WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Outside Source Football: QBs in the 2024 Draft

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Evan Mick, Gabriel Vondrak, and Joseph Doherty recap recent NFL news and talk about their top 6 QBs in the 2024 NFL Draft. 

Welcome to Outside Source football, your inside look at the NFL. Listen to the latest predictions and happenings from the season with your hosts, Evan Mick and Gabriel Vondra. Here they are now. Hello and welcome to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. This is Outside First Football with Evan Mick, Mike Mayock, and Mel Kuiper. Somebody's been watching tape. Oh, we've been in the studio.

You know it. For legal purposes, do we have to say we're actually not those people? I don't know. I think so. We're legally not those people, guys. That was a joke. That's not who we really are. I have just, I basically have the same takes, if not better, but I don't get paid a lot of money. You have better takes than Melkoyper.

I probably have better takes than Mel Kuiper. Mel Kuiper Jr. was mad at the Colts for not taking, who was it? Well, Levis. They were mad that he was mad that they didn't take a quarterback when they drafted Marshall Falk. That's where that whole that, no, I agree. I agree with that. It's a classic line. I think the Colts GM at the time was like, who the hell is Mel Kuiper?

He was like, my name. knows more about football than Mel Kiper. And my neighbor is a is a mailman or something like that. It's one of the great lines and draft history. I'm sure he gave the Lions draft an F. It was Trent Dilfer. He was so upset that they were, they didn't draft Trent Dilfer, which is just hilarious. I don't know who that is.

Exactly. I only know who that is because I know there was a team that didn't draft him. He won a Super Bowl with the Ravens, you know, the great Ravens defense, 2000 Ravens. Yeah, like 12 points a game. Exactly. In the playoffs. Their quarterback was Trent Delfar. He was so good that season that after winning the Super Bowl, they didn't resign.

No, that's what I remember. That's a horrible stat. I think that's the only time in history that a team won the Super Bowl and did not bring back their starting quarterback. I don't mean any disrespect. Trent Delfour is respected in the NFL community. Speaking of players with rings. Oh, boy.

Oh, man. Yeah, this is. This isn't just. Hide your wives. No man is safe. This isn't just football news. This is just news for all men. out there. It's coming out today, and I don't know how credible the sources are, but

Tom Brady allegedly has accepted that the affair between Jazeel and the jiu-jitsu trainer was going on for a long time before the divorce. I mean, this is a tough one, guys. If seven rings doesn't protect you from cheating, what does? I mean, if Tom Brady... What, what, eight? If only he won one more, maybe you would have been okay. But it's bad news for all men that Tom Brady is getting cheated on, so. It's tough. Yeah, it is tough. And maybe I'll get...

What else? There were a couple other headlines today. MVS. MVS. Which has to be horrible news for MVS, because you've got to feel bad if you're the guy who gets cut before Cadarius, Tony. That is... That might hurt you as a receiver.

Cadarious Tony has two Super Bowls. That had to be cap-related, right? Yeah, $9 million saving something. Yep. And they're paying them that much. They're also, Legerius Sneed requested, not requested, it's going to seek a trade. So a trade, yeah, because they can, they're going to tag him. It's similar to the Jesse Bates situation where they might tag him and then try to trade him on the tag.

So depending on how things look there. So people think that Snee's now going to get traded for instead of, you know, whatever you can't have. It's a possibility. It was mentioned with T. Higgins, too, that the Bengals may tag him and see what they could get in a trade. Yeah. Isn't Jamar Chase's contract up next year, though? Not that you move on from them, but... I think Jamar Chase is eligible to negotiate a new contract this offseason.

Oh. Because he's going into his fourth year. So they're obviously going to either exercise his fifth year or just give him a contract extension this off season. There's one other player who has been able to seek a trade. Ah, yes, of course. Zach Wilson. Now this is huge. Big news out of the big apple.

Zach Wilson of the New York Jets, allowed to go seek a trade. Where's he going to go? There's a, there's a market for Zach Wilson. Yeah, I agree. It's just not in football. It's the moms in different communities

are interested in getting Zach Wilson to their area. See, I actually disagree with you. I think that, I think that, you know, Zach Wilson, he's got a lot of talent. And for the right price, like a bag of potato chips, I would like him on my team. The only thing that makes...

When did outside first football become just mean? When did we just become... He's a better football player than I'll ever be. The only thing that makes sense is maybe a team with an already established veteran quarterback who's good, could maybe trade for Zach Wilson and think that they could develop him. Oh, like the Jets.

Like the situation that he was supposed to be going into last year with Aaron Rogers. So I don't know. I wish him well. Yeah, up next we're going to talk about the top six quarterbacks in the NFL draft. Yep. So for me, number six, and we're just going to, I'm going to like rank, let's talk about

my number, and then we're just going to talk about that player. And you're going to say where you have that. So, I mean, should we just lay out who the six are right now? Yeah, I think it's, it's Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jaden Daniels, Bo Nix, Michael Penix, and J.J. McCarthy. Yep, those are the clear. Those seem to be the top six guys. Yeah, so I think we're going to start out with with J.J. McCarthy.

