Draft nuggets, with help from those who know the game.
Anonymous scout:
…On DE/LB Robert Quinn: “He’s a fraud. He does nothing against good opponents and eats alive Duke and Citadel. I think he’s destined to fail. I just don’t believe in it. Maybe I’m wrong. If you put all this money into a guy, you’re doing it with a guy who’s all potential and there’s really nothing concrete. I wouldn’t touch him.”
…”I would take Aldon Smith before I take Quinn. Ideally Quinn is gone so you don’t have to make that decision.”
…”The Redskins have put themselves in a bad spot because of the way they operate and they don’t have picks.”
…On Andy Dalton: “He’s a journeyman; an average backup guy. He’s totally blow up way past who he is, just because he’s on a team that beat everyone in the WAC and he had a good bowl game. I think he’s average. I watched him at the Senior Bowl and I think Christian Ponder is so much further ahead. And Colin Kaepernick. Dalton screams like another Mike Kafka. I don’t think you can win with the guy.”
… “They won’t be a good team next year no matter who they draft. They have too many needs and play in a tough division – with no quarterback. Even if they get Jake Locker in the second round it’s not like he’s gonna start.
“But you’d like to think they will get someone young to develop at quarterback. John Beck? Geez, he hasn’t shown anything as a pro. Mike Shanahan really needs to find a guy in this draft. You can even get another vet and let the vet and Rex Grossman go through this year and keep whoever you draft from playing, let them have a year to sit like Carson Palmer did. Way too many guys failed because they played right away.”
… “I don’t understand why people think so many quarterbacks will go in the first round. In a normal year I understand why you take them, but this is not a normal year. When football is played, all the veteran QBs available will be signed. Right now the players on teams have a lot better chance to play and succeed than any rookie QB. If this goes into July or August and the kids can’t work with them, are you kidding me? And you want to take a QB high and pay him all that money? And you can’t even work with him? How do you take them? It’ll blow my mind if five or six quarterbacks go in the first round. It would be shocking, but stranger things have happened.”
… “I don’t think the QB class is awful. It’s deep. But they all have major flaws and part of the problem is the vacuum at the top created when Andrew Luck decided to stay. Even he has a few things he needs to work on – and he’s as legit a prospect as there was. Now people are pushing other guys up and it’s not because of anything they’ve done; it’s silly. I would be shocked if Mallett is a first round pick. And I don’t believe the hype about Cam to Carolina.”
From Dave Razzano, an NFL scout for 23 years:
… “I’ll tell you who I think is a sleeper; I think the best guy three years from now will be the kid from Southern California (Editor’s note: This mistakenly said South Carolina in earlier versions), Jurrell Casey. (Here is one highlight reel of Casey… and here’s another that’s not as impressive.) He’s a prototype nose man, a lot like Casey Hampton from the Steelers. He’s short and powerful. Boy, I was just watching him again and he’s a force. I don’t hear many people talking about him. He’s getting overlooked.”
… “My instincts tell me I like Christian Ponder more than Dalton. Dalton is a system guy; Ponder is mobile. He reminds me of Tony Romo, a guy who can get better. He’s smart; he has a good arm, not great. That’s what Romo was coming out. The arm strength thing is so overanalyzed. Most guys in the NFL have average arms except for guys like Joe Flacco. … I like Ponder. Mike likes a quarterback who can move around; that’s why he liked Plummer. And most quarterbacks, they get healthy so it usually doesn’t affect their career. He should be fine.”
… “Ten is too high for Cam Jordan. I don’t see him in the top 10.”
… “Jake Locker will fly off the board. Minnesota has eyes on him and I don’t think he gets by Jacksonville. Someone will grab him. Ponder, Dalton, I can see a run on these guys. The guy I really like is Kaepernick. Guys like Gabbert and Newton are extremely overrated. They have their size. Everyone looks for the prototype and that’s the problem….Quarterbacks don’t have to be really tall.”
… “When you watch video of [Gabbert], you see this guy as a fringe starter, backup – in the third or fourth round. He’s way overhyped and that’s what happens with these juniors. I’m not the only one who feels like that. If you study the tape there’s no way you come out saying he’s a first rounder. Everything is quick hooks; occasionally he goes farther but not much. When he goes down the field he throws into traffic and he’s not real accurate. You’re talking about a guy who only threw 16 touchdowns. He’s a big kid who never goes down the field with the ball. He’s not much different than Alex Smith; I thought he was a backup.”
