The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Top 5 QBs of the 2021 NFL Draft deep dive

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

Robert and Nate break down the five best quarterbacks in this year’s NFL Draft, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance, Zach Wilson, and Mac Jones, evaluating their respective strengths and weaknesses, pro comparisons, potential landing spots, and much more.And, right now, you can join The Athletic for just $1 a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/footballshow or for just 1 CAD a month when you visit http://theathletic.com/footballshowcanada Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. The athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today. My good friend Nate Tyson, how you doing, buddy? Good. The silly season full swing now. So this is great.

Hey, welcome, welcome. We got through the free agency. You got through that silly season. Now it's a giraffe, draft season for you, buddy. It's one of those things where I tried to plan it all out. I knew I wanted to do free agency and then just wait to start the draft stuff. And it's almost unfolded in this natural way where the quarterback conversations have taken off

over the last few days right as we were about to do this. And as I was watching it happen, I was like, yes. I have my finger on the pulse. I know what we should be doing. So that's what we're doing today. It is quarterback day. And I knew I wanted to do this with you. You've been studying these guys for months.

And you've been looking at them for Bleacher Report and ranking them and everything else. So we're just going to do the top five quarterbacks. I think that that has been the established group. We're not going to really dig into guys any later than that, especially with this quarterback class. I think that the guys that could go in the top 10, the guy's likely to go in the first round. That's the most interesting group. We're going to talk about those five guys, we're going to rank them. Your top five quarterbacks, five to one is how we're going to do this.

I think it's one of the more interesting quarterback classes, probably in the history of the draft. I mean, this would be the first time, and I can't remember how long it would be one through three that we almost are guaranteed to get quarterbacks. There could be five of them in the top 10. And not only are these guys going to be drafted high because quarterbacks get pushed up all the time. We've talked about this a bunch. This is a supremely gifted quarterback class.

It's guys that probably deserve to be drafted in the top 10. I mean, you look at a guy like Trey Lance and we'll dig into this. He's as physically gifted as some of the, any of the quarterbacks that have come along in the last like 10 years. Yeah. And he might be the third or fourth most talented quarterback in this entire class. So it really is a historically gifted group. And I cannot wait to dig into this.

I think that this is after setting the table over the last two shows, this is the next step in how we're supposed to talk about this drive class. Yeah, as I've become more and more kind of like NFL central focus. Like I don't watch as much college football at all. So I don't have a lot of exposure to a lot of guys. Of course, you know, just as football fans. And so I started grading these guys. I had to get back into almost that scouting mindset and all of it.

And usually I consider myself a fairly. tough grader, especially on receivers. But like this quarterback class, so I'm like, you know, starting at the top. And I watch, you know, one after another and I have to make comparisons on these guys. And then just like, am I too nice? Like, I just get too, like older and like all these guys look good now. Yeah, you're getting softer. Yeah.

I got soft. And then I watched some of the other ones. I'm like, oh, no, no, no. This is just a rare class. Like, this class is incredible. Like these, obviously the big four and then now we have the Mac Jones coming up. So really it's becoming a five, a group of five. it's all five you can make arguments for that as your favorite guy.

And I wouldn't, I mean, Trevor Lawrence is one thing. But the other guys, it's like there's a lot of fun stuff to watch with these guys, not just traits, but just also just how they approach the game. Totally. You see the intelligence with these guys. And it's like the toughness and all these other traits. Usually when you watch some guy that's getting projected as a first rounder, it's just, oh, he's got some arm, but he doesn't know where he's looking.

He doesn't know how to operate. Doesn't have a lot of, I mean, so like the negatives on these guys, it's like, okay, but that's workable. You know, oh, he hangs a little too long. That's workable. Oh, he doesn't have a lot of starts. Yeah, but on those starts I did play, it looks really good. You know, it's like, okay, all these guys, their past, his success is like so broad,

as opposed to like, this guy is getting the right situation. He can't play right away. He's going to be a project. It's like, okay, all the guys that are quote unquote, maybe even more project, it's like, this guy is an easy first round grade. I think that's the best way to put it. You usually have that half round, maybe even a full round inflation. you might have a second round grade on a quarterback,

but you take him at the end of the first just because of the quarterback position. All these guys, or at least the first four in my head, easy first round grades, like lottery pick grades, which is, it's crazy for me. So really cool. And honestly,

we're going to talk receivers later this month, and that's a fun class too. But this quarterback group is worthy of the height. It's fun because I don't watch much college football. So this time of year is when I really dig into guys. Of course, I'm aware of who Trevor Lawrence is. and I've watched some Justin Fields before,

and I've watched the big teams. But, I mean, today, literally is the first time I've sat down and watched four Trevor Lawrence games in a row. And I've seen flashes and I've seen highlights on TV in a game here or there, but I've never really studied him before. It will get into it, but it's ridiculous.

It's absolutely ridiculous. But there are others, and that's not surprising. But you watch some of these other guys, and Wilson's kind of an exception because he was such an oddity this fall. And there was that two-week stretch, maybe it was less than two weeks, probably about a 10-day stretch where it seemed like the Bears might be bad enough to get Zach Wilson. So I started watching his BYU games.

So I'd watched him a little bit. But with Mack Jones and Trey Lance especially and even Justin Fields, I hadn't really dug into it. And today was the last two days. I've been such a fun process to really get to know them in a more complete way. So we're just going to count it down. And we're going to start at number five. Who is your number five quarterback in the 2021 draft class?

the number five quarterback, but rumor to be the number three pick, and that's Mac Jones. We'll get into that. From Alabama, Mr. McCorkel Jones. If his name was just MacGonez,

how much better would you feel about him? Oh, so much better. There's so much better, but it's McCorkel Jones. And I know that this high school we went to in Jacksonville, the Bulls School and all that. So it's like I always have that in the back of my head.

But yeah, McCorkel Jones and just diving into him. It's, he's a guy. that I watched, you know, whatever it was a month ago, started watching him. And I was like, okay, he's going to be just system manager, game manager, okay, probably a little bit accurate, probably a fast processor. So it looks good.

And then I watched him. I just liked him more and more every snap I watched him. Every, I was just shocked how much I would like him. And you've heard me preach on this podcast a few times about how athletic you have to be in this game. And it's kind of cool seeing this kind of, I wouldn't even say he's traditional because he's not. But just these quick operating, quick operating and quick processing quarterback work back there. What I just love with him is just how accurate he is.

And not only just in the pocket, he'll have times where maybe he doesn't create those crazy adlet plays, but he will throw a little bit off platform. And it'll still just be dead on accurate. My comparison for him was Chad Pennington, which was like, just because I couldn't figure out another quarterback I've seen like this that has that just pinpoint accuracy on every single throw. And I wouldn't say he's a good athlete, but he's, you know, he's not a big. stiff. He's not me back there. It's so he can just do. Chad Pankton is a surprisingly good athlete is what people forget about him. And, you know, a bigger guy, he was maybe a little bigger than Mack Jones is, but just a guy that just I, I was pleasantly surprised and more and more watch him. And it's just funny seeing

the hype pick up on him this past month because that means all the coaches that have been finally watching him this past month must really like him as well. And I think that's where some of that hype's coming from is now more of the coaching side to start to watch him and seeing him operate an offense like that with those weapons and just doing it consistently. It's all about consistency. We can grade to the flash. There are guys that sometimes you want to grade to the flash, but Mac Jones is snap after snap doing the right thing.

And that was starting in the bowl game last year against Michigan. When all of a sudden he had to start for them and play the game, and then it looked like they like, it looked like he just hadn't missed anything. It was like, oh, yep, just continue that offense. The offense just keeps operating even without their top five pick, Tua back there. They have the backup that still looks great. So yeah, fun player, fun player.

He's number five for me. Overall, I gave him an early second round grade, but you get that half round inflation. All right. So with all these, we're going to, I want you to pitch it to me like you'd pitch it to a GM. And that was the pitch. But I also want to know when you're looking at these guys with Mac Jones specifically, what is the weakness that it just keeps replaying in your head? That voice just won't go away.