We're starting with McCarthy? So J.J. McCarthy is my number six. Let me go to that page in my notes. He actually brought notes. This is the first for him. He usually just does it off memory, off rip. It's draft season. You've got to do a little bit more.

So the athleticism is definitely there for McCarthy. He'd be a great runner in the NFL for a quarterback, of course. The arm strength is kind of there. I think that there's a lot that people have talked about with his mechanics. As far as his arm strength, he needs to step into a throw. He can't really throw off his back. foot. The accuracy has been a huge problem. He throws a lot of passes short, especially like short crossing routes when he's trying to throw off his back foot. A lot of it's,

it just doesn't get there. And my dad can definitely testify to that because he always gets upset and yells at the TV whenever JJ McCarthy missed a throw. Do you want to bring him in? I do. We'll bring him in. We'll bring him in next week just to talk about JJ McCroney. No, Evan's dad. So what do you think? You got a half page in notes. So it's a small sample size, right? He wasn't, he was in a really good situation at Michigan where they didn't ask him to do a whole lot. Excellent running game, excellent offensive line, excellent defense. Jay, Jay, just go out and do your job. Don't try to do too much and we'll win games. And that's what they did the last two seasons. And that's why he only lost one game as a starter. I said, yeah, he has an NFL arm. I think it's not, he doesn't have an insane. crazy, crazy arm strength, but he's shown the ability that he can make those, you know, deeper throws to the sideline on the boundary. He can drive it when he gets his feet set.

He's shown he can do that. His running ability, I think, is excellent. He's a really good athlete. And it shows up a lot on third downs, third and short or third and even not short, where defense is in man coverage, he drops back, finds an opening and picks up a first down. And that's huge. That's really what all the teams are looking for, you know, when they say They want a guy that can run. They want a guy that can do that. They want a guy that can create when there's nothing else, and you've got to have a first down on either third and fourth down.

He definitely can do that. I like his, I like his mechanics. I think his mechanics are good. He's been coached by Jim Harbaugh. Harbaugh knows quarterbacks. And that's apparent to me watching the tape. His footwork is consistent. I like his release.

I think he's got a good release. You know, they talk about throwing with your hips first. He often does that. He likes to roll out to his right. He likes to get on the move to his right, and he's pretty good at finding guys on the sideline when he rolls out to his right. There's not a lot of examples of him rolling out to his left

and then flipping his hips or rolling out to his left and throwing on the move. It's not something that he did a lot. There was one play against Ohio State that I don't even know which year it was. I think it was two years ago where he did have a really nice play. He rolled out to his left, flipped his hips, and then hit Ronnie Bell deep down the field. there are some questionable throws in there.

I mean, you know, nobody's perfect, right? So there are a number of throws who are like, geez, dude, what did you see there? You know, you were not protecting the ball. That was a time where he was, you know, times where he was being aggressive, especially like late in games where they had leads or it was close where, yeah, he kind of got away with some.

Third down. He's really good on third down. His numbers on third down are great. But again, it's kind of a product of the system that he was in. Michigan runs the ball well. They get into third and manageable. It's not like he was dealing with a lot of third longs where he had to make, you know, insane plays. A lot of times it's just can you pick up

a third and four or a third and three? I think, yeah, the coaching shows up. I think, you know, I mentioned that earlier, but he obviously had a really high level coach. You know, Jim Harbaugh is now with the Chargers. He misses high sometimes, especially on flat routes. Those ones, you know, kind of going out to the field. Well, yeah, you talked about him sort of missing short. I say he misses high too. So again, accuracy is a little bit of a concern. I would say that it's especially when he's trying to throw a touch pass. Yeah, yeah. He lasers it pretty well.

Especially like rolling out, he can roll out and throw it dart. He doesn't know when to take it off. It's like, I mean, he'll have it. It'll be a rollout play, and he's got a guy running to the flat who's right in front of his face and he guns it at him. It's like, dude, chill out. You don't need to just make that nice and easy. Let him catch it on the run and go. Yeah, he struggles with touch.

I think that that was my biggest problem, because that was like, one of my favorite things about Stroud and then Stroud turned out so well was his touch pass and his off the best back foot. And the ability not to be able to do that has shown up really in the NFL, I would say, especially these last two years. Yeah. And like I said about the offensive line, he didn't have to maneuver a messy pocket very often. Usually, you know, when they did throw, a lot of times they would throw on first and 10 just because, you know, just to catch a defense off guard, that's a down that, you know, Michigan's typically going to run the ball on. So they'd throw on first and 10 just to shake things up and and again yeah he's not not dealing with a lot of pressure and then

the other thing is there's not a lot of examples of him throwing sort of tight window throws deep down the field there's not a lot of fade balls where he had to drop it in a bucket and there's a guy on the receiver's hip so can he do it probably you know he's like said there's there's a couple of examples of him throwing the ball deep down the field but usually it's to guys who are wide open if they do it. So, yeah, the deep ball's a little bit of concern. One thing that he does do well, and this is kind of what I got in the games that I watched, there's like one or two throws every game that make you kind of say, okay, wow, that was a really nice throw. Like, that was really impressive throw. It'll be either be something deep down the seam or maybe like a 15-yard dig route

over the middle of the field. Like, he's shown that he can do that. And that's a knock on a lot of these guys in college. NFL guys will say, I never see you throw the ball in the middle of the field. I've never seen you throw a dig route. I've never seen you throw a deep in-breaking route just because it's not as popular in college. He's shown that he can do that. He has, he's got the arm strength. He's got the accuracy to do that. But as is the case with everything with him, we just haven't seen it a lot.

