[ethat001]

Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf are the class of the NFL draft, but experts say one of them stands head and shoulder pads above the other
posted 4/13/1998 on SI.com

...But in the view of a six-man blue-ribbon panel that analyzed game tapes of the players for SI, Leaf doesn't rank as high as Manning. Each expert was asked: If you had to pick one of these players, whom would you take? With different degrees of conviction, each said Manning. Three said they would be shocked if the Colts didn't select him.

The panel was made up of Tampa Bay Buccaneers director of player personnel Jerry Angelo; Sid Gillman, who was instrumental in the development of the West Coach offense; Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan; former New York Giants quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Phil Simms; UCLA coach Bob Toledo, whose Bruins played Tennessee and Washington State in each of the last two seasons; and former San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh. The panelists raised doubts about Leaf's mental preparedness and mechanics but still liked him as a player. However, they think Manning is the superior prospect at the most important position in the game.

...Leaf admits that he "hit the banquet circuit a little hard and ordered too much room service late at night." Maybe his ballooning to 261 pounds reflected nothing more than a kid loving life and celebrating his newfound celebrity. But maybe it was a red flag.

"I was at the combine for the weigh-in," says Angelo, "and it really surprised me. Here's what could be the biggest day of your life, the day you're going to expose yourself to your future employers for the first time, and you show up out of shape and overweight. To me, that's a signal. The quarterback has to be the CEO of your team. You have to trust him. I'd have some hard questions if that happened and we were going to pick him."

The "Is RG3 another Ryan Leaf" debate is overblown. Cool part is you can go back in time & search on google for articles from 4/1-4/15/1998, right before the 1998 draft. As above, there were concerns about Leaf before the draft (including showing up 20 lbs overweight). Shanahan actually evaluated him at that time (as above) -- and also predicted it wasn't close.

I think we should give RG3 a chance before we call him RG Leaf. We don't know what's going to happen, but I think he's already shown more potential than Leaf ever did.