What is it with him? It's just that lack of ability to create. it's that you don't have to be a plus plus athlete like we want everyone to be but you have to be enough enough enough where you can just do something where it's not just okay move and throw off platform but also like creating getting the first down against man coverage otherwise a team will just run two man over and over and over like we've seen the playoffs against Tom Brady and Drew Breeze that's fine they can operate against that because they're so accurate and such fast processors they're also 20 year vets going against that that's why they don't have to use their legs they're not a rookie coming up to

in. And as much as we love them and we want to make these comparisons, he's still a rookie coming into the NFL and a one-year starter at that. Also, it keeps saying the label Pro Ready, and I just kind of said it myself right there. This Alabama offense is super heavy RPO's. I mean, it's a single read offense. Like, don't, that's what's funny about some of these narratives that get formed about these guys. That is a very, very single read, get the ball out offense. He does it, pristine. Like, don't get me wrong. That's where it plays super fast, but it's an offense that's designed for you to play super fast. Get the ball in the playmaker's hands.

And I think that's why people liked them. It's just like we were talking about the Saints offense last week with the Chargers hiring in Lombardi. It's that it's nice watching the Saints offense because you always know the ball is going to go exactly where it should go with Drew Brees operating it. That's watching Mack Jones in college. It's that how Sark designed each play, it's exactly going where it should go because Mac Jones knows where to go.

But again, I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth because that's also. kind of a negative. He's maxed out. Where can he improve? If he can read that quick, where are you going to improve that? So that's something that just stays in my mind is it's the same negatives we had about two of the last year. It's a really, really, really fun, really good offense with a great offensive line and awesome weapons. I mean, rare, rare weapons, all time weapons. And yeah, he's a quick processor, but it's designed to be that way. So I agree on pretty much all of those points. There are a couple plays I went back and watched today that I just don't even know what's supposed to be happening with the design of the play.

There was a play they had against Georgia earlier in the year that it was a fake bubble that turned into a tunnel screen to Waddle coming back the other way. And I was like, what is happening? They run a play consistently that I loved. It was a stack with Wadle and Smith, early in the season, obviously, before Waddle got hurt. It was a stack on the right side.

And Smith runs like a corner stop. And then Waddle fakes the over and comes back behind him. It's like, what are you supposed to do that. There are just so many things they run where it's like, you have no shot. Like you have absolutely no shot. And that's what makes grading him and evaluating him difficult because the situation is so good. And I feel like, you know, people have said that about Burrow as well. And I think there are a couple important distinctions to make. One, I had the number from the PFF draft guy. I thought it was very interesting. Mac Jones this year

had 44 throws into tight windows. That's it. 44. Joe Burrow had 124. in his final year at LSU. That's a very big difference. And I think the other really important distinction is that my concern about Mac Jones, my biggest concern, isn't that the circumstances were so good around him. It's that he doesn't have any ability to create.

For Burrow, you see that. That was one of the biggest selling points about Joe Burrow coming out, is that even if he isn't this plus plus athlete, you saw the pocket movement and manipulation all the time. And it was one of the best things that he did. Mac Jones ran like a four, six something 40 the other day, didn't he? That's not my concern.

It's that he's not sudden or twitchy. He's not going to sidestep guys. He's not going to make guys miss in the pocket. He's not going to reset and throw. He can run, but he's only going to run. There are not many second reaction play is happening when Mac Jones is playing quarterback. And that can be okay if you consistently provide solutions in ways that don't involve mobility or movement. And he does that.

I think a perfect example is the touchdown pass he had to Najee Harris in the national championship game, where the guy came unblocked off the left side, he identifies it quickly enough to dump over, Harris catches it and runs for a touchdown. That happens a lot, where he'll see a blitzer, he'll get rid of the ball quickly because he does move really quick between the ears. And the other thing that I think I noticed that goes beyond the one read RPO thing that I think shows a really advanced and mature understanding of defensive structure. is he knew often where he could put the ball into open space. Yes. Which I think is really, it reminds me of rivers in a way, honestly,

where you see him let these balls go super early, way before guys get out of their breaks or just in the middle of the field. And it looks like a risky throw, but he understands where the bodies are going to be. And I thought that was a real sign of maturity and a sign that he really understands the way the players are structured and what he's trying to accomplish and where space is going to be.

So this is all along with a way of saying, I really like him. Yeah. I think he's a really good quarterback. Yeah. But he's limited. And I think that's the problem is that you could absolutely make an argument that right now, Mac Jones is as good or better at playing quarterback than Trey Lance or Justin Fields. But I don't know how much better Mac Jones is ever going to be than the guy we watched last year.

And I think with the other two guys and with Lawrence and even with Zach Wilson, you could argue that there is just so much growth and creativity and potential on the table where it just doesn't exist with Mac Jones. Yeah, with Mac Jones, it's that that point guard comparison with quarterbacks now. I think point guard used to be, you know, pass first, pass first, pass first. It was rare that the guy could pass and score. And now in the modern NBA, it's you have to. You can't be Ricky Rubio and now you're on the bench, you know.

And I think that's what Mac Jones is. he's that more of that Ricky Rubio than that Russell Westbrook. You know, it's that he is going to be, he's going to do always do the right thing, which is awesome. So coaches sometimes get outschemed. So sometimes you need, you need that queen on the chessboard to get you out of that. And that's why it's hard for me to say anything about like a top 15 pick or a top 10 pick with him because it's like, okay, you're capping yourself, no matter what, you're capping yourself with probably the eighth best quarterback in the week if he fleshes out that way. As opposed to that guy that shit, they have us figured out. They have everything dialed up.

Our guys can't get open. Is he going to tuck in and scramble a couple times of game first downs? How many times have we seen Aaron Rogers do that? We wouldn't consider, you know, is that he, you can see him getting pissed off too, Aaron Rogers. I mean, all the time we see it. But like when the guys aren't getting open or he hates the play call, we saw it under McCarthy all the time.

He was just tuck and run for the first down and just start generating stuff with his legs and open stuff up, just like a point guard taking a ball to the rack and opening it up for the three-pointers on the outside or pick and roll or something. I think that's what it is with him, is that you're limiting himself with a guy that only scores 10 points a game, but might get 10 assists as opposed to a guy that can go 20 and 10 every night. I think that 75% of the time he ends up as good as Kurt Cousins. Is that that a- That's the spectrum. Yeah.

Yeah. But is that a guy you'd want to spend a top 10 pick on? That's the question. That's the question you have to ask yourself. I don't want to say you're picking certainty because that's never the case with prospects. I think there's a lot of questions. The guy started 13 games in college. That's another thing that we can talk about.

There isn't that much sample size, and the only thing we've ever gotten to watch is him in these amazing circumstances. But I do think a lot of the things he does, you could probably rely on at the next level, but there's just so much meat left on the bone when you compare it to some of these other guys. I think a perfect example of what you're talking about. The sack fumble against Ohio State.

The guy's unblocked, and he just can't maneuver around him. He can't make a guy miss. And that's not the most important thing as a quarterback. But when you're a tick slow being able to identify, you can't win with your brain yet because you're 22 years old. You've never played an NFL game before. It really helps to be able to sidestep around that guy and keep playing

and live to fight the rest of the down. He's just not going to give you that. And if you're Kyle Shanahan, we can get to this in a second, and you think I'm going to give him enough options, all I need is somebody to pull the lever the right way, pull the right lever. I think you could talk yourself into this. But I do think you're just capping yourself out compared to the other guys available here. Yeah, it's, yeah, especially how Kyle Shanahan wants to run things like where it's just,

this guy's coming open, throw a tail, basically. That's how, that's how every dropback pass is with him. So I can see the appeal for that if you want to argue it that way. Yeah, but I destroy teams on some like just drift routes and crossers and quick little things. I mean, that could happen. I honestly think an interesting landing spot for him could be a place like Washington. If he's still available then, because he could sit. And if we want one more year of this guy being able to say, all right, I'm seeing it this way.