We haven't seen it a lot. Yeah, that's how I feel about him is that, you know, he had such a great run game. The only thing he didn't really have at Michigan was like a really stellar wide receiver. Yeah. And don't get me wrong, Roman Wilson is good and he's going to get drafted. but he wasn't like a Marvin Harrison Jr. He's no top neighbors, right? Two round talent even, I would say.

They mostly had a, I agree. I think kind of gadget guys. Yeah, Ronnie Bell and Wilson, who yes, you know, smaller, shift of your guys, just get him the ball in space. And you see that. There are a ton of screens, which is true for all of these guys,

which that's just college football. A lot of swing passes and a lot of screens, which doesn't tell you a whole lot about a quarterback that he can throw a wide receiver screen. Yeah, in my opinion, the best fit for him would be the Falcons. I know I was talking to Gabriel, about it yesterday, but the Falcons have a really good run game, well, at least a running back

duo in Bejan Robinson and Tyler Alger. And, you know, like, Drake London's a pretty good, wide receiver one, and Pitts. Kyle Pitts is, at least on paper, should be a great head end. Freak athlete. And I think that he would thrive in that kind of environment. Yeah, I think the ideal situation for him is that put him in an offense where you're not asking him to do a whole lot, be just that facilitator that can get the ball to playmakers in space and then let them make plays. Let yourself get out of the pocket. I don't know if I would like him on the Broncos, which is where a lot of people have unbocked to go.

I could see why Sean Payton would like him. I could see that, but just as the team. Because he does play well on schedule for the most part. I mean, yeah, when his first read is there, he'll take it. Yeah, when that first street is there, he's really like his short throw accuracy from what I've seen so far, which is just a handful of games. but it's good. And that part of his game reminds me of Bo Nix.

I think there's a lot of similarities between him and Bo Nix, other than the fact that Bo Nix is two or three years older. Two or three years older and has played a lot more. And Bo Nix put up pretty crazy numbers, especially his last year at Oregon. But I think it was a similar situation in that there are good situations for those quarterbacks, good teams around them, just a different offensive philosophy on both sides,

where Michigan was a running team. and organs was such a high volume passing team, but you still didn't get a, you know, like I said, a lot of screens, a lot of short stuff. That's why Bo Nix's numbers are, you know, so crazy compared to J.J. McCarthy. But there's a lot of similarities in the way that those two play, both good athletes and can move too. Yeah, let's talk about Bo Nix.

Bow Nix is my number five. Where do you have J.J. McCarthy in your top six? Now, I will say before, you know, we do rank them. all. Quarterback, hardest position to rank in football by far. Yes. Hardest position probably to rank in all of sports because they're dependent on their entire, like the entire team around them. The system that they work in is going to be completely different from college to NFL in 99.9% of situations. And people get it wrong all the time, even the best of the best. It's just so hard to predict and project. Coaching is a big thing

when they do get to the NFL. Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously so often teams get it wrong, right? You see first-round quarterbacks that just completely flop. I mean, we just talked about Zach Wilson. Wilson was the second overall pick. And Tray Lance was a third in that same draft. Yeah. I mean, there's countless examples of first-round quarterbacks not panning out. So, yeah, obviously, nobody really knows, but yeah, we can try to make the best guess that we can. Where did you guys have McCarthy at in the top six? I like him more than Michael Pennix. For me, McCarthy and Boe Nix were tied. Joe? I had a met. I had him at five.

Five. I have Bowenix at six. Okay. So next, we'll talk about Bo Nix. I have him at five. I'm very good at finding a lane to make a throw through the offensive line. Like he's pretty good at maneuvering the pocket and being able to. Because, I mean, he is pretty big.

He's not, he's not, he's not as athletic as McArthur. Like, he's not an NFL runner type McCarthy. I don't agree with that. I think, I think, I think Bo Nix is just as good of an athlete and just as good of a runner as J.J. McCarthy. I think he's bigger. I don't think he's as fast. He maybe doesn't have the same top end speed,

but I think any first down. There's that one game, what was it, Pac-12 championship that you and I were watching, where he just like broke a run for like 50 yards. No, he can run. And if you go back to his Auburn tape, which I don't know if it's really not worth it to go back and watch it because he's such a different player now,

that's all he did at Auburn. All he did at Auburn was run around and try to create off schedule, and it really didn't go very well, and that's why he transferred to Oregon. And has transformed himself as a quarterback and as a player. But yeah, I, I, if Nix is athletic, good at taking his first read, which is a lot of

that offense, like quick passes. If you have a stop route that's right there, right away, take it. And, you know, let your, let your athletes run. A good arm. I think it's comparable to McCarthy. I actually kind of put arm strength as more of a weakness. I thought that that was, that was on the weaker side. I think it's an NFL arm, but I think it's borderline.

