With things like that, you need to hear both sides. Not a reason to pass on a big time prospect if you feel he is the man. People make mistakes.
My final ranking of the top five quarterbacks in this draft is identical to Dane Brugler’s in The Beast: Bryce Young (top 10 grade) C.J. Stroud (top 10 grade) Anthony Richardson (top 10 grade) Will Levis (first-round grade) Hendon Hooker (second-round grade) With a week until the start of the draft, here’s what stands out to me about each of these prospects: Bryce Young: pro-ready prospect who can dazzle outside the pocket […] C.J. Stroud: safest QB prospect The first trait that pops off the film when watching Stroud is his accuracy and ability to hit receivers in stride. He doesn’t have elite arm strength, but he has a strong arm and can make every throw without issue. He’s especially good with trajectory control, putting just enough air on throws to get it over defenders on all three levels. He diagnoses defenses well and looks to do an excellent job of eliminating options based on his pre-snap reads. His feet are clean and efficient, and he looks to always be in control. He doesn’t lose much accuracy under pressure and throws very well off-platform. vs. Iowa, 5:39 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-10 Here, he’s able to quickly reset within the pocket and make a perfect touch throw over an underneath defender and away from the trailing man defender. Stroud’s tape is littered with these sorts of throws. On the flip side, he doesn’t make many turnover-worthy throws; most of his interceptions come when he’s overconfident in his ability to get the ball over defenders with touch. Overall, creating outside of structure isn’t a big part of Stroud’s game. Early this past season, when he played out of structure, he didn’t have much success, which led to questions about whether he could be a dynamic NFL player. He answered those questions in a huge way against Georgia in the College Football Playoff. Of course, teams would love to have seen it more throughout his career, but for him to do it on that stage against a defense with that much talent opened some eyes. vs. Georgia, 12:20 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10 Stroud has the highest floor of all the quarterbacks in this draft. Though he doesn’t have an elite physical trait, he has the full cache of tools you want in a quarterback and a strong football IQ. Stroud should be able to play and produce early in his career if he’s drafted in the right situation. I believe the range of outcomes for Stroud is between a more athletic Derek Carr and Dak Prescott. If the playmaker we saw against Georgia was a mirage, I can see him playing similarly to Carr — great at making calls and adjusting before the snap at the line of scrimmage with flashes of aggression and arm talent. If he can make plays with his athleticism more consistently, I can see more Prescott in his game — an ace with the mental side of the game who can make plays with his legs when the opportunities arise. Anthony Richardson: prospect with the highest ceiling As soon as Richardson takes his NFL first snap, he’ll be one of the most athletic players to ever play the quarterback in the league. Becoming a successful NFL quarterback requires more than running ability, of course, but that gives young quarterbacks a higher floor. Being a threat to gash defenses on option plays will help Richardson as he develops as a passer. Before watching Richardson, I assumed that I would see a project, like a more-athletic Malik Willis, but there’s much more refinement in Richardson’s game than he’s given credit for. He played in an outside zone, play-action offense with plenty of dropback reps that are translatable to the NFL. He executed checks at the line of scrimmage, made a concerted effort to manipulate the pocket and routinely progressed through plays. There’s a clear structure to his game. It just needs more refinement. Tennessee, 13:20 remaining in the second quarter, first-and-10 Richardson’s biggest issue is accuracy, and it’s overblown because of Florida’s lack of receiver talent. Richardson’s receivers struggled to get open and track the ball, and they dropped a lot of passes. The Florida offense also didn’t do Richardson many favors. The Gators failed to utilize him as a runner, deploying only a limited option package, and there were too many instances when receivers would end up right next to each other — a sign of poor spacing. When Richardson did misfire, he missed badly, but I believe he can cut down on those misfires with improved footwork. On film, Richardson’s footwork was all over the place and unpredictable from play to play. Footwork has proven to be very correctable in the NFL. Richardson’s combination of elite athleticism, arm talent and pocket presence is rare and gives him the highest ceiling in this class. In the right setting, he could have a similar trajectory to Lamar Jackson, in which he heavily relies on the option run game early and then starts to ween off of it as he improves as a passer. Will Levis: toolsy prospect who didn’t produce in college Levis’ arm talent is on the same tier as some of the elite quarterbacks in the league. He can throw with distance and put a ton of velocity on the ball — something that’s especially notable on intermediate throws. Additionally, he throws with a clean stroke and has a quick release. He throws accurately to all three levels, but his accuracy can break down against pressure, and the Wildcats’ offensive line struggled mightily in 2022. Levis had pro-level coaching with Liam Coen and Rich Scangarello serving as his past two offensive coordinators, and it’s reflected in his footwork. He has experience running concepts from the Shanahan/McVay tree, which is the most prevalent in the NFL right now. Tennessee in 2021, 3:03 