Let me learn about the game. Let my brain be even more advanced than it is now. Give myself a chance to have those answers before I even step onto the field because the learning process is going to look uglier with him than it is with a guy who has those physical gifts that he just doesn't have. Also, his arm isn't that good. If he was just this guy who couldn't move but had a missile launcher attached to his right shoulder, that's a different story. But he doesn't.

His arm is fine. And I think that's the problem is that there is no plus physical trait that you could describe to him. It's all other stuff that could potentially make him very good in the long run. Correct. That Chad Pankton comparison isn't just accuracy. It's arm straight. well. That's that's why that comparison is very apt, I think, for him. Yeah, it's, we can keep saying it, but it's, that's what it is with him. It's that you're going to see exactly how the offense is designed. Like you said with Washington, which I, I like that. And actually, you know, the team just probably because he's the antithesis of what they have already. And that's in with the Broncos. Because Mac Jones is as much opposite of Drew Locke as you can get. I mean, that is that is what like that would be a huge upgrade for them, even going to a bubble.

of average starter. That's a big upgrade for them. That's two tiers. And so I think that's, that's what he's perfect for as opposed to maybe, you know, another situation where you'd have to be the guy always. It's more like he's a, you know, when they do like the Monday night football and they have like, you know, manning, this guy, you know, like the top two quarterbacks. And then usually injuries come up. And then so they have to go to like the second tier, you know, star and then like Mac Jones, like they did Monday night football. Mac Jones would be the second tier guy. They would first go with the receiver. the star defender and then they'll go to Mac Jones.

You know, and it's like, that kind of sums him up in a way. Yeah, I think that makes sense. It's the same way that you would never have Jared Goff as the guy that you're pumping up for Thursday night football. You have Aaron Donald. But that's the question. If he's not that type of guy, then do you want to draft him in the top 10? And I think that's what teams are going to have to answer and what they're going to have to think about. And it becomes a question of who's off the board and how desperate for you are you a quarterback.

There's so many things to consider. I will say this as the final note to leave it on. I liked him more than I thought I would. I just thought he plays extremely fast and I was, I came away more impressed than I initially thought I was going to. I do think I would pick him in the first round and I think in the right circumstances he absolutely can't succeed. He just looks very different than a lot of the guys who've been successful

that have come into the league in recent years. And we've talked about this. I think he is the perfect poster child of that conversation. had in the playoffs about whether we'd ever see a highly picked non-mobile guy again. He is the perfect example of it. And my answer was no, just because we would never have someone pushed up that far. And maybe he will go in the top five because the Niners love him. And I don't know how much of any of that is real, which is fun to talk about.

But if that's the case, then it kind of flies in the face of that conversation. But that's a consideration for another day. It's an experiment. It's an experiment. There we go. Yes. And I can understand why, because, and we'll get to this. like, Justin Fields is more talented than Mac Jones.

There's no denying that. Justin Fields also plays slower than Mac Jones. There's no denying that either. So if you're Kyle Shanahan and you want the guy that's just going to play as quickly as possible because you know you're going to put him in the right spots, I can understand landing on, I think this guy is more reliable to do what I want him to do than the other guy is, even if he's not even close to as talented. But that's a conversation we'll be having here in a minute.

All right. Who's your number four quarterback? Number four is Zach Wilson. All right. This is going to be controversial. Okay. I know. And that,

I just want to preface this is that this is still a top 10 grade. I have on it. So what's preface? I think, I think DJ said it best. He goes, just because you like, just have one guy over another guy doesn't mean it's one or the other.

Like, it's not black and gray or black and white on all this. This is like, these guys are legit. All right. If you're, if you're trying to sell a GM on Zach Wilson, where do you start?

Uh, just excitement. Uh, Legitimate dart thrower accuracy is the best way I can put it in the sense that you can see him place throws in that in 15 10 to 15 yard range exactly how he wants to. Across the hash too. I mean, yeah. His arm is, I think his arm's strength from the pocket is overrated. I think, I think that the ball dies every once in a while.

Yeah. But I do think that he can still place balls in that outside the numbers range in a way that impresses me. I'm so glad you brought that up because he is the epitome of that there's two different types of arm strength. There's arm strength, me throwing through a wall 10 yards in front of me. And then there's me thrown at 70 yards down the field. He has good, very good arm strength, uh, that 10, a yard range, or I'm sorry, sorry, extremely good arm strength throwing it deep. throws a beautiful deep ball. And then I would say all of a sudden, like you said, he throws those field throws.

It has a little loop on him. When I first watched him, I was hearing about this incredible arm, credible arm, incredible arm, and I watched him. It was like the first five throws, two of them were looping. And I was like, okay, I thought this guy had like, people were saying he's walking in with a top three arm. It's like a top three arm, that ball does not loop. That ball is a rope every single time. And but I saw what people are talking about.

That's the different type of arm strength, the deep ball, which he throws a beautiful deep ball and consistently does it, not just once or twice. Um, with him. So if I'm like Salon of my six, I like QB, dark three dark. He can make every off platform throw you want. I mean, every single one. I, I, you know, you know, the, you know, the Da Vinci human chart, like the word has like the arm everywhere. Like that's him.

I don't think that's what it's called, but yes. Uh, it has some fancy name. But, uh, yeah, but like, but it's like, you know, the leg is one way and the arm is the other way. Like he can do that legitimately. It's the petruvian man is what it's called. Thank you very much. The divinci arm chart. Da Vinci human, a epitome of the human body chart.

Yeah, but like how the arm is and slotted in each spot, that's kind of how he is when he throws. I mean, it's all exciting. It's the ability. Like the ability to create is so important. I really do think it is now. And he has that in spades. And we can talk about if we're going with negatives, we'll talk about the sec.

But yeah, but just the ability to create that consistent accuracy he has, that he can make all the throws. I would say the arm strength on intermediate throws is a little overrated, but the accuracy isn't. And then outstanding deep ball thrower. So he's just a fun, exciting prospect.

And he can create a little bit just like running the ball, you know, on zone reads and stuff. Is he, a plus plus athlete, no, but he's athletic enough. And enough to where you can run two or three of those a game, as opposed to maybe make that like a staple. Like he'll get a couple cheap rushing touchdowns,

I think every single year because he can do that. His accuracy on the move is also incredible. I mean, the way he can kind of get back on balance. I've talked about it. It reminds me of Rogers the way that he uses that front foot to balance himself and that allows his upper body to kind of stay stable. So he's accurate when he's moving. And it's just really cool to watch.

Like a shortstop almost. Yeah, exactly. It's really cool to watch. There was a series of plays against Troy, and it was exactly what we're talking about. There was a little looping outside the numbers throw where it's just like, that doesn't look that good. And then there's a 50-yard beautiful touchdown throwing two plays later. So pretty. So pretty.

Jesus, man. And I think that's what you're talking about. And that's where, so I remember talking to Jordy Nelson about this one. So we were talking about Rogers. And we were talking about the kinds of arm strength and why it just, so easy to catch balls from Aaron. And he said that with Aaron, no matter where you are on the field, the plane of the throw is never going to change.

The ball is, the nose is never going to be going down at any point when you're having to catch it. So it becomes really easy to catch because you're never having to move your hands as you're moving back toward the ball. And that's like true arm strength. That's like through the ball, through a wall that's in front of you armstrike. And he doesn't have that, but he has the creativity and the off platform. stuff. So let's get to the weaknesses. What is that one thing about him that it just keeps chirping

in your ear that you can't quite get over? So I've really two things with him. One is, you know, I think this is more the obvious one is that how he deals with pressure, how he is going to, he had an awesome offensive line. You wouldn't know. There's no way to know ever, ever. Every game is just, he just sit back in that pocket hanging out back there. And, and, and I, People were making it out about his height. He was never concerned with me. He looks 6-2 to me, and I think that's what he measured in at. 6-2-14, which that's big enough.