Yeah. That's my best. I can see that he doesn't, maybe he doesn't, maybe he doesn't, look like it has as much pop. It doesn't have as much speed. He's not throwing it on a rope all the time. He's got a much better touch. I agree. The speed is the top end, like when he's trying to throw

across the field, sometimes I just think the ball doesn't get there as fast as it needs to. I got you. I said good arm. I said he had a good arm. It's yeah, nothing insane but good enough and better than other guys that we've seen be successful in the NFL. I talked about his mechanics when I was talking about McCarthy.

I like the way he throws the ball. I do too. I like his footwork a lot. Again, I hope that you have your footwork and your mechanics down when you've been in college for six years and you've started more games than any other quarterback in FBS history. So that's a good thing. I said, yeah, yeah, dangerous as a runner when he gets outside of the pocket, good touch, a decent escapeability. That's something that, yeah, when we get to, you know, Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams, that's such a huge part of their game. And I had written down better escapeability and that was compared to I think Michael Panx

was who I just watched before him and yeah he's better at getting out of pressure than that footwork is consistent for the most part of Oregon it looks like he made the easy stuff look easy you know when a guy's wide open down the field he didn't miss him yeah I kind of see him as a high floor guy like maybe his ceiling isn't as as as high as the other guys the more talented guys

but it looks like he has a lot of the basics of the position down and because of that, like we've seen him do that, that sort of gives him a higher floor than the younger guys. It doesn't hold on to the ball too long. You know, when you watch Caleb Williams or even Drake May, you have these plays that go on forever because they're running around trying to create.

That really wasn't Bo Nix's game at Oregon. It was on time. Just last year. Get it to guys. And, I mean, like, I watched the USC game, and you really don't get a whole lot of it. You can't, you don't get a whole mutt a lot of it from Bo Nix because it was like he was playing seven on seven.

against USC. The defense was so bad and guys were running so open. I mean, he started the game two for two for 161 yards and two touchdowns. Ended up with over 400 yards and four touchdowns. But when you had guys running wide open and I think in the Pack 12, you get a lot of that not known for defense, but also against Utah. He played Utah, who was a much better team. They carved up Utah. I mean, I think it was like 35 to 7 and he played really, played really well in that game. So I think he's a good player, but maybe, yeah, just doesn't have the high-end talent of the guys who are slated ahead of him. Yeah, so when I went through and ranked all the quarterbacks, Bo Nix was my starting point for, I think that all the guys above him will be starters for at least like the next three years. So for me that includes Michael Penix.

Really? For you, I know for you it doesn't. I know it's your whole page of notes. I've watched with Pennix, I watched the Texas game, the semifinal game. I watched the national championship, and then I watched both of his games against Oregon, and I was pretty underwhelmed. Yeah, I will say you watch Michael Pennings, and you do realize that he probably benefited the most from his receivers, even including, you know, Jane Daniels who had the two. Yeah, neighbors and Thomas. Yeah, that was kind of my takeaway watching Michael Pennix.

Are we officially moving on to Michael Pennix? Yeah, we can start with Michael Pennix a little bit. Michael Pennix was my number four guy, unless Joe, you have anything on Bo Nex? there? Not really. During the Pac-12 championship, I was not very impressed by him, and that's why I put him at six. It didn't seem like he was going to... I mean, yeah, Washington, I mean, Washington didn't have a great defense, but they were in the national championship, like, they're a good team. Yeah. But I just, I didn't see anything special from him. He didn't play that well. Like, he had a couple, I mean, he had one throw that was nuts, where he was rolling out right and had to

throw it back left for a touchdown. Also, I think it was... And he had some scrambling. In that same game was when he had that big fourth down play down in the red zone where he sort of, you know, evaded the pressure and then made a nice thrown to the end zone. That's what I'm talking about. That was, that was a huge play in that game. And that was really impressive because watching his tape so much of it was like on schedule throwing to guys who are really open. That was one of the first plays that I saw. Okay, he had to create something here. The pressure was in his face. He, you know, got him, got him to jump with a pump fake, reset his feet and hit a guy low in the end zone to score and keep them alive in that game. And then they get the big play to cut that game to three.

And then unfortunately his defense just couldn't get him the ball back. You know, if Oregon's defense could have made a stop there, you know, there's a really good chance that they go down and win that game. And then same in the regular season game. When they play at each other, yeah. He gets them in field goal range to, I think, just tie the game. If they had they made the field goal, they would have tied the game and it would have gone overtime.

They miss a 45-yard field goal and that's it. They lose to Washington. So kind of had two really close back and forth games against Washington. Yeah. I don't think he played bad in either one. I think he played pretty well. In the first half of the Pac-12 championship, he was off. Yeah, I agree.