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-10 Levis will be 24 by Week 1 of his rookie year and was not ultra-productive in his two seasons as a starter at Kentucky. Again, he was never surrounded with a lot of talent while competing in the SEC, but that makes evaluating him tougher. There were times he was fooled by post-snap defensive rotations, and he had a tendency to throw the ball into harm’s way (23 interceptions in two years). It’s also worth wondering whether all the pressure he saw in college has ingrained bad habits that will be tough to correct. Even in clean pockets, he could be skittish and look to take off too soon. Like Richardson but not quite on par with him, Levis’ arm talent and ability as a runner signal that he has a high ceiling. Levis does have more natural accuracy and experience than Richardson, and that might be important to some teams. Hendon Hooker: productive prospect who played in a funky offense Hooker is getting first-round buzz because teams are said to be impressed with him as a person and he had unreal college production. In his two seasons at Tennessee, he threw 58 touchdown passes to only five interceptions, ran for another 10 touchdowns and completed nearly 70 percent of his passes. However, he’s 25 years old, he’s coming off an ACL injury, and he played a unique offense that doesn’t translate to the pro game and might have ingrained some bad habits. From a traits perspective, Hooker is intriguing. He has a big arm, deep accuracy, the strength to rip away from tackles and the speed to hurt defenses with his legs. What makes his evaluation tricky is that he played in an offense that featured “deep choice” as its bread-and-butter concept. In this style of offense, one receiver runs deep and has several options to adjust his route based on what the defense does. When run correctly, this offense can be very productive and fun to watch, but it’s not ideal for developing quarterbacks for the NFL. vs. Alabama, 14:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, first-and-10 At Tennessee, after Hooker checked the safety rotation, he would lock on to the receiver running the deep choice route. He couldn’t throw with much anticipation because he had to wait for the receiver to make a decision. This meant that he didn’t have many pure progression plays and sometimes stood like a statue in the pocket waiting for the route to develop. Hooker faces a long developmental curve, and he’s coming off an ACL tear he suffered in November 2022. Still, the combination of production, physical tools and intelligence makes him an intriguing bet. Though Young and Stroud are my top-ranked prospects, I get why the top three could be shuffled depending on which team is drafting. Young’s size might cause some teams to put Stroud ahead of him, while other teams might want to gamble on Richardson’s immense upside over both quarterbacks. I have Levis on the next tier, but some teams might have him in the top tier because of his arm talent. To me, Hooker looks like a second-round pick, but in a draft without a lot of prospects with first-round grades, positional value could push Hooker into the first round.
https://theathletic.com/4430449/2023/04/20/panthers-nfl-draft-bryce-young-s2-test/ Alabama quarterback Bryce Young notched a near-perfect 98 (out of 99), while Kentucky’s Will Levis scored a 93, a person with direct knowledge confirmed to The Athletic. Those scores measure up well with several successful current or former NFL quarterbacks. Joe Burrow scored in the 97th percentile, while The Athletic’s Matt Barrows reported in an in-depth piece on S2 Cognition test in February that former Saints QB Drew Brees, along with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen all scored in the mid-90s.
Listening to 790. I think it’s ND Kalu predicts Anderson at 2. Receiver at 12. Texans love Hendon Hooker and can see them coming back in first to get him. Says they are obsessed with Hooker so take it for what it’s worth. He knows more than most.
He's a band-aid solution to this offense; he's old, coming off a torn ACL, and in a gimmicky offense. I do like that he took care of the ball and can take off but the cons outweigh the pros.
If you’re taking him in the 2nd or later it wouldn’t bother me. Unless you think it’s a waste of a pick. He would compete with Mills when healthy, he isn’t a long term solution and wouldn’t hinder you from going after Williams or Maye next year.
No way would I want to trade up for him. I don’t think a guy who won’t be ready by season and will be 26 in season should go in first.
Stroud was the favorite to be the #1 overall pick, ghosting the Mannings at the time would have been a pretty big deal that I think gets picked up pretty quickly and widely (see Manziel in 2013). I obviously have no idea what happened but doubt something like that just falls by the wayside where Brady Quinn is breaking it.
Why is everyone assuming Nick's comments were about a QB? The quotes I've seen have all been non-position specific.
For me, Texans take Will Anderson, with #2 then trade down from #12 to 16-20 that way they have 3 first round picks in 2024 and select Hendon Hooker, with that pick.
Hooker... 1 read guy on tape. Feels like he knows where to go with the ball, which is great, but Tennessee also ran one of the weirder formation in football with the constant wide splits. Makes it much easier to read the field. Against Georgia, he struggled and was slow to react. If first read wasn't there, he looked to run for the most part. Positives is that he has the quietest base in the whole draft, so he will be accurate if given time to throw and I suspect we are a good fit systematically. Feels like the Texans thinking is that they don't need the best QB due to system and would rather take the guy that is 80% of the others if it means upgrading your Edge by more of a %.