Yep. And that's what I'm about to say, is that because the offensive line that was so good at BYU and so big, I always thought it was the weight and how he's built is kind of what I have concerns about. If you look, QB's, you got a little water weight on pro day. So say minus five pounds. He's under 210. I'm just going to, that's what he looks. He looks like he weighs like 202, 205, uh, and during the season.

Cuby's under 210 pounds. Don't have a great track record unless you're a freak athlete, uh, Mike Vick, you know, those types, uh, Lamar about Lamar weighs, yeah, Lamar weighs, yeah, Lamar weighs less than that. Yeah, the only one that's under 210 that, uh, that when I looked this up was Mark Bulger that had a successful career. Mark Bulger was a six round pick. Those guys don't really hold up because they're in the pocket.

They get brushed over. Oh, they're going, they're falling down. It's that some of those guys. that can create the Josh Allen's of the world, Mahomes of the world, is that they are so strong. I mean, Mahomes is too 30. Even Russell. Russell is so compact. Russell's built. You know, they're 2.30. Like, Kyler can run around. So it doesn't matter. And he's actually weighs a little more than you would think. But it's that those guys can pull out the grasp of the arm. If you're getting knocked over, this was something that would happen to Derek a lot with Derek Carr is that when all of a sudden that pressure came around him, he gets bumped. All of a sudden he's totally knocked off and he's falling over. As opposed to getting bumped. Oh, sh. Oh, sh. Oh, shoot, okay, let me create. Okay, I could still keep my balance, keep my feet. It's just a weight and strengthening. And I just kind of have noticed that with him is that when the teams like the

Coastal Carolina game, he starts getting under pressure a little bit, he starts getting bumped around that pocket. Where's the creation then? And that's a little worrisome for me because if he's going to be a top 10 pick, not a lot of those teams have, or really, number two pick, let's be honest. You know, O'Line might not be all the way there all the time if you have to drop back over and over and over. okay, can you consistently create that?

That is a concern for me. It is the weight thing. And I'm not saying that all of a sudden he's going to suck just because of that. I'm just saying that maybe all that creation that we love. When you're talking about top five picks, the shit matters. You got a nitpick. That's the conversation we're having. You have to.

I'm going to find something on all these guys. Trust me. And like you're going to be the franchise guy and you're supposed to be there for 15 years. It's like, okay, you're hoping there's not a lot of blemishes here. But really, this guy is a legit talent. It's just that you have to keep those things in mind. It's not so much, oh, it's just a cut off on weight. It's just a style of play.

If he was athletic enough or he could create out of it in case he's so fast to get out of it, okay, it wouldn't matter. He's just a, he's above average to good athlete as opposed to a excellent, rare athlete. And I think that is concerning for me. To me, it's the pressure stuff. I think, I legitimately believe it is harder to evaluate Zach Wilson as an NFL quarterback than it is Mac Jones. because even if Mack Jones's circumstances were theoretically better because of the receivers he had and everything else, he was still playing against SEC defenses. And I can make a determination on whether or not Mac Jones can handle pressure and getting out of it and stepping up in the pocket and everything else.

He can't. I know that for a fact. Zach Wilson, you can't make that sort of determination. I mean, one of the only games this year where he was any, he was uncomfortable at any point was that Coast of Carolina game. and he did not look that great. His stats, I think, are a little bit misleading in that game. There were a couple balls that were dropped that were just absurd throws that he made. But I do think that that was the first time I saw him consistently look uncomfortable.

If you watch some of these games, it looks like a seven-on-seven game. I mean, he's just sitting back there with absolutely no one around him. And not even just that, because I don't care about necessarily having to throw in traffic. I want to see what you look like and how aware you are of your surroundings when that stuff starts to crumble. and I just don't think there's a lot on tape with him that gives you a sense of that. And that's a big question. That to me is one of the biggest things you have to know about a quarterback. And I just don't think we have a really good idea of what that aspect of his game looks like surrounded by NFL talent or being chased by NFL talent.

Every, I would say bad team, but every fan of every team can remember one, two, three, maybe there's more games than that, where their offensive line is just getting their asses kicked. And they came, the offense doesn't even look like an offense. Like it's just like, oh my God. Like they came and snap the ball right now. And the game, the Jay Cover got sacked eight times in the first half against the Giants on Sunday night football. Okay.

I don't want to talk about that because there's a certain offensive line coach of that. And then there was the other one that I was actually thinking of was the Alden Smith game against a 49er. Against a 49ers. That game was that game was rough to watch on Monday night football. But anyways, but we all have those games. And you want, that's where Wilson is good and bad there. It's like you can see him make the off platform throws when he gets out of the pocket. Okay.

But is he going to be able to step up and out? Is he going to be able to get out of the grasswood off or defense alignment there coming after him one after another? Everybody, all these guys are good enough to do it once out of ten times. Can you do it four out of five times? Can you do it three out of five times? That's what's the question mark with this is because you're just bringing it up. I think these are tied together.

That weight thing I have and also the pressure thing. I think those are tied together because that is what the, the trait matches the film kind of thing. And I think that's where you have to have that question mark. Having said that, having said that, beautiful deep ball, accurate and can create, can do a lot of things. And I understand the top 10 pick hype and the number two pick hype. What do you think is the best case scenario for him? Top five quarterback in the league with an unreal postseason highlight film every season.

Like he, I don't think he's ever going to be that top three guy. We're like, oh my God, you know, but I think very, very, very good starter, borderline elite, Pro Bowls, you know, Pro Bowl contender on a winning team with the highlight stuff. It's just that until I see him operating pressure, I couldn't slap like, oh, he's going to be a legit, legit guy. But I, the pro bowl, he has pro bowl potential. That's what you want in the top five quarterbacks. And he has it. I think he's a guy you would like watching all the time. His best case scenario, I think is a guy that will be one of the more fun players in the league.

Yep. Again, it's, I think he has Rogers light aspects to his game, but he doesn't have that all-world arm. It's creative. It's fun. He understands how to unleash it in certain situations and in ways other guys don't. Like, he just has a sense of how to make throws off schedule and off platform and how to even try throws other guys wouldn't even be able to do. But that the arm strength is not historically good. It's not there at every single throw the way it is with the guy like Rogers.

And I think that's the key little distinction for me. And that's going to be a transition for him is some of those throws he was getting away with, where his guys are just mossing guys left and right, like every single time. That's going to be a little bit of a transition when he goes, wow, that just got picked off. And it's, oh, my God, I have to make a tackle right now. Like, I think there's going to be a couple of those where he tries some of those off platform 40-yard back shoulders that the corner just turns around and goes, okay, thank you. You know, he's not going to be playing Hawaii and, you know, these other schools. that maybe have a corner that it might be an undrafted free agent.

He's playing NFL corners every single week. So that is something I'm curious about too with him. I think his best case scenario is Rogers Light. I think his worst case scenario was Drew Locke. I mean, like, yeah, yeah. I think that that's the thing. With him, I do think that range of outcomes is on the table. I'm right there with you.

I think that's the biggest question with him compared to some of these other guys. All right. Number three, who's your number three guy in this class? Number three is Trey Lance, North Dakota State. the bison. You want me a picture? Everyone calls it. I was watching a bunch of games today and they really leaned into the bison thing.

There's like it's like a z. It's like a z instead of an S. I've really enjoyed that today when I was watching a bunch. I'm pretty sure South Dakota is not the coyotes. It's the coyotes. Like I actually do think that's how they that's how they pronounce it. I might be wrong. So I'm sorry all the South Dakota fans out there.

But that's something else to remember. Not like you confuse them with the South Dakota State Jack Rabbits. Oh, of course not. All right. Sell me on Trey Lance. I'm the GM. Okay. Outstanding size athleticism, but also a surprisingly cerebral quarterback for a guy that has limited starts.

