Quote:
Originally Posted by O.city
Do you guys think if WV's defense being so bad, causing them to lose a few games are affecting the scouts takes on Geno?
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I think it's multiple factors. First, wins and losses aside, he's at West Virginia. That's an automatic mark against him regardless. Second, West Virginia lost 5 games. Third, he's black. And yes, I do think that's an issue, and will continue to be so. Black quarterbacks are not treated equally. In every discussion about them, you will see their work ethic questioned, you will see their intelligence questioned, and you will always see them discussed as athletes who can throw, rather than as athletic quarterbacks. Always their running ability is highlighted, and every other aspect of the game questioned. You saw that with Cam Newton, who shockingly came into the NFL and has excelled as a pocket qb who can run when he needs to. Imagine that. Now I think it was somewhat of a valid question in his case, since his college career was so heavily run oriented. But then there was RG3. Now, of course, he got some leeway because he's a military kid and since both parents served he has to be "high character". But despite that, consistently all of last year people talked about him as a running quarterback, in spite the fact that over the course of his career at Baylor he become more and more of a pocket passer. He was always reputed to be a smart, hard working guy, and yet nobody would ever talk about drafting him early. A lot of people were actually surprised to see him go when he did. And they shouldn't have been.
I think it's the same with Smith. He's not at a traditional football power, and although they did jump to the Big XII, and that is a significant step up from the Big Least, it's still not the SEC. Since he's not doing it at a big time program it must be a fluke, and it's all weak competition. Yada, yada, yada.
That's what I think. And I think despite that he'll be a surprise "riser" once the combine and workouts hit. Because, according to everything that I've ever read about him (and I didn't just start reading about him this year - I was talking about him on draft day last year, and even before that...), he's an extremely hard working student of the game, very intelligent, with all the requisite ability and skills you could ever want, both tangibles and intangibles. I think he'll interview very well, and I think his strong points will stand out on tape, while his weak points (and he does have them) are all coachable. He's strong armed, has a quick release, can read defenses, make all the throws short, intermediate and long. I just think that once the "experts" take the time to look at him (I assume the actual NFL scouts already know this...) all this will stand out. There's just a lot about him that you can't teach, both his work ethic and his natural talent.
Is that Andrew Luck? No, I don't think so. Is it RG3? No, I don't think that either. But I don't think he's too far down from that level. And I think in
this class, which doesn't really (in my opinion...) have a standout at any other key blue chip draft pick position (meaning DB, DL, WR), he's an absolute no-brainer of a pick for a team like us who should be looking extremely hard at the quarterback position.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he'll grade out worse than I expect in the spring. No way for me to know. But my guess is that he'll be the consensus #1 player on the board by the time the draft rolls around. If he's not, then it will probably be some kind of character issue that got uncovered (sort of like Justin Houston, but I assume nothing that egregious...). I don't expect anything like that with him however, and I don't think there's anything about his play that would or should scare teams off.