Like, he was missing some wide-open guys. He was missing him out of bounds. He threw some bad picks. Was that the game where there was in that one that he threw the interception of the guy that was out of bounds? Yeah, I don't know if I, I don't really. It was hard for me to knock him on that one. But yeah, we're going to come back with Michael Pennington a minute. But you listen to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.

Outside Source Football. We're going to go to a short break. Hello and welcome back. to Radio Freehillsdale 101.7 FM. Outside source football as we break down the quarterbacks in the 2024 NFL draft clasp. Moving on to Michael Pennix Jr. Michael Pennix Jr.

Michael Pennix Jr. My number four quarterback. Gabriel's number six and I think Joe's number four. My number four. I haven't watched Spencer Rattler yet. I may end up moving him above Michael Penn. I'm, I don't mean to be this negative about a guy, but let me tell you this.

So all season I was kind of dismissing Michael Pennix Jr. because I watched him now two years ago play against Texas in the Alamo Bowl, and I was really overwhelmed. You forgot about the Alamo? You can't forget about the Alamo. I saw him. I saw him. They won that game, but I saw him miss a lot of throws in that game. And if it wasn't for a couple drops, Texas should have easily won the game. And so everybody who was high on him after that, I was like, now, this guy's got accuracy problems. And then obviously he had a great, you know, great season. I think he won the Maxwell.

He's a runner up in the Hysman or something like that. and he was putting up huge numbers. And then I see him against Texas this year in the semifinal, and he tore him up. Totally torched him. He was on point. I was like, okay, wow, this guy's obviously gotten a lot better. And then he struggled in the national championship.

And so, yeah, I've watched closely now the national championship, the game against Texas before that, and then both of the Oregon games. And I think, yeah, the most impressive thing in the Washington offense was the receivers and not necessarily Michael Pennix Jr. year. He has the injury history. That's, of course, that's a little bit of a red flag. I think he is ACL tears in both knees. He's older, like Bo Nix, been in the college game longer.

But he's not as good of an athlete. He doesn't run as much. He's got a little bit of a running ability. You know, I think he can scramble when things are there a little bit. He's not Jared Gough. He's not Jared Gough, yes. He's not a statue. He can get around a little bit. He has, there's some great throws, but there's also some really bad missy.

I think he maybe has more misses on guys that are open than the other ones in the games that I've seen. And especially in the national championship, there were a couple of huge misses that could have changed that game where guys were open and he just missed him. I don't think he has an elite arm throwing it deep down the field. He's obviously shown like these other guys that he can make the throws. He can make the throws deep outside. Drifts back a little bit when there's pressure in his face. I don't like his mechanics as much as the other one. It's not just because he's left-handed,

and when you watch a left-handed quarterback, it looks a little bit weird. That's true for any left-handed quarterback, but he's got some issues with his front shoulder. One thing pretty much all quarterbacks are taught is to try to keep your front shoulder closed that you can generate more power that way. His front shoulder kind of flies open.

So, yeah, the mechanics are funky, and a lot of times he makes it work. You know, that's just sort of the way he throws and he's thrown some beautiful passes that way. but it also has led to a lot of misses. He's got a low release, some passes batted down at the line. On deeper throws, sometimes it looks like he's just heaving it. Like he's not really trying to put it in a spot.

He's just like throwing it as far as he can and hoping that his guy runs under it. And sometimes they did. Sometimes it was overthrown. Some clutch moments though. Big, big games that he won. Like we talked about both of those Oregon games. They won those games. He made enough plays.

for them to win those games. And then same with the Texas game before the national championship. He made some really clutch plays to win that one. A lot of screens, a lot of swing passes. Can I jump in here? Yes. Okay. So here is my thing about Michael Pennix.

So Michael Penix is my fourth ranked quarterback. And it's less about the traits. He's really accurate. He's not super great outside the pocket, especially throwing on the run. He's not good at it. He just isn't. There's no ability to do that there. There's not the other.

In any other place, he fails, but I believe he goes to Denver and he succeeds because of the system there. I think he could run that system so well, so much better than any other quarterback in this draft class. I think he's the ideal quarterback for Denver, and I think Denver is the ideal place for him. You think he's that much better than McCarthy or Bo Nix that you like... At running the offense, at getting the ball in the hands of the playmakers accurately and on time, yes, I do.

I'm going to have to see more games before I make that because based on what I've seen I wouldn't agree with that but that's just my opinion. Like I said though, the throwing outside the pocket is not, it's not there. Yeah, there's not examples of him throwing on the run and more times when he gets pressured, I've seen him overthrow passes where the pressure's in his face. He kind of has to have a clean pocket.

Pressure's in his face and he starts to drift back and then he just sort of throws it out there. I don't think that they ask him to do that in Denver. I don't think that they're asking him to sit back in the pocket for three, four seconds and then throw like they did when they had those deeper seats. I think it'll be a lot more quick game stuff for him in Denver, and I think that that's what he'll work. Which I think.