How does that manifest to you? When I was watching him, it was just watching him. Okay. When I was watching him on film, obviously. I had noticed there was one play and it just sticks out to me. I want to say he was against South Dakota State, the mentioned Jack Rabbits, is they were in a five-man protection. And generally when you have a five or six man protection, the offense line half slides, the center,

garden tackle away from the runnerback. It's just to make it three on each side. That's just a math game. If you go on five-mare protection, the same exact thing. The offensive line will slide away from the runoffback's release side. So why I'm saying that is I was watching them against South Coast State. It was a third downplay. They ran a five-man protection because the back went out right away.

The offensive line slid to the same side as a runnerback. And I was like, huh, that's interesting. And I was like, okay, maybe, you know, some, okay, I'm going to watch the end zone view. Well, that's interesting. You don't want to expect that. You know, they adjusted somewhat. And I saw it because I saw the safety rotation. They actually did the right protection, which is so rare in college football, much, much,

at what, FCS level as well. Also, I watched the end zone view and I see Lance communicating. And I was like, okay, he's either asking or he's telling. It's one of the two. So my note originally was either the quarterback or center is well coached. And that's all I said. I started now I started noticing that and watching more and more. And it was, no, it's a lot.

Lance pointing protections out and changing something. He was at least giving some communication. I think they just have their left or right word, Ripper Liz, just to make it a three-man slide. I don't think they ever did four-man slide, which isn't crazy. But for a redshirt freshman at North Dakota State to be doing that, that is like, that's,

that's 301 level stuff. And he was doing it as a freshman. So that's where that was like, and then I started asking, I've been on another podcast where they mentioned, they're like, oh, yeah, the coaches, they put them through like an NFL,

you know, that's their structure of the week is just like, they go over third down this day, red zone this day. they do install. He's in all those meetings. He comes at 6 a.m. Yada, yada, yada.

So it was kind of cool to see the film and then hearing the stories afterwards. But you can see him continuously every third down, communicate and slide the protection where he is noticing how the safeties are. Because on that same play I'm talking about, he checks the safety that's low towards the boundary. But when he catches a snap, he doesn't peak that safety. He looks to the field to see if he got fooled because he would be hot if something came from the field. And I was like, holy crap. I was fired up.

I mean, I was fine. And then after he did all that, I should just post this club because it's so awesome. He makes the guy miss in the hole because I think the center got turned or something like that and delivers like a dig throw for a first down on like third and 10. And I was just like, oh my God. Like, and those are types of plays and it stands out. And that got me really excited about him because I thought he was just going to be a traits guy. And he has so much more to him. Which he is, by the way.

He's not just a traits guy, but he's a traits guy. I compared to him to Donovan McNabb. Like that's the only name. And not just because he wears number five and wears green. It's like, that's what I see with him. He has that size and athleticism that is just rare. I mean, he is big. He is all of 2.30 something.

And he can move all the QB run game is open to him, not just zone read. He can run QB power like five times a game and hold up for a whole season. It's pretty cool stuff to watch that. People have compared him to McNair. McNair was a little shorter. I see a lot of it. I also think his arm is more jumpy than McNair's. was. And I think his arm is more gifted than McNair's was. Even a young McNair who was very

physically talented. McNair was more accurate and like I would say like above average good strength, but not like rare, you know, or anything like that. And I think that that's, if I'm watching him, the thing that jumps out to me first, because I don't understand the cerebral stuff nearly as much, is just that he is a gifted, gifted physical person. I mean, the size is undeniable. He is not just fast. I mean, his ability to maneuver around guys in the pocket and jump, left to right and just how sudden he is and everything else is really, really cool. And the ball explodes out of his hands. I mean, he has, a little loopy in the motion.

It loopier than the rest of these guys are. Exaggerated over the top, I think it's the, yeah, it takes a little bit longer. And, but it, I mean, the arm's strength and everything else really jumps out to you. So if we're going to the negative side, what would you say is the weakness that you've seen show up that You just, you have a hard time getting over. It's just that he has to be comfortable being maybe the guy on every dropback play. You know, that is that offense that, that team is dominant. He was putting a lot of advantageous situations, not just in a game script situation as far as score,

but in third downs for all third and manageable. He didn't have to get put in third nines and third and 12s over and over and over. The one game you did see that was a central Arkansas game. So that actually was good film. That was the one game from 2020. So actually it was a good film to watch. And the thing, people were knocking that game. Still top tier stuff.

Yes. I mean, like, he looks just fine in that game. Just fine. I know. Months and months, I hear, oh, my God, he didn't look good. He didn't look good. And I watch it.

I'm like, all right, this is 2020, right? I watched the 2019 game by accident. And they're like, you know, yeah, I get it. He had the one pick, but it was like, you know, the play on that. Like, the safety didn't get held. I, yeah, sorry. So hard. I wish I had films, so I could just point it out.

But I would say, also is there are times we say they exaggerated over the top release. He's almost too robotic and too mechanical in the sense that he just has to quicken it up. He just has to take a little. That comes to reps when he learns to shortcut stuff as opposed to going he because he's coachable. You can tell he goes one to two to three perfect every time.

Sometimes it's like, hey, just screw one man. Just go to two. And I think that's going to help him out. Because I could see him sometimes going he hits the top of his drop and he's like, okay, second hitch. Okay. All right. check it down. It's like, hey, sometimes you're going to get pressure. Just check it down right away and live to see another down. I think that's something that is easily coachable, though, but it is going to be something to keep an eye on is that if he does have to play right away, there's going to be some of those times where he's going to try a play a play a play a play, a play, a play, a play, a play. He goes, okay, we put this in on Wednesday, okay. I think I have the seam to outside here, okay, and then he takes a sack because he's trying to remember the play. I think that's something to keep an eye on, but it's very coachable, very fixable.

the robotic thing totally jumps out to me. The other thing that I would say, and I'm curious if you agree, I think his accuracy is scattershot. I mean, you don't know where the ball is going all the time. And I think that's because he's a little ambitious with some of these throws. And this is a lot of late in the down stuff where he's trying to make something happen. I think that jumps out. But I do think that he is considerably less accurate than most of the other guys on this list.

And that says more about them maybe than it does about him. Because I think that even the toolsy guys in this class will get to Justin Fields in a second. are absurdly accurate with where they're going with the ball. So it's almost more of he falls along the lines of a traditional guy you'd call Tulsie where the arm strength is there, the mobility there is the size is there, but the accuracy is a concern. So I think that would give me a little bit of pause. But also, it's not a huge concern.

It's not like a deal breaker. No. And he's 20 years old. So I feel like this is, he is absolutely the member of this group. that I would love to just sit for a year somewhere. Just have him sit down, learn stuff, work on some of these things because I think that he is the rawest of the group physically.

Mentally, he clearly has a handle on stuff that maybe even some of these other guys don't. But I think physically he's not as fine-tuned as some of these other guys. That's what I would say. I know what you mean. Yeah, that's what's so funny. You brought up a great point.

It's not, he has bad accuracy. It's like, it's more like above average, as opposed to all these other guys are like excellent like not just good not just very good like excellent accuracy Mac Jones Justin Fields and Zach Wilson are all I mean their accuracy like would be the number one at every class like of every year and we have three of them that are like really really good accuracy so that's the thing is when you watch those other guys it kind of jumps out a little bit when like you said you see also see an out route go five yards over a guy's head it's not bad it's just more above average as opposed to very good what do you think he would look like in Atlanta's offense. We've talked about this before. Perfect situation.

And why do you think that? I mean, sitting, it's QB friendly with Arthur Smith offense. So there's going to be some training wheels early on. But he sits under your under Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan's contract is movable next year. I've done a lot of research on this after me and you. They would save $10 million if they traded them next year. I think that is just the best situation because just the offense wouldn't

have to have him. It wouldn't put him in a situation where he is not, like, by negative, with him dropping back consistently over and over, it wouldn't have to happen all the time. He would just have to do it on some third downs and maybe a couple of run down plays that they like. They're very heavily schemed up. So it could ease him into being like a dropback master. So I think that's just a great situation. I mean, any time in those types of offenses that remove the guys and take the pressure off because he can throw on the move, that helps. And also, he's just, he's willing to be aggressive. And you have a. A couple of really good weapons.

