Draft Chatter

     Well the NFL draft is around the corner and although the NFL has started the lockout the draft will still go on. Now that most pro days are over for most of the high profile players (that is except for top QB Blaine Gabbert from Missouri who will conduct his on March 17) we have are beginning to see how the draft may turn out.

     Most are saying at the moment that Blaine Gabbert is the best QB, although QB Cam Newton out of Auburn has impressed many with his talents, but the question is still with his accuracy, character issues and playing the spread offense in college. The other QB's also have some of the same issues with Washington's QB Jake Locker not being extremely accurate, Arkansas's QB Ryan Mallet having character issues and Missouri's Blaine Gabbert coming out of the spread offense. The problem with Newton is that he shows great potential but instead of having one problem like most on the board he has all three. Also the spread he ran in college was more run based while Gabbert's was more pass based.



left to right: Gabbert, Newton, Locker and Mallet



     Gabbert meanwhile is considered very accurate, has good character and has the football IQ and work ethic to be able to convert to the NFL pro style offense, but some still have questions about how he handles Important moments in games and weather he can lead the team in a comeback when the pressure is on. Mallet meanwhile has defiantly the best arm of the class and used the pro style offense in College, but many people think he won't be able to be the leader on the team and the face of the franchise, as well as not making good decisions in the pocket when under pressure. Locker has a good arm decent accuracy and played a pro style offense in college, but scouts don't like how his accuracy is not very good in the pocket and he looks to run the ball before finishing his reads.

     The defensive class this year is very deep and has a very good class of defensive lineman such as Marcell Dareus out of Alabama, Da'Quan Bowers out of Clemson, Von Miller out of Texas A&M, Robert Quinn out of North Carolina and Nick Fairley out of Auburn to just mention a few.

     There are also some top notch cornerbacks in Patrick Peterson out of LSU and Prince Amukamara out of Nebraska. The linebacker class is a little shallow as is the offensive line class with no real standouts in those positions. The wide receiver class only has two big time receivers in A. J. Green out of Georgia and Julio Jones out of Alabama but it has great value in the later rounds.