I think, will be better for him. I kind of, as I was taking notes, I think I got too negative. But the one thing that I thought he did really well consistently was that, yeah, short throw, accuracy, timing, getting, yeah, getting the ball out quick. He was good at that. My biggest concern with them is injuries. I don't think that the age matters. I don't think the age matters as much as the injuries do.

If he's going to start right away, you know, I mean, if you're going to take him in the first round, you're probably going to start him right away. He's not going to sit behind a guy and learn for a couple years. So who really cares about his age? Yes, that's true. That's how I feel about it. Yeah, the age thing. But like his injuries, nothing can ruin a football career like a bad injury could. Just look at like RG3.

Yeah, he gets injured one year. He's out of year. All of a sudden, like, I don't know. And for him, you know, the running game is. is not a huge part of it. And so he's shown that he can bounce back from that. I think, yeah, the medical side will be big for teams at the combine and evaluating him. Honestly, though, right now, I don't think he's a first-round pick.

And we'll see how NFL teams value him as this process goes on. But in my opinion, I think he's more likely to start falling down boards than moving up. All right. So we're going to move on to Drake May. So I'm not usually super into pro comps because I think that they're just usually dumb. But I think that there's a really, really good pro-comp for Drake May and not just based on, I would say less based on his talent and has athleticism and more based on the play style. I would say he plays a lot like Josh Allen where you see these great out-of-structure plays while he's getting hit, left-handed throw to the end zone. That's the one that I always have in my mind.

And then you see that at that same time, there's a couple plays where he gets hit and it's like, oh, he should have turned the ball over there because of that he because he's trying to make these crazy throws. he has the turnover worthy plays. So not a pro-compass in like he's Josh Allen as a runner. He's Josh Allen as an arm-tet. Like he's Josh Allen in play style. I think that there's no better like comparison for a quarterback that I've seen in a long time than Drake May and Josh Allen. That's what I feel.

I feel like they look exactly like they're kind of built the same. I feel like Drake May is going to have a lot of turnovers as a rookie and that's going to be a big thing when, you know, after the season when we evaluate them. like how we think the draft pick was. But I think that he also has just some crazy playmaking ability. And like you were saying, that left-handed pass, nuts. That was crazy.

And he rarely misses the deep ball. And he can run. He can run if he needs to. Drake May has become the biggest wild card for me because Joe and I watched a few games and there was a lot more good than bad. And I was like, okay, yeah, I get this. This makes sense. This guy's got the size.

Does not have the same arm as Josh Allen. but he has a strong enough for him. I think actually he might have, I mean, I don't know how strong Caleb Williams arm is. I think it's really hard for me to evaluate. But I think that other than, if you take Williams out, I think he is the strongest arm.

You think Drake Meadows? I think so. You take Williams out. I think I think Jayden Daniels may have something to say about that. But he's shown that, yeah, he can make some really impressive throws. He's shown that he can create running. He's not,

I don't think he's going to run an insane 40. But like Josh Allen, he's big. He's physical. and a lot of times uses that to his advantage. He kind of reminds me of a guy that has probably for most of his life been the biggest guy on the field, and that's sort of how he runs, which obviously gets harder and harder the further you move up.

So yeah, you're not going to be able to do that in the NFL. But he is aggressive and makes a lot of plays. He's also young. He's only 21 and probably was in one of the worst situations out of all these quarterback. He was asked to do a lot with no running game, didn't have a very good defense, and I question how good of coaching that he got, just from a quarterback standpoint or from an offensive standpoint.

I also couldn't name a receiver on their team. Now, Tess Walker is good. Tess Walker is good, but he was also... He wasn't not... He wasn't eligible to the first four games because all the transfers... Because of the Tad.A. Yeah. And whatever.

And what was really bad was his last game against NC State was rough. So was just... If you watched the game against Clemson, that one was rough, too. Yeah. And so in those games, I think it highlighted the biggest issue, his footwork. His footwork is kind of all over the place. We talked about Nixon McCarthy being consistent. May's all over the place. It's like nobody ever coached him on how to move in the pocket or how he should drop. He drifts really bad and sometimes he'll drift himself into pressure. He does, he misses throws and often it's because of his feet. He misses his throws because his feet aren't planted or because he's sort of drifting away or he doesn't have his feet ready. Yeah, I said that he does a good job of making throws and rhythm when he wants to. Yeah. Yeah. And so when he does have good footwork, it's there. Yeah. And at least it's a little slow. I want to go back and watch more of his sophomore season,

because his numbers are way better his sophomore season. And so I imagine he was just, you know, maybe better O-line, better receivers around him, because the ability is there. It's there. We know he can do it. He just didn't do it as consistently as some of the other guys. guys, but the upside is more than it is for Pennix or Knicks or McCarthy. Yeah, I think, I think as far as his running ability goes, though, I think he could have a couple of like maybe quarterback option runs throughout the season, like less than five, but I wouldn't depend on that as an NFL to transfer for him to have more average more than like 10 yards a game. I mean, like I said, the baseline for me is, are you a guy that can pick up a third down with your

