice starting quarterback at the next level.
Kizer is a bit of a tougher read. Playing at Notre Dame, he wasn’t the undisputed starter until the season and the Fighting Irish struggled big-time throughout 2016, winning only four games. However, he has looks straight out of central casting at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds. Kizer also threw 26 touchdowns against only nine interceptions, but there are two big red flags. One is the losing record at Notre Dame this year. The other, and the bigger of the two, is his accuracy. Completing 58.7 percent of your throws is awful in college. Almost always, accuracy is the one thing that doesn’t improve from college to pros.
As for Watson, he is coming into this process with the most hype. He’s been to the National Championship Game each of the past two years, winning it this month against Alabama. Watson is another big kid at 6-foot-3 and 215 pounds, and he’s far more accurate at 67.0 percent this season. However, Watson did throw 17 interceptions and had struggles placing a deep ball into the hands of open receivers. Before he beat Alabama, many believed Watson would go in the second round, but now the hype train has him moving up in the draft.
The next three months will be crazy, with the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis looming.
