Tweet
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/fo...icle-1.3921112
Excerpt: "Not everyone believes the Giants need to take one of this year’s widely-praised quarterbacks with the No. 2 overall pick in this month’s draft.
There will be a draft in 2019, too, and while next year’s QB class is a virtual afterthought for now, it’s not devoid of talent -- just as this spring’s heralded group of passers is not necessarily a sure thing.
“This year’s is a potentially very good QB class. It also has great potential for bust written all over it,” NFL draft analyst Tony Pauline, the publisher of draftanalyst.com, told the Daily News on the phone Friday morning of a class headlined by USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Wyoming’s Josh Allen and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. “I was more excited about this quarterback class in Sept. 2017 than I was in March 2018. None of them really progressed. All of them showed the same flaws as the 2017 season. I don’t view it as a can’t-miss class. It’s a class with a lot of potential, but there is tremendous amount of downside risk.”
In 2019, Auburn junior Jarrett Stidham and Missouri senior Drew Lock are two of Pauline’s top QB prospects to watch. Stidham (6-3, 214 pounds) threw up 3,158 yards, 18 TDs, six INTs and a 66.5 completion percentage last season for the Tigers. Lock (6-4, 225) hung 3,964 yards, 44 TDs, 13 INTs and a 57.8 completion on opponents.
If they had been draft-year peers to this year’s group, Pauline believes with a strong final season they hypothetically could have entered the first-round conversation with the others.
“Stidham and Lock today going into their final year of college aren’t ranked as highly as Darnold, Rosen, Allen,” Pauline said. “But if they go back and have good years they could be early first-round guys.”
So what’s the rush for the Giants to draft a quarterback on April 26, then? Well, many analysts and NFL coaches and GMs don’t share Pauline’s skepticism of this year’s class. See as evidence the Cleveland Browns’ apparent plans at No. 1 overall, the Jets’ trade up from No. 6 to No. 3, the Buffalo Bills’ in-progress charge up the board to No. 12 and counting, and the actions/needs of the Cardinals (No. 15), Chargers (No. 17) and Patriots (Nos. 23, 31).
There may be a sliver of potential in the 2019 QB class and unique familiarity in the Giants’ case, with Vanderbilt’s Kyle Shurmur, the son of head coach Pat Shurmur, coming out. But the very literal arms race at the top of this month’s draft is proof of how strongly talent evaluators feel about this QB class’ talent and depth in context.
Pro Football Focus analyst Steve Pal***o said Friday afternoon in a phone interview, in fact, that he doesn’t see comparable big names on the 2019 horizon, and that this year’s class looks “much better” than next year’s. He called Mayfield, Darnold clear “top-tier” guys, and Mayfield is PFF’s top overall-rated prospect at a whopping 94.8." Read more...
Excerpt: "Not everyone believes the Giants need to take one of this year’s widely-praised quarterbacks with the No. 2 overall pick in this month’s draft.
There will be a draft in 2019, too, and while next year’s QB class is a virtual afterthought for now, it’s not devoid of talent -- just as this spring’s heralded group of passers is not necessarily a sure thing.
“This year’s is a potentially very good QB class. It also has great potential for bust written all over it,” NFL draft analyst Tony Pauline, the publisher of draftanalyst.com, told the Daily News on the phone Friday morning of a class headlined by USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen, Wyoming’s Josh Allen and Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. “I was more excited about this quarterback class in Sept. 2017 than I was in March 2018. None of them really progressed. All of them showed the same flaws as the 2017 season. I don’t view it as a can’t-miss class. It’s a class with a lot of potential, but there is tremendous amount of downside risk.”
In 2019, Auburn junior Jarrett Stidham and Missouri senior Drew Lock are two of Pauline’s top QB prospects to watch. Stidham (6-3, 214 pounds) threw up 3,158 yards, 18 TDs, six INTs and a 66.5 completion percentage last season for the Tigers. Lock (6-4, 225) hung 3,964 yards, 44 TDs, 13 INTs and a 57.8 completion on opponents.
If they had been draft-year peers to this year’s group, Pauline believes with a strong final season they hypothetically could have entered the first-round conversation with the others.
“Stidham and Lock today going into their final year of college aren’t ranked as highly as Darnold, Rosen, Allen,” Pauline said. “But if they go back and have good years they could be early first-round guys.”
So what’s the rush for the Giants to draft a quarterback on April 26, then? Well, many analysts and NFL coaches and GMs don’t share Pauline’s skepticism of this year’s class. See as evidence the Cleveland Browns’ apparent plans at No. 1 overall, the Jets’ trade up from No. 6 to No. 3, the Buffalo Bills’ in-progress charge up the board to No. 12 and counting, and the actions/needs of the Cardinals (No. 15), Chargers (No. 17) and Patriots (Nos. 23, 31).
There may be a sliver of potential in the 2019 QB class and unique familiarity in the Giants’ case, with Vanderbilt’s Kyle Shurmur, the son of head coach Pat Shurmur, coming out. But the very literal arms race at the top of this month’s draft is proof of how strongly talent evaluators feel about this QB class’ talent and depth in context.
Pro Football Focus analyst Steve Pal***o said Friday afternoon in a phone interview, in fact, that he doesn’t see comparable big names on the 2019 horizon, and that this year’s class looks “much better” than next year’s. He called Mayfield, Darnold clear “top-tier” guys, and Mayfield is PFF’s top overall-rated prospect at a whopping 94.8." Read more...
Comment