legs when there's nothing there. I think he could do it. Drake May can do that 10 times out of 10. 100%. I think, sorry, I think that he's going to be one of the, one of the worst of the, he's going to be the worst of the top three quarterbacks this year, in my opinion. In the first year, 100%. And it's because of, yeah, in the first year. It's because he doesn't have just like that raw playmaking ability that the other two have, that Caleb Williams and Jane Daniels have, in my opinion. And he's going to be in a bad situation. He's not going to go on overall to the Bears, right? I mean, if the Bears pick a quarterback, it's going to be Caleb Williams. He's going to go to either the Patriots who have nobody or the commanders who have nobody. And I think that he's just going to struggle. He's

going to have to learn, like you said, just some fundamental stuff. And to your point, yeah, he's not as good as creating as those guys. I agree. But that's his game. That's kind of the game that he's played in college. And so somebody, he needs coaching desperately to be able to say, hey, you need to play in rhythm, play on time, get the top of your job. He could be so good at it. Because you can. That could be be his game. He can do it for sure. And so for me, ideally, based on what I've seen, unless he has a huge transformation in the offseason before his rookie season starts, he's probably not ready to play as a rookie. And I don't know if it'd be a good idea to throw him out there. Unfortunately, yeah, if he's picked in the top three, probably going to be expected to be the start. Because that's

just the NFL now. But it probably wouldn't be ideal for him. It would, the ideal thing for him would to be like Patrick Mahomes or Jordan Love, be able to sit for a while and learn because, yeah, he has so much talent, but he's a pretty raw prospect right now. Agreed. Moving on to my number two, Jaden Daniels. So, I mean, obviously,

elite running prospect, that's what you're going to hear pretty much throughout the draft, about as good as maybe Justin Fields and Lamar Jackson type running prospect. He does have good height. I think he is a little bit skinny. Like when he runs,

he can be grabbed pretty easy. easily if you really get a good handle on him. He takes some big hits too. He does. I've heard that a couple times. The thing about Daniels, Daniels is that if you draft him, you have to be committed to him. And by that, I mean, you have to change your offense. Do what Baltimore did with Lamar and not what Chicago did with Justin Fields. You have to be committed to that option-style running game, the quick, quick maybe passes type

stuff. I think that if you run the offense like Baltimore does, I think that you could be successful with Jay and Daniels. I think that if you try to throw him out there in a regular quarterback stream, I think he fails in the NFL. I will push back on that. I don't agree. I think right now watching him, I see, yeah, close to Lamar Jackson running ability, but he's a better passer than Lamar was when he was coming out of college. I think he's a really good pass. I think he's a great passer. I went into film kind of expecting him to be all over the place. His mechanics, way better than Drake May. His footwork is a lot better than Drake May. Again, he's an older guy. He's a fifth year. I think he's 23 years old. He spent some time at Arizona State before going to LSU.

So he's had more time to learn the position. Special athlete. I mean, he has like run away from guys kind of speed. Like where Caleb Williams is great in short distances and can get away in maneuver, Jaden Daniels isn't just running for first downs. He can take it to the house. He can go 50 yards. He can go 60 yards.

He's got like track sprinter speed. Yeah, I just think that as far as the throwing goes, think he short arms a lot of his throws. A lot of it, especially those deep throws are underthrown. And that's the one benefit that he had of Malik neighbors. And especially, I would say Thomas, would be, they come back and they make plays on those balls, even if they're overthrown, at least to the point of where it's not getting intercepted. Yeah, I haven't seen enough yet. I've watched a handful of games. But what I've seen is, yeah, he's a lot of pop coming off the ball. One of the knocks is that, yeah, he's not throwing the ball in the middle of the field.

There's examples of him doing that. I watched the Alabama games. I think the Alabama game was really impressive because you're going against the top end defense and he makes some insanely impressive throws and runs in that game that make you say, yeah, this guy can play from the pocket and then when he decides to take off, good luck because nobody's going to catch him. So I'm really high on Jaden Daniels. Honestly, I'm not convinced that Caleb Williams is better than Jaden Daniels. If I was a GM, it would be a tough decision for me right now between those two. And I would be watching everything and studying everything to try to figure out who I think is better because I really like Jaden Daniels. Moving on to Caleb Williams. I mean,

so here's what I'll start with my overall take. I think you're crazy if you just think he's a bust. You're just at that point, you're just a clickbait. He has the potential to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league and his coaching would have to be really bad for him to be a complete bust. I mean, I think that even the floor is pretty high. It's high floor and high. ceiling. I would say that watching the quarterback tape, because I watched quarterbacks play last year, I like him more than I like Bryce Young, but I liked him less than I like C.J. Straub because I thought C.J. Straub ran more of a pro style on rhythm offense. And obviously, C.J. Strad turned out. So maybe that's just, you know, I'm watching C.J. Strad playing the NFL and turn out.

You're going to need to pull up some receipts. Yeah, I don't, I don't. Elite NFL analyst. I don't know. I believe you. I believe you, but I'm just going to need some proof. I'll show you that. I like Bryce. That you were team Stroud. above Bryce Young. I'll pull it out. Okay. Yeah, Caleb Williams, insane talent. Escapeability is great.

