2007 Draft preview - The quarterbacks There is little doubt that scouting services get the draft very wrong at times, when looking back on the 2003 draft you realise just how wrong about certain prospects the scouts and ‘experts’ can be. Some of the glaring mistakes from 2003 included Charles Rogers (#1 WR) and Antonio Gates was not even scouted by most services, in that same year Pro Football Weekly had this to say about one of our very own quarterbacks:- “Streaky, erratic and has tunnel vision. Locks on to one receiver, lacks judgement and presses in big games, when he forces balls. Does not have a great arm and measures a lot of throws. Lacks speed and has average athletic ability. Has an inconsistent delivery point. Has little scrambling ability of elusiveness…has many NFL tools, but his decision making and performance under pressure have to improve.” Then just last year, one of our most recent starters under centre received this evaluation. “Has good mobility to avoid the rush and is alert on the move to find open receivers…arm strength is not great and the farther he throws the more he struggles was not asked to make many NFL vertical throws. Has small hands and will lose the handle on the ball easier than many” Maybe sometimes the ‘experts’ are not that far off the mark. With a couple of games remaining in the regular season I was convinced that should that should we have a shot at drafting WR Calvin Johnson (Georgia Tech) then we would jump at the chance, to such an extent that the commissioner would not have time to finish saying that “the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are on the clock” before the card with Calvin Johnsons name would be thrown in the general direction of the stage. I still remain relatively firm in this belief but what if either the Raiders or the Lions pass on a quarterback. What if we are on the clock and Brady Quinn has yet to be drafted could Gruden resist picking that phone up and calling Dublin (Ohio) and asking Brady if he wants to be a Buccaneer? For that reason alone it is worth considering some of the quarterbacks in this draft. JaMarcus Russell (LSU) He has all the measurable’s you could possibly want in a QB and I have no doubt his results from the up coming NFL combine will be off the charts, when he throws a deep ball there appears to be very little effort involved at all, he will find himself compared to Culpepper in the run up to the draft which could be good or bad depending on your perspective. My concern with Russell is more about his mental approach, he has all the physical tools and in his senior year improved his accuracy, touch and ability to read defences against top level competition, my concern is that Russell has been surrounded by as much talent as there is available outside of the University of Southern California yet as the leader of the team he has struggled to take them to the National Championship level, often self-destructing in big games on the road, never was this more evident than his performance against Florida throwing just one touchdown and three interceptions. It is arguable that Russell may be the worst big game quarterback in the SEC since Peyton Manning. Brady Quinn (Notre Dame) For Quinn the key will be if he can get above Russell in the draft (therefore not taking part in the senior bowl could have been a mistake) I have feeling that just as Leinart fell in the draft last year that if Quinn is the second QB to be drafted (and makes it past the Buccaneers) he may continue to slip, I am not a big fan of Quinn as his accuracy tends to fail him, and in regards to his skill set I don’t see any more in him than I did in David Carr, if you want a David Carr I’m quite sure that the Texans will be happy to part company with him for much less than the 4th overall pick. Upon Charlie Weis arriving in South Bend, Quinn dramatically improved to an All-American level and yet his improvement between his junior and senior years was less than impressive leaving some to question is Quinn’s production more to do with Quinn or Weis. Quinn may be suffering from the same over analysis that plagued Matt Leinart in his senior year and in all fairness to him he has never been surrounded by top level talent like Russell was. The next crop of quarterbacks in this draft will be selected in the 2nd to 3rd round, I see that the 1st day draft picks could be spent more effectively on other positions and we already have a 2nd day development QB on the roster in Gradkowski, that said here are a few QBs to look out for on draft day. The runaway winner of the Heismann trophy Troy Smith (Ohio State) has questions over his height and his performance in the national title game probably cost him at least half a round in the draft, if he is 6ft or over there are other QB’s he can be compared to (Grossman and Brees for example). If he is under 6ft this is an unknown area to most NFL teams and they will probably stay clear of him early in the second round. On the other hand Stanford signal caller Trent Edwards has the NFL prototypical size yet has tendency to hold on to the ball to long. Drew Stanton (Michigan State) is a quarterback that many like and there is a lot to like about him, he is a tough player who has the ability to make just about any throw, he takes snaps almost exclusively out of the shotgun and has a gunslinger mentality and given that he hasn’t got one of the strongest arms in this draft this could create problems, Stanton best projects in a west coast offence as it would be kind to call his current offence ‘Dink and Dunk’. On the other hand there is UTEP’s Jordan Palmer another prospect that has great physical tools at his disposal but he just isn’t at his brothers level and I suspect that he will be viewed as a better QB than he is due to bloodlines rather than production and potential, he looked good in practice at the senior bowl but throws far too many interceptions. It was Carson’s senior year when everything fitted together this has never happened for Jordan how good he is depends on if it ever happens. Another two names at quarterback that could get thrown around in the later rounds are Kevin Kolb (Houston) who has good mobility and amazing passing statistics but there are fears that he could be a product of the system that he has been playing in also he has a very low release point which creates a lot of batted down passes. The other name is John Beck of BYU who has a similar problem with his release as Kolb, has been very productive but appears to miss too many open receivers. For me this quarterback class is not very deep at all, if the Buccaneers have a chance to draft either Quinn or Russell I think they will seriously consider it also I think Troy Smith would be a potential pick if he is available at the end of the 2nd round. For me these three are the only QBs in the draft that have ‘franchise’ potential to them, although I’m less convinced by Smith. With the rest of this quarterback class I fail to see that by drafting one of these prospects that it would improve on what we are currently have on the roster. Yet the question still remains if one of the top two quarterbacks is on the board at the same time as the Buccaneers are on the clock can Gruden resist drafting another signal caller.