At what point would you Trade Up to get Jimmy Clausen?

[TrustinGibbs]

Originally Posted by Defensewins

It is funny how the anti-Clause group blame Clausen for the losses and the pro-Clausen group completely absolves him. Somewhere in the middle I think is fair. He does have some responsibility.
The great QB's like Peyton Manning on some under-man-ed Colts teams or Ben Roethlisburger when at Miami of Ohio, won and even upsetting stronger teams so your argument is kind of weak.
Notre Dame is not a weak sister that has no top recruits show up at their door. So when ND loses to Navy, Connecticut or a bad Michigan team in one season, I think that stink has to be partly associated to Clausen.

Notre Dame scored more then enough points to win most or all of the games they have lost in the past two seasons due mostly to Clausen/Tate but they couldn't stop anyone. It is illogical to blame Clausen for most of those losses if not all of them.

The problem at Notre Dame in recent years is they have plenty of talent, even NFL talent on offense and NONE on defense. You cannot win that way(Defensewins right??)

Winning games in college doesn't have a whole lot to do with being successful at the NFL level at the QB position anyway. If it did Matt Lienhart would be headed to the HOF rather then riding the bench and the University of Florida would have numerous All-Pro QB's to it's credit rather then numerous QB's who didn't transition well to the NFL game. How many NCAA Football Championships do Payton Manning, Tom Brady and Bret Farve have anyway?

What matters IMO is:

Can the guy make all of the necessary throws?

Is the guy tough and durable because in the NFL a QB is going to get hit.(this is why I stay far, far away from Bradford especially with a high 1st round pick)

Will said player work hard at his craft and study film to assure his success?

Does said player have the leadership qualities you look for in a QB(this would be the only question mark with Clausen for me, while all of the other available QB's have question marks of their own).

I'd rather draft a QB with a question mark next to leadership then next to durability like Bradford.

With all of that said I do not support drafting Clausen unless he falls to us in the 2nd round.

IMO he will have the best NFL career of any of the available QB's in this draft and he is by far the most NFL ready.