Some Early Draft Stuff

We're nearing the midpoint of the 2017 NFL Season and the 2018 NFL Draft is so far down the road that the annual selection process shouldn't be a concern now. But most football fans can't get enough of the draft no matter the time of the year. That's why Monday Morning Quarterback's Albert Breer had some interesting draft stuff in a recent column. The 2018 quarterback draft class is supposed to be an especially good one. That's why Breer polled eight NFL evaluators who've watched the quarterbacks that are expected to be part of the draft. He had them rank the quarterbacks 1-5, with five points for first place, four for second, and so on. Here are those results.

1. Sam Darnold, USC (35 points, 4 first-place votes, appeared on all 8 ballots):Darnold’s been uneven this year, without question, having already matched his interception total from last year. But the feeling I’ve gotten is that scouts will cut him some slack because of the offensive line issues the Trojans are having. The biggest criticism is that he’s trying to do too much, not unlike what Jameis Winston his final year at Florida State.

​2. Josh Rosen, UCLA (34 points, 3 first-place votes, 8 ballots): The Bruins are 3-3, but it’s hard to pin that on Rosen. He’s played from behind a bunch and still has the best completion percentage of his career (64.2) while throwing for 2,354 yards and 17 touchdowns through six games. That said, he’s been a little sloppy with the ball at times.

3. Josh Allen, Wyoming (23 points, 1 first-place vote, 8 ballots): Allen’s numbers are mediocre and his team is 4-2. But there’s youth all around him and scouts trust the talent. One voter put him first, and another put him in front of Rosen.

4. Luke Falk, Washington State (10 points, 6 ballots): Falk was really rolling before Friday night’s five-interception meltdown at Cal, resulting in the Cougars’ first loss. He came into that one with a 19-to-2 TD/INT ratio, and is still over 70% passing.

5. Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State (7 points, 3 ballots): There’s more variance on him than any of the other quarterbacks. Is it Mike Gundy’s system and his receivers? Rudolph was second on one ballot, and didn’t appear on five others.

​6. Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (6 points, 4 ballots): If Mayfield were just a little bit taller, he’d probably be two spots higher on this list.

7. Lamar Jackson, Louisville (5 points, 2 ballots): The Heisman winner is as electric a runner as we’ve seen at the position since Mike Vick, and has flashed a strong arm. But inconsistency as a passer remains.

​8. Ryan Finley, N.C. State (1 point, 1 ballot): The junior has a shot to be this year’s Mitchell Trubisky. Two of our eight voters conceded they needed to do more research on him.

One would think that enough proof to the contrary has come through the NFL that talent evualators would stop dropping football players simply for size reasons. Fran Tarkenton, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson. How many itty bitty quarterbacks have to succeed at a high level before scouts stop putting such an emphasis on size. If NFL people believe that Baker Mayfield can play quarterback in the NFL it shouldn't matter if he's a little fella.

Luke Falk would probably like to have his performance against Cal last Friday stricken from the public record. Cal's defense got on a roll the likes of which I've never seen in over 40 years of watching Cal football. It was beautiful for Cal. It was ugly for Falk and Washington State's offense.

Josh Allen was right there with Sam Darnold and Josh Rosen when it came to preseason, quarterback hype talk. He's disappeared from some of that talk since the season started. It's good to see that he's still part of the conversation with the people that actually do the evaluating.

Breer also added his 2018 NFL Draft Big Board, Volume 4.

1. Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State
2. Sam Darnold, QB, USC
3. Minkah Fitzpatrick, DB, Alabama
4. Derwin James, S, Florida State
5. Quenton Nelson, OG, Notre Dame
6. Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA
7. Christian Wilkins, DT, Clemson
8. Bradley Chubb, EDGE, N.C. State
9. Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming
10. Harold Landry, EDGE, Boston College