There are five guys comprising the top tier of this year’s quarterback class, and more than that who have been the subject of draft chatter the last few months. They’re aware of what the world thinks. They know.
There’s no Andrew Luck this year. There’s no Trevor Lawrence. There’s no Joe Burrow, Kyler Murray or Matthew Stafford. There might not even be a Mac Jones.
“We all hear it,” North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell said over the phone, late Saturday morning, less than two weeks ahead of draft day. “I don’t really take it personally. People are going to say what they believe, and that’s what they get paid to do. Whether they’re right or wrong, it doesn’t really matter. I can speak for myself, I truly could care less what anyone says about me. They try to judge all these draft guys before the draft every single year, and then they go in the league and they’re either going to play well or they’re not.
“And they’re going to guess, and 50% of the time they’re going to be right, and 50% they’re probably going to be wrong.”
Howell’s right on two counts.
One, whether his half-and-half estimation is accurate, he’s correct to say that, five years from now, there’ll be some predraft prognostications that look prophetic and others that look like they fit for someone’s parody Twitter account. History tells us that.
Two, the five we referenced—Howell, Liberty’s Malik Willis, Pitt’s Kenny Pickett, Ole Miss’s Matt Corral and Cincinnati’s Desmond Ridder—are going to have the opportunity Howell was talking about to show everyone they were wrong about the class. They’ll have it in large part because all five should go inside the top-100 picks, and top-100 picks generally gets plenty of chances to prove themselves.
And that’s why I thought it’d be good this week for all of you to get to know a couple of the quarterbacks in that mix, hear their stories, and assess for yourselves who they are and where they might go next. Later in the week, we’ll have a more detailed assessment of the five from coaches and scouts, with the good, the bad and the ugly of the group. For now, we’re going to introduce you to Howell and Ridder.
Those two, as I see it, are symbolic of the class—good, solid kids and teammates, and ultraproductive college players who have flaws in their profiles that teams have had to get comfortable with over the last couple of months.
I think you’ll like their stories.
