The Too Soon 2021 NFL Draft Thread

[Scalper]

Originally Posted by AnonEmouse

I'm not suggesting we need a running QB, but we need a mobile one. Unless we can rebuild the OL in one season (and being in mind Scherff might only be here 1 more year max), we need a guy who can extend passing plays, not just takes off running every time. A Mahomes/Wilson type, not Jackson.

OTOH if RR and Turner think they can scheme up protection improvements in the meantime, and ANYONE will be be more mobile than Smith (hell, a pot plant would be more mobile), then maybe Jones is a good answer if he can move around a bit. I'm just conscious of putting a static rookie back there and breaking him a la Burrow.

Running and mobile are synonyms. Your QB spends much time outside the pocket, he gets creamed eventually, period. You need a pocket QB with pocket presence, who has the gift of sensing pressure and eluding it without taking off running, stepping up to get the pass off or throw it away. You don't draft the wrong sort of QB long term because of short term blocking problems. Everyone is enamoured of mobile running QBs, but year in year out the guys winning it and making deep playoff runs are pocket passers.

Wilson only won SB with one of most stacked Ds of all time. Mahomes has been banged up since he started running more. I think he was WAY more injured in SB than he let on. No excuses, Bucs won, but Mahomes mechanics seemed off all game.

Your focus in drafting a QB should be his accuracy, arm strength, and ability to generally throw the ball, not his ability to play RB, period. You can't have your QB taking hits from 250 LBs and 275-300 LB DL. The QB that doesn't get hurt is the one that can go through his progressions fast and has pocket presence, and that does NOT mean the ability to run real fast outside the pocket. RBs get hurt more than most any other position, why would you use your QB, the hardest position in all of sports to fill, as one? Most running QBs have never demonstrated an ability to go through progressions and elude the rush WITHIN the pocket, which is one reason bust rates are sky-high in recent years. You draft a guy who does things in college that don't equate with pro success and then express amazement when your QB can't ever really read a D, go through progressions fast, and get the ball out fast. Jones has a PROVEN ability to do the things that great NFL pocket passers do, but I still don't love his arm strength. Jones is a no brainer versus most of the other prospects everyone rates higher.

Burrow had nothing approaching elite athleticism. He was not worthy of the #1 pick. That being said, sucks anyone gets injured that bad. You need an OC who runs a system that maximizes talent rather than forcing the system he loves. In the final analysis, you have to draft a QB and protect him, but you can't let lack of protection warp the way you evaluate long term prospects of success of a QB. EVERY QB who has won more than one SB in salary cap era is a pocket passer. There is not one exception. Running QBs are a fad, nothing more.

If you refuse to draft a QB who has not flourished for at least two years in a pro style system, and demand that such a QB have natural accuracy, natural pocket presence, and the intelligence to read Ds coming out of school (not learning it later as a projection) bust rates plummet. A HUGE percentage of the highly drafted QB busts are running QBs or system college QBs with NO experience in reading Ds or pro Os. Just because everyone espouses something doesn't make it sensible, and the opposite is usually true. Don't believe the hype about running QBs. One other problem with them is much shorter shelf life. They lose a step and then run out of the pocket, as they age, they get KILLED.

Again, it won't matter. Jones will be gone by the time we pick methinks. Long gone.