Most Popular This Month

Thursday, April 20, 2023

2023 NFL Draft - Positional Rankings - Quarterbacks

 We’re a week out from the draft and as always, I’m “behind”, although if it’s always I’m right on schedule. We start where we do every year and where everything revolves around in the football world… Quarterback. It’s an interesting class of flawed yet interesting prospects, with no-one quite fitting neatly in a prototypical box.

 

Player | Team (Conference) | Height, Weight | Attempts | Adjusted Yards per Attempt | Completion % | Production | Role (Grade)

Explainer – Player, Team, Height, Weigth, Attempts, Completion % exactly what you’d think. Conference will be the conference for FBS teams and FCS/DII/DIII/NAIA outside of that. Adjusted Yards per Attempt (AY/A) is yards per attempt but each TD adds 19.3 yards and each interception subtracts 45 yards. It allows us to make adjustments to the typical stats and get a fuller picture than yards per attempt provides. Production is just my attempt at creating one number that generally sums up a player’s production on the field. It is incredibly flawed but I’ve never found a single statistic that accurately sums up quarterback play… it’s a starting point and by no means the end all be all. Role & Grade go hand in hand, and there are 5 roles:

Starter (S) - 8.0 – 7.1 – Someone who I think has the ability to make an impact early, or who I think has the ability to be a long-term starter.

Expected Starter (ES) – 7.0 – 6.1 – Someone I expect to be a starter and long-term option but who has some concerns.

Potential Starter (PS) – 6 – 4.1 – Flawed prospect, and where most fall, varied levels of, oof that could sink his career.

Backup (B) – 4 – 3.1 – Potential to make the fringes of a roster, or at least expanded squads, much work to do

UDFA (UDFA) – 3 – 2.1 – The bottom level both in athleticism and production.


Top 10 (11) Quarterbacks

Bryce Young | Alabama (SEC) | 5’10 1/8”, 204 lbs | 380 Attt | 9.79 AY/A | 64.47% | 5.475 | ES (6.7)

C.J. Stroud | Ohio State (BXII) | 6’3”, 214 lbs | 389 Attt | 10.82 AY/A | 66.32% | 5.950 | ES (6.5)

Young and Stroud lead the class for me. The most obvious differences is in build, an obvious concern for Young, roughly five inches in difference Young will have issues around visibility in the pocket but he did well dealing with pressure in the pocket on a slightly underwhelming Bama offense. Stroud moves alright, he’s not an athletic freak but he showed against Georgia he can scoot when he needs to. What sets Young apart for me is his ability to anticipate routes, play outside of structure, and make tight window throws off platform. Stroud has the better pure arm, and showed some flashes with his legs and creativity, but his lack dynamism is a slight concern.

 

Anthony Richardson | Florida (SEC) | 6’4 1/4", 244 lbs | 327 Attt | 7.56 AY/A | 53.82% | 3.327 | ES (6.2)

Will Levis | Kentucky (SEC) | 6’3 7/8”, 229 lbs | 283 Attt | 8.21 AY/A | 65.37% | 3.734 | PS (5.8)

Richardson and Levis will be inextricably linked, by conference, by body type, by Josh Allen. Both are varying degrees of project. Levis for my money is Daniel Jones, he’s got all the physical tools was productive in college but flawed and just lacking the upside, that extra little something. Richardson tested better than any QB in combine history and that’s exciting but there were two things that separated him from Levis… his ability to avoid sacks for a mobile/athletic QB is kind of insane and will help keep the offense on track, and also he read the field well. He needs to work on consistent footwork so he can drive the ball and sail it high less often but all in all he’s less raw in the little things than I expected.


Jake Haener | Fresno State (MWC) | 5’11 5/8”, 207 lbs | 350 Attt | 8.99 AY/A | 72.00% | 5.273 | PS (5.7)

Hendon Hooker | Tennessee (SEC) | 6’3 1/4”, 217 lbs | 329 Attt | 10.84 AY/A | 69.60% | 7.603 | PS (5.6)

I’m gonna compare-contrast with these two, both come from unique passing offenses, both are older players (2017) recruiting class, Haener played in a more timing-based intermediate passing attack, while Hooker pushed the ball downfield in the Briles inspired Vols offense. Hooker has the better arm, and is more athletic, but I just thought Haener’s grasp and control of the game was fantastic for Fresno State. Hooker’s offense is less a problem for him than it is for the WRs that come out of it.