His pocket presence is pretty good. He struggled against pressure in some, especially the Notre Dame game, but that one was, that was just rough for USC as a team. They just got physically dominated. And that was his worst game in college by far. Yes, yes. He threw three interceptions in that game and had five on the whole year. So it's hard to evaluate.

I think his last season. because most of his stats came in the first half of the season when the schedule was easier. And then as they played tougher competition, his numbers got worse. But again, the situation around him wasn't great. His offensive line was not very good. He was running for his life most of the time. There were a lot of miscommunications, it seems like, where receivers falling down or just being covered. And he was having to play hero ball.

And honestly, the fact that, yeah, he only had five interceptions for as aggressive as he had to be is pretty incredible. And I would say that that's a strength and that he protects the football. Yeah. It's hard to, it's hard to evaluate him because he's always one running for his life and two playing from behind. Yeah. This past season. We'll get more into last year is his Heisman year. But I think, yeah, some people are saying right now, oh, he can't play on schedule. I don't agree with that. I think he can. I think he could. I think he 100% can play on schedule. It just turned out that he didn't a lot. But just, you know, just because a guy, wasn't asked to do something in college. That doesn't mean he can't do it. I think C.J. Stroud

is an example of that where maybe Ohio State didn't ask him to do some of the things that we saw him do in his rookie year. But I think, yeah, what really sets him apart is the way he's able to manipulate the pocket and the way he's able to extend plays, he is really hard to sack. And on those plays, that's when he looks a lot like Patrick Mahomes, where he can, you know, he just takes, he just moves so well. And he's hard to bring down. And I would say he's just based on I've seen. He's probably a little bit of an even better athlete than Patrick Mahomes, like even faster than him can get away even better. It doesn't have that, you know, Jaden Daniels speed, but he's an excellent runner. And then his arm is, is incredible. Yeah,

I think he does have the best arm in this class. He shows the most control as far as ball placement goes and throwing different kind of passes, different arm angles. Yeah, we've seen him throw, you know, from every angle imaginable. So, yeah, his creativity is, a huge strength. The fumbles are a little bit of a concern. I think that's easily coached up though. When he is extending plays, he'll tend to sort of swing the ball out. And how many

he had a lot of fumbles? He had quite a few. A lot. I don't remember. I want to say it was close to 30 fumbles in his three years as a starter, which, yeah, that is a concern. Wanted to protect the football. But I think he is a, he's a special player. Yeah, I think that his ability to

extend plays while using blockers is his best trait. His pocket presence maybe the best I've ever seen. He's not like a Lamar who's going to break sacks with his athleticism all the time. He's more like a Mahomes who reads his offensive line like a running back. Yes.

I feel that the same way about him running the ball. He is a good athlete, but it's not the Lamar type athlete that we're talking about. He's better at reading the blocks than he is an athlete. Yeah, he's like I said, not sprinter speed, but he's got football speed. He's great flipping his hips on rollouts. There's at least one play game that you say,

wow, that's insane. There's very few people in the world who could ever make that throw. I'd say there's more than one a game. There's usually more than one a game. I mean, I remember. I said at least. I remember when, I mean, we watched Drake Mays fell, but I was in awe. Like, I thought Drake May played really well in whatever game we were watching.

I don't remember what it was. But then we switched to a Caleb Williams game, and it was just nuts. I'm like, I think that they're both going to be great, but Caleb Williams was on a whole other level of just playmaking ability. The throws that he makes were, yeah, he's rolling out to his left or rolling out to his right with a guy in his face and he just throws the ball on a rope, 30 yards down the field and hits a guy right in the numbers. Yep. He does it better than, yeah, does it better than anyone. And you see why, yeah, pretty much everybody has him as the consensus number one.

There was one play in a game that overall, the game was pretty bad for them. They lost to UCLA and numbers wise, his numbers weren't great. But in that game, he had a play that was just absolutely ridiculous. He drops back. Pressure is immediately coming on the outside. He's got to step up and basically as he's running toward the line of scrimmage, throws the ball 50, 60 yards down the field to a receiver on a go ball, hits him right in stride as the defender falls down for a touchdown. And I mean, it's just Who is this against? This was against UCLA, that that play. Yeah. I think my big knock on Keel Williams, and I say big as, and he's still my number one quarterback pretty easily, is that he doesn't like to step up

when he knows he's going to get hit. Like he'll kind of like step away from, fade away from throws a little bit when he knows he's going to get hit. I would say that that's my only that and the fact that he played poorly against better defenses. But I mean, obviously, you know,

everybody's going to do that. And it's not a Zach Wilson complete meltdown kind of fall off where he's one and seven against top 25 defense, but it's, it's something that it's not easily overlooked. It's something that it's definitely there. It's pretty noticeable. So, yeah,

it's something to note, but playing at USC, the competitionist is still better than, yeah, compared to BYU. Yeah, 100%. Well, thank you for listening to Radio for Hillsdale 101.7 FM outside source football

as we ranked the NFL 2024 quarterbacks.