That's exactly what I was going to say. He wants to push it. Can you imagine him throwing play action, big body? All of a sudden, he just launches a dig right, right to Julio Jones. Like you said, catch. Yes, I could imagine that. That's just so pretty. Like, it's just going to look beautiful because these, I mean, these guys are both such

good players. And it's like, I could easily just picture that. And I think that's where he stands out because it's that, that play action pull up stuff is going to translate very easily for him. And he has the skill set to do so. You just saw him do it more. I mean, he watched him snap his head around. you just you don't see that many guys in college run that sort of offense and that pro style is not a real thing.

But just that exact movement we've seen him do more than the rest of these guys. And I just think he looks comfortable doing it. So I, it makes perfect sense to me. It has for months. And watching him even more than I had doesn't change that whatsoever. If there's football gods, it would happen. Like that that is like it's just, I mean, the stars are aligned for it. And I hope it happens because that would be a lot of fun. All right. Who's your number two guy? Number two is Justin Fields, Ohio State, the Ohio State. I've been a huge fan of this guy. He's the guy. This is the classic. I don't watch college football, but I know who he is. Oh, yeah, he's on a good team.

He's Ohio State guy, yada, yada. He threw the pick against Clemson, the semis last year. Okay, I watched him dominate Wisconsin. So that hasn't been a lot of fun. But then now it's been really fun to actually watch him and watch him on film. And, you know, it's one of those things with him. The negatives that have happened with him or been talked about him, I don't see any of them as negatives. And that's why I'm very excited to watch this guy because not only does, we want to, I mean, you ran the 4-4 today.

But it just the size and you can just see those intangible traits with him and the true leadership, the true polish, the true quarterback things. And on top of it, he's 6, 3, 230 pounds and runs a 4-4-5. That's an absolute canon. His accuracy is what shocked me. I thought he was going to be a power guy. That thing, no matter where it is, deep ball intermediate, short throws when he's falling down on naked. Every ball is just like right at the, right at the nipple. Just hits the guy right in the chest every single time.

I was like, oh my God, I love this guy. When you have an arm like that and you can put it where you want to, I just don't understand the conversation we're having. It doesn't make any sense to me. Again, I'm not a quarterback expert. I haven't watched these guys as much, but four or so games of all of them, I just don't understand how he's not the second guy. Because the question we often have with guys that are this gifted

is the accuracy stuff. And it just doesn't exist with him. There's a couple throws. The 60-yarder in the national championship game is stupid stuff. And because he's reading to that, he's progressing to that throw and then throw in a 60-yard dime late in the down.

And the other one that's like that, he threw one against Michigan in 2019 where it's a full field read. He comes all the way back across to his third option coming down the right sideline and he just puts on missile shot on the guy. And then there was one against Penn State this year

that he pumps, he pumps to the left flat, comes back down to the field right to an outstretched head, 50 yards down the field. And you're watching this guy. And even if it was just the throwing traits, I think that he's,

he's the second most gifted quarterback in the class. If he couldn't move an inch, I'd still think that. And he runs a 4-440. I just, I'm not sure what am I missing? What am I missing? That's what I keep asking? I'm like, what am I missing? Like, is he just awful off the field?

But no, everyone talks about great kid, all those types things. So it's like, okay. So what do you think it is? So that I got, let's, let's play devil's advocate. If you were trying to ding him, where would you ding him? The release time, he does have to quicken it. not just locking on the receiver, anything of which I'll talk about in a second, but just, you know, we talked about Tray Lance, everything exaggerated over the top.

I think Fields has a little bit, it's not, it's more three quarters, but he does, it's a little, it's a little longer. He has plenty of arm strength, so it doesn't matter. And he gets the ball out on time. I just want to keep gushing about it. There's so many times where he just hits the back foot on his drop and just puts it right on the money before the guy's breaking. And it's like, he doesn't even have to time it because he has such arm strength.

Mac Jones has to do that. Justin Fields doesn't have to do it, but he does, which is like, awesome. I think it's so telling that he had one of the longest time to throws in college football last year. I think it was 3.11, which was up near the top of the sport, but he never throws interceptions.

If you hang on to it for that long and you never turn the ball over, I think that's a sign that you're just trying to get to your right choice and you trust your arm to be able to make that throw late. And maybe I'm talking myself into it, and that's a rationalization, but that's how I see it. No, I want to talk about that play, the Penn State one in Michigan one,

I want to say it was the same concept. I know for sure I think it was the Penn State, and that's a 989 concept. And this is what it's so frustrating when people are saying, oh, he locked on the receivers all the time. He has to. He's a has to.

They run these slot read routes. And I would say all the time, about five or six times a game. All this stuff is so vertical. He doesn't have a lot of checkdown options. They are taught. So, 99, it's the Scotty Miller touchdown and the half against the Packers,

I don't see championship game. It's a classic concept. It's 989. It's nine routes, which are goes, eight middle read route, which is either a digger or a post in the middle. You have checkdowns underneath. Ohio State runs this in so many different ways. And they have the middle guy read it a bunch. Usually how that's taught is outside of middle read, check it down.

Outside of middle read, check it down. You have your own little triangle working. Fields are the plays you mentioned. Same. That's what happens. He goes nine route, middle read all the way to the opposite nine route and then throws a laser. And it's like, because he can't. And the thing is, it's like, yeah, he could check it down.

I've seen him check it down. I've seen him work a play action where he went one to two to three on his first hitch. He gets it to the checkdown, which shows that he's sharp and he knows the concept. This 99, that's how aggressive he is. I am never going to dog a guy for being too aggressive. We dog guys all the time. Oh, he's soft in the pocket. He always looks to check it down.

Oh, Alex stat, you know, yards under first down marker. You know, like this guy is attacking beyond the sticks every single snap and he's tough and big. and it's like, okay, so why are we dogging him for doing that? That's what he's asked to do. And not once does he chicken out ever. And the pressure and the heat, it's, it's awesome stuff. And it's like, that is the stuff that you want to the quarterbacks is, is that aggressive mentality.

And then most of these guys would be like, oh, he's a good athlete. We have to teach him to be aggressive and keep his eyes down field. It's like, no, the opposite with him. Same with like when Deshaun came into the league. It's like, that's what happened with him. It was that he was so aggressive. You had to kind of take it out of him a little bit and be, hey, it's okay, check it down and get a five-yard gain instead of a 50-yard gain.

Fields has a lot of that in them. And it's awesome because I have no worries, even with those read concepts and just with Ohio State offense, when he is asked to do like, you know, more other concepts, I should say. I brought up the play action example. He's reading it out. His eyes are going exactly where they should go because they're kind of staple concepts. So you can kind of tell what it's happening.

You'll post over with a checkdown. So he's alerting. He's going to the over. And when it's not there, he just checks. it down all within a hitch all before the pressure gets there. And that's why you don't have to see him scramble because he's not, I was about to say the term jerking off the ball, but he's not sitting back there. He's not jerking off the ball waiting because he doesn't know where to go with the ball. He's jerking off the ball because he's waiting for a guy to pop because he has to read a route or

he's trying to, you know, go through to progression. That's awesome stuff. I really like him. I just think he should be the number one pick in any other draft if this other guy wasn't it. I totally agree. I think that he plays a little methodical at times, but he's going to the right places. And as long as you're going to the right places, then I think that's okay. I mean, there are some throws that are just special, special stuff. And if there weren't the mobility, if he wasn't as mobile as he was, if he didn't, if his eyes weren't going to the right place, you could still talk yourself into him because

of how special the arm is. And he has that other stuff. I just think that there are so many boxes that he checks. He had a touchdown once I was against Nebraska this year, where they ran like a little Mills where it's a dig and then the post behind it. I think that's the same concept. The 60 yarder in the national championship game is on too. Watching him throw that

deep post is gorgeous. He throws that ball so, so well. And those are the types of throws I want my franchise quarterback to consistently make. Like 40, 50 yards down the field is hitting that post in stride and knowing when he should go to it and everything else.