Malik Cunningham | Louisville (ACC) | 5’11 3/4", 200 lbs | 218 Attt | 6.87 AY/A | 62.39% | 3.465 | PS (5.4)

Jaren Hall | BYU (IND) | 6’0 1/8”, 207 lbs | 376 Attt | 9.31 AY/A | 65.96% | 5.153 | PS (5.3)

Stetson Bennett | Georgia (SEC) | 5’11 3/8”, 192 lbs | 454 Attt | 9.54 AY/A | 68.28% | 5.360 | PS (5.2)

Max Duggan | TCU (BXII) | 6’1 1/2", 207 lbs | 419 Attt | 9.44 AY/A | 63.72% | 4.821 | PS (5.1)

Clayton Tune | Houston (AAC) | 6’2 1/2", 220 lbs | 496 Attt | 8.86 AY/A | 67.34% | 4.888 | PS (5.1)

Cunningham, small, can scoot, good arm. Hall, solid player, interesting offense, slightly bigger than small. Bennett, didn’t know he was this light considering the Young concerns, and winner. Duggan, baller, reckless, more football player than pure QB. Tune, solid QB, solid arm, on the bigger side for the calss.

 

The Rest

Player

Tm

Conf

Ht

Wt

ATT

AY/A

Cmp%

Prod

Role

Gr

Lindsey Scott

InWo

FCS

70.25

207

454

12.08

70.93%

5.542

PS

5.0

Chase Brice

APP

SBC

74.375

236

346

9.17

63.29%

4.654

PS

5.0

Adrian Martinez

KSU

BXII

73.875

221

184

7.24

64.13%

4.448

PS

4.9

Tommy DeVito

ILL

B1G

73

210

369

7.48

69.65%

4.177

PS

4.9

Todd Centeio

JMU

SBC

70.5

226

284

10.40

63.73%

5.460

PS

4.8

Sean Clifford

PSU

B1G

74

218

351

8.46

64.39%

4.344

PS

4.7

Aidan O'Connell

PUR

B1G

75.375

210

499

6.67

64.13%

2.959

PS

4.7

Dorian Thompson-Robinson

UCLA

PAC

73.625

203

382

8.48

69.63%

4.820

PS

4.6

N'Kosi Perry

FAU

CUSA

74.5

199

371

8.00

57.95%

3.975

PS

4.5

Tanner Morgan

MINN

B1G

72.375

204

160

8.32

66.88%

4.169

PS

4.5

Tim DeMorat

FORD

FCS

75.5

219

499

11.07

65.33%

4.333

PS

4.3

Holton Ahlers

ECU

AAC

75.125

227

469

8.58

67.16%

4.958

PS

4.2

Fred Payton

MERC

FCS

72.625

210

325

10.08

66.46%

3.917

PS

4.1

Tanner McKee

STAN

PAC

78.25

231

426

6.66

61.97%

2.891

B

4.0

James Blackman

ArSt

SBC

77.25

189

347

7.51

64.27%

3.819

B

4.0

Austin Aune

NT

CUSA

74

215

411

8.54

56.45%

3.533

B

3.8

Chris Reynolds

CHAR

CUSA

70.375

197

316

7.82

63.61%

3.519

B

3.8

Parker McNeil

LT

CUSA

76.75

224

214

8.86

57.48%

3.476

B

3.7

Taylor Powell

EMU

MAC

72.125

202

269

7.66

64.68%

3.453

B

3.7

Chase Cunningham

MTSU

CUSA

70.625

188

463

6.72

66.74%

3.375

B

3.6

Matt McDonald

BGSU

MAC

74

211

378

7.07

61.11%

3.209

B

3.5

Kyle Vantrease

GaSo

SBC

74.125

218

604

6.71

61.42%

3.105

B

3.4

Nolan Henderson

DELA

FCS

71.5

202

442

7.76

64.48%

2.985

B

3.3

Kory Curtis

GANN

DII

76

235

340

9.47

62.65%

2.483

UDFA

2.9

Connor Degenhardt

NeHa

DII

77.25

227

287

9.01

58.54%

2.207

UDFA

2.6

Nate Cox

NEV

MWC

81.25

225

251

5.32

52.99%

2.206

UDFA

2.6

Larry Harrington

LANG

NAIA

72.75

209

270

10.06

52.96%

2.117

UDFA

2.6

Dion Golatt Jr

BOWIE

DII

75

225

337

7.82

61.42%

1.814

UDFA

2.3

Carlton Aiken

PACE

DIII

73

220

252

7.37

54.37%

1.677

UDFA

2.2

Chris Brimm

NDOH

DII

71

210

323

7.14

57.59%

1.578

UDFA

2.1

No comments:

Post a Comment