[philfree]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Yes.

But that's not at all unusual for a QB this time of year. And let's face it, people in a general sense have a harder time evaluating the players at the position. RG3 was barely considered a top-10 pick prior to March of last year, and to this day people still refer to him as a running QB despite the fact that he had developed into quite the successful pocket passer at Baylor. A year earlier, Cam Newton was rarely (if ever) discussed as the #1 pick, and by the time the draft rolled, ESPN (Kiper) on the live broadcast called it a "risky" pick. I think everyone (myself included) was surprised by his rookie year, and how much more of a polished presence he had in the pocket, since (unlike RG3) he primarily was a runner at Auburn. Bradford had the shoulder issue and the "spread QB" monkey on his back in 2010 (people talk about this year as a weak class...look back at that one sometime). People argued strongly against Matthew Stafford in 2009, because while he has a rocket launcher, he threw too many picks. (Ironically, also in 2009, you had people fall madly in love with an inexperienced project player (Mark Sanchez), something which also often happens, but that's a whole other post.)

Probably the closest association that I can make to this year is 2008, when Matt Ryan went 3rd, which in retrospect was an absolute travesty. (Remember, the Dolphins took Jake Long and the Rams Chris Long.) Coming out of BC, Ryan was criticized for a lack of arm strength and for throwing interceptions. Comments were made at the time (by professionals) questioning whether he would even be a first round pick in "any other year". (Where've we heard that before...) People actually thought the Falcons should've taken Glenn Dorsey.

So my question is this: do we want to be the Dolphins and Rams from 2008? Or do we want to be the Falcons?

Why is this so hard??

Nice. I've been using Ryan as the litmus test for this years QB prospects. If a prospect is at least as good a prospect as Matt Ryan then he's good enough to take with the 1st pick in the draft.