It just, I don't know. I would have a really hard time convincing myself that somebody other than him is the second best guy. It's not flash. That's the thing. It's consistent. And the NFL, you only get three of those a game, those deep balls like that.

I don't want a guy that hits it one out of ten times, but it looks brilliant. But he's doing it every single time. The ball is on the money every single time. And it's like, that's what you need. It's like no matter what the pocket makeup is, the defense he's going against, it's always the same. Even his worst game, the Northwestern game, still good tape. still does a lot of things. He's making he's making corner cats miss in the pocket. He's making

just free runners miss things. He's 10 yards downfield running over a guy. And that's that's, we're talking about his athleticism. And this whole time we've been talking about him operating from the pocket. I don't know. I just think he's a no-brainer. I really do. I think he's a special player and I'm really excited to watch him. Speaking of no brainers who you got at number one. Oh man. Jack Cohn, Wisconsin. No, we got Trevor Lawrence, Clemson, University. So, okay, so the pitch, I just tell you, hey, you know that guy that's been hyped up as an athletic, Peyton Manning since he was 16 years old?

Guess what? He's really good. That's the pitch. He looks like a fake quarterback. He legitimately looks like a fake quarterback. And I, the joke for years was that I would, quarterback could be too tall. And I like 50% believed it. And I think part of the reason for that is that guys that are 6-6,

often can't move. He is absurdly twitchy for someone that is 6-6. And we've seen the running ability, right? He can pull it and he can tuck it and he can go. But there have been tall guys that have straight-line speed. His ability to make guys move and play off schedule at that size shouldn't be real. He is a movie character. He is like the guy that shows up and is just like the superstar.

Like he is Sunshine from Remember the Titans if he was like the best player that's ever existed. Like I is he how is he the best college quarterback you have studied? Him and luck. That's I would say Lawrence is even better than luck. I think so too. I think he's better than what I saw from Andrew Luck back in the day. I really do. I'm always going to be biased to Andrew,

but just just because I, he was a year below me in high school and just, you know, kind of like quarterback circle kind of thing. But it's Lawrence is rare. I, when he started his first game as a freshman, I just moved to Vegas.

And I remember I was like, okay, I'm going to watch some games. And I remember saying to my now wife, I was just like, as I was like, as sunshine comes out and I'm like, oh, yeah, this guy is supposed to be all everything. Yeah, whatever. Roll my eyes, roll my eyes. And he throws like this 10, 12 yard out route. Perfect.

First and our first college throw, just this beautiful out route. And I was like, I'm going to have to keep an eye on this guy. Because that's pretty rare if you're doing that in your first throw. It's not, I kind of compared him to like a supercharged Matt Ryan just because of that size and everything. But he's just such a better athlete. I mean, and the arm strength is so much better. It's like, I don't know who else to compare him to because he's just such a Frankenstein's all these traits that you want.

You know the David Montgomery joke where they said, yes, has the feet of this. That's what Trevor Lawrence is basically, except by quarterback. What he reminds me of is if Josh Allen had every single physical gift that Josh Allen had in college, but he was also refined and accurate.

Yeah. Like that's what it feels like to me because he has that same aggressive mentality that Josh Allen plays with where he's running the ball and he's trying to make stuff happen almost to his detriment at times, by the way. He tries to make a little bit too much happen every once in a while, but it's because he can. Yes, but it's because he can. There was, he had a play against Miami this year. There was a free runner and he just, he went around.

It was, it was the throw to Etienne where he went like around the defensive end that was untouched somehow. He like, the fact that this guy at 6-6 can either make free rushers miss or maneuver around them with arm angles and all this other stuff, it's fake football. Yeah. And I think the conversation about him is a little bit different, where I don't think there's a single weakness that it would be hard to get over. But I will say that the number one thing I would have, if he would fail, the concern I would have is that the offense is pretty

making, mousy. Oh, yeah. You, there are so many screens. There's so many RPO's. He led college football in screen yardage this year, according to PFF. You see that. And I do think that there's probably something left to be desired about his ability to process everything that's happening. But this is like real nitpicky stuff.

Like in the sense that like against LSU, there was like a cover seven snap where he should have gone to the post and he went to the deep out instead. It was a good but covered throw. Like that's the kind of stuff we're talking about is against complicated NFL coverages. Sometimes he doesn't throw the ball where he's supposed to. Yeah, it's, it's, why isn't that an A plus? It's just an A. He, he, the, my, my negative with him going to this year or something I kept an eye on was just, it just as every college quarterback.

It's just how he handles protections or if they put anything on them. And I thought this year it was, you said too is that he looked like he was trying to maybe create too much at times. The Miami one was awesome. There's, I might be the same play you're talking about. It was a, it was a split screen on each side. And the screen that he was going to to the field got covered up. up and he had to make two guys miss and then throw like a little sidearm throw.

And like you said, a 6-6 guy doing that. It's like, oh, my God. But just the like the protection stuff and all that. I think the Wake Forest game stands out and everything is I think they put more on him on purpose because I could see him communicating a lot more this year. So which was great. I'm saying that in a positive way. But I still, like you said, it's the Mickey Mouse offense. I think that yeah, it's going to be some transition.

All of a sudden the verbiage is. That's another thing is he's in no huddle a lot, getting signals and the plays are like 72. Boom, done. You know, 98, done. I don't know, I don't know, Conch's offense sucked back in my hand. But then he might have, he's going to get into Darren Bevel's system and it's going to be, you know, traditional West Coast verbiage. You know, and so that's going to be, you know, just, it's just something. It's something you have to take an account for.

Quarterbacks are more adapt of transitioning to that because they're more exposed to it than ever before, just in the offseason and the quarterback coaches and all the stuff, all whatever, all these auxiliary people that get money. So it's like, I think that's where he is going to be fine. I would say my only negative, if I'm starting talking like trait wise is once in a while, like his deep balls are good. I made this joke because it's like complaining about the seat size and a Bentley as opposed to maybe very good or excellent in the sense that sometimes he has to put everything into him. And I think some of that though is the offense they're in because they run forverts a whole lot. And he has to go from inside out and they want him to throw the goal ball. Coach Chris, when we ran forward votes, it was work inside and check it down. We aren't throwing the goal balls on the outside.

Screw 50, 50, 50 balls. We don't have athletes to win those 50, 50 balls. So he's, you know, Trevor Lawrence, they had the guys to do that. So that was part of the reed. So that, you know, that's just something. But, I mean, it's funny, though, because his arm strength is almost like the inverse of Zach Wilson's where on those intermediate throws, the ball is rising as it gets to guys. It's unbelievable.

When he throws balls down the seam, the trajectory of the ball is almost still going up. when guys are catching it like 20 yards down the field. They're laser beams. I mean, every guy catches them right away. Yeah, it's crazy. But that's your point you brought up.

And I actually meant to talk about this. You're talking about Aaron Rogers and Jory Nelson and how he throws through it. The equipment guy, his name is Jimmy Hay, for he's the assistant equipment guy for the Atlanta Falcons. We were talking about Mike Vic one time. So every, every team, college team, NFL team, you have your equipment staff. And then you usually have one guy that's assigned to the quarterbacks.

They have to spot the ball. They have to catch for drills. So usually they have pretty damn good hands. And they're also really good to talk to about like, hey, how's this guy throw? I remember talking to Jimmy and I was just kind of, we're just kind of BSing. And he was like, he goes a thing. So he's so from Georgia too. He's like, but the thing about Mike was he threw through you.

So the ball just like kind of like was soft in your hands. Even though he was thrown it like 70 miles an hour, that ball was just plopping into your hands because he's thrown at 10 yards behind you. So it doesn't like you were bringing up the point. It doesn't dip. Like my throws would dip. And that's the same thing that they talk about with a guy. that can throw like 102 in baseball.

And batters will say, oh, the ball's rising. The ball's rising. And it's an optical illusion because the ball doesn't dip as much as you think. Same exact thing. And that's what Lawrence has. It's such a good point because it is the inverse because he throws those 15-yard scene balls. And the receiver's like, oh. It's like on them instantly.

