2012 QB Prospects (Part 2)

[Paintrain]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

My official position is that it's far too early to judge anyone from the 2011 QB class right now. I think Ponder looks a lot better than Gabbert at this point, but I won't be concerned about Gabbert unless he's still JaMarcusing it at this point next year. Then Jacksonville has issues. We used to have a word to describe Blaine Gabbert's performance, and that word was "rookie."

You need rushers like Kerrigan in this league just as much as you need franchise quarterbacks, so I will never struggle to grasp the Redskins decision. Me personally? I would have kept Andre Carter and been more patient with him and drafted a QB in 2011. But then we'd be looking at having to address that hole on the defense anyway.

A big thing for me was that as soon as we passed on Ponder, I would have taken T.J. Yates down in the draft (maybe even in the second round) because he pretty much was Christian Ponder in college, just a year older. And while you would be totally shocked how much of a difference a year makes in terms of total career value (I think it's something like 30-40%), a fourth or a fifth round pick on Yates would have been a bargain. Same with Pat Devlin or Scott Tolzien, who both went undrafted. All of this assumes the Redskins took Ryan Mallett off their draft board, because let's face it, the Redskins under Shanahan have never spent a high pick on a guy with the dreaded 'character issues.' Or something.

Well in evaluating Gabbert it really has nothing to do with his production, I see a guy with a major case of the flinches. Any time pressure is in his face he seems to either throw off of his back foot or completely lose his fundamentals to just unload it. His numbers on 3rd down and red zone in college weren't good at all either so there is a significant question about how he handles stress and pressure. That's not really something that can be coached. I've seen that behavior closely compared to David Carr and Joey Harrington, not good company to be in.

As much as Carter looks great in NE this year, he has shown a couple of times (SF & Wash) that despite his ability and effort, he's not a 3-4 guy. There's nothing wrong with that, some guys just are poor fits for that system. Kerrigan gives us a guy younger and better suited for that position.

I'm with you on the young QB thing but I think the choice not to draft Mallett had more to do with system compatibility concerns than it did character issues.