It's crazy. It almost knocks guys down. Aaron Rogers never has drops. Have you ever noticed that with Packers receivers? Even how hard he throws it, the guys never drop it. It doesn't matter what the receiver is. I always thought that was just Jordy or whatever. No, no, it's, it's, it's got to be, there's something there's something with how he throws it.

I think this, Trevor Lawrence has that same quality where guys just have to catch it. It's not a choice. It's like, no, no, that ball is sticking to your hand. Like, God damn it, you're going to catch that ball. And yeah, he's phenomenal. I love him. He's such a fun player. I think that the difference between him and luck to me is the creative aspects of it, where luck was not robotic in a bad way, but luck just moved with such precision and

perfection that it looked robotic at times. You can see the drill. Yeah, that's exactly right. With Lawrence, it's almost like he's putting a little seasoning on it. Like, he's putting a little hot sauce on these plays. Yeah. That luck just didn't in college. And I think that's the biggest difference to me is that you see kind of the creative

flare that didn't exist in part because the offense that Stanford ran. It was a very robotic sign of like play action under center system. So there just wasn't as much opportunity to do that kind of stuff. But that's the biggest difference to me. And I think that you're totally right. I don't know how he sees the game from a protection standpoint. I don't know how he's going to handle some of that stuff in large part because that's not part of what they put on the quarterback at Clemson. We had these conversations about Deshaun Watson when he was coming out.

It's just a simpler type of offense the way they presented to their guys. That could be a question. But in terms of the ability to play the position and the traits associated with playing the position, I have never watched a college quarterback that has the bundle of ability that this guy has. Yeah. Like what I said, I correct the joke. The athletic Peyton Manning hype, like yeah, that's kind of, I mean, not comparing a Peyton Manning, I'm sorry, but that type of like rareness with him.

It just all these things in a total package is just, it's ridiculous. He's not six one. He's not, you know, with Joe Burrow last year, it's not like he has a popcorn arm. You know, it's not everything's good or better. And that is so incredible to see in a quarterback because, I mean, it's hard. A quarterback position is very hard. And to see how easy he makes it look sometimes, even with like you said, the Mickey Mouse offense, there's no strain. There's no squinting needed.

Like there is just no squinting ever. You could watch him. If you knew nothing about football, you'd watch and go, man, that guy with a long hair is pretty damn good, isn't he? It's like, yeah, yeah, he is really good. It's just huge. And it was from the moment he got there. It was the moment he got there. The other guy had to transfer.

Like, he had to, like, that's how good he was. As a true freshman, other guys, they were like, yeah, we're going with him. Sorry. He had a throw against Texas A&M last year. It was a whole shot on the right side line from the left hash. And it literally looks fake. I mean, it just is the type of throw that's just like, that's not real. And the fact that you have those flourishes, but he plays at that level consistently,

that's the craziest part, is that with some of these guys, you'll have those. throws every once in a while. Yeah. Like with the guys that are supremely talented, you'd be like, oh, that's amazing. But you get too caught up in that because they don't have to often enough. The negative and the positive, the ratio is not where you'd want it to be. With him, the ratio is as far as you can be in one direction as possible.

And these flashes happen all the time. It's just there's nothing. You can't even say enough about the guy. If I were, it is a truly incredible thing that the Jaggs just looked into this pick. The fact that it didn't have to happen this way. could be a jet and the Jaguars just, it happened to, the ball happened to bounce their way. And now this guy is their quarterback. I mean, it's like, I don't know, want to make this comparison, but it's like when the balls bounce the calves way and they just got LeBron. I mean, it just, it

very easily could have not been like this. You happen to get the number one pick and you happen to tear it down in a season where this guy was available. And they just don't make them like this. Just point point. Yeah. Yeah. The LeBron Cavs thing is exactly right. or Crosby the year after the lockout with the penguins. Like they just won the lottery and like, oh, that team's about to move. Yeah, never mind. We just got Cindy Crosby, you know. So it's that's what Lawrence does for especially for a team that's maybe never had that guy.

I love Mark Brunel. I love David Gerard. I love Brian Byron left witch. But this is a truly transcendent talent and with a franchise that needs players like this. So that's kind of cool. Like I made the joke about the football gods and Trey Lance and Atlanta. Same types of things. is sometimes these franchises need these types of guys.

Like the Seattle Mariners needed a Ken Griffey Jr. It's like, you know, that team was about to move too. It's like sometimes these guys can just jumpstart a whole culture. And that's cool. And he has that potential. I know this guy hasn't played a snap in the NFL. It's not for long, all that shit. But it's like, this guy has all the makings.

If you're not going to bet on him, who do you bet on? That's kind of what, that's the best way to put it. It's like, you're never going to get another better. It's all, there is no certainty. There is never a sure thing ever. but it's all about making the right bets and I think this guy is the best bet that has come along in a long, long time.

All right, that's all we got. Those are our top five guys. I think that we are the same and how we would stack them up. I think I might like Zach Wilson more than Trey Lance because I just, the off-scheduled play making the accuracy to me is what would give Wilson the edge.

I still think Trey Lance is an unbelievable prospect. I just think that the potential and what he could eventually be is truly amazing. But I just love it's the Rogers stuff to me with Wilson. Again, the arm is not the same, but those types of throws, that throw he made in the pro day, that reminds me of some of the boot stuff. Like, it's just like that I really, I've been sucked into it.

Like I have succumbed to the hype with Zach Wilson, but I still, still do not believe that he is a better prospect than Justin Fields. That is way too far to me. No, that's the thing is, like I said, all these guys have top 10 grades. They're all legit studs, like legit franchise guys. That is usually you beg to get one of them in a draft. I cannot fucking believe that my team decided to go eight and eight and get the 20th overall. Right.

The one time you're, oh, I know. We're, I mean, every month of the way we talk. I remember we first talked about Zach Wilson. They were like, hey, man, they might get their next, their next Jim McMahon, you know, if they got a top 10 pick. also with Wilson, like if he does go to the Jets, which it all looks likely that he is, it's like there's a couple of weapons there for him that would that fit because he likes throw up those 50, 50 balls. Like Denzel Mims and Corey Davis, like those are big bodies for him to attack with.

So that's a nice transition for him. I also think that we talk about how this has been a conversation all week on football Twitter, I think in a way that is funny, but also like I think is a little bit overstated. Yes, boots aren't a system fit. like anybody can run them. But I do think that the throw is available to that guy outside the pocket. The list of them and the menu of them is much bigger than it is for other guys. I think that he can make a lot of cool stuff happen if you're allowing him to create

outside of the pocket compared to what other guys would be able to do. So I would like to see him in that offense solely because I don't think when he's booting out to the left, we're going to see it to the flat controller coming across the formation as often as we do with Jimmy Carapua. Yeah. or just the lack of, oh, shoot, my first read's done. Tuck it and take a sack. Zach Wilson's going to go, all right, all right. Let's try to throw something underhand or something like that.

It's like, what was the chart called? The DaVinci Vitruvian man. There we go. All right. Now that we've gotten back to DaVinci. All right. That's all we got, guys. We are going to do the same thing next week with receivers, but we're going to do

10 is the plan. You're learning about this now. We're going to do our top 10 receivers. We don't have to spend as much time on each guy. I think that it's with the quarterbacks, the five, we're so clearly the five. I think with this receiver class, you could have 10 guys,

you could put them in a lot of different orders. I know that you have some guys higher than other people do. So I'm excited to dig into that. We'll be back on Friday, me and Lindsay and a special guest for a show that I'm very excited about. We're going to get real nerdy on Friday with our guests that's going to be coming on.

Until then, please rate and review the podcast. on your podcast platform of choice. I very much appreciate that. Also, please subscribe to The Athletic. It's a dollar a month for the next six months, the athletic.com slash football show. The amount of stuff that's happening on the set right now is crazy. Ted is breaking down all the top quarterback prospects this week.

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Talk to you later. This was the Athletic Football Show.