expert view on Andrew Luck

To be fair, I have only seen him on cut-up youtube highlight reels.

Draft guys around here: what do you see in the guy that rivals some of the best (Ryan, Flacco, Bradford).

I mean, I have been clear that I don't want the team to end up 1-15, but HOW good is he, and does it all translate?

 

pro offense, team runs the ball, has a pro guy coaching him. Has pro assistants with him to a point, and has some veteran insight on staff (Jack Harbaugh is there now as well). I think the translation point is as ideal as Clausen's was. No spread, no option, no gimmickry.

His arm is there. He's technically sound. I don't know - I've seen him plenty. I think he's a fine prospect, but I bias against some of the top guys in the idea that I think it's fishy that the top prospect almost always happens to be a QB, and that suddenly a second QB will become really good when a 2nd team might need a QB (which happened to Quinn, Boller, and Rodgers, each incidental to their own talents - Boller was even the 3rd QB, arguably 4th). So, based on that, I tend to look at who the best QBs are, rather than judging them against the other prospects. So it becomes, is he better than Locker?

I mean, in the first few years the QB is essentially determined by circumstance - whether they want/need him to play, whether he's ready to play earlier than he should, whether he fits the O/style of QB play needed, support system, coaching staff, a hundred other variables. We had a guy fall to us, who knew and fit in our system, who didn't have to play yet, who had Steve Smith, two backs, and a good OL. And that didn't work that well.



Anyway, Luck? I don't have a good feel for his intangibles. I'm sure they're fine, but I don't know. Physically and possibly mentally I'd say he has as much as anyone who's played for two years in the college ranks.
I'd definitely say he's better than Locker, but that Locker's no slouch.


Also I'm far from an expert on much of anything. I just talk a lot, but I do somewhat well at that I guess.

 

I find your estimation of Locker interesting. I see him dropping to the second round based on this season--perhaps not fair because he is a good athlete with no supporting cast.

What about Mallet? Newton? I see Locker as the fourth QB in the draft, even though I have question marks concerning the other two.

 

Mallett and Locker have each been "the best player in the draft" this year. I like Locker more than Mallett, who statistically seems to look better. Petrino QBs typically don't do all that well, and there's the spread thing, whereas Locker has a couple years under a very solid young pro style coach in Steve Sarkisian. He'll also have a leg up as an athletic guy, but I don't care about that. He'll have to work on accuracy, which got better once he was under Sarkisian, but Mallett has to learn the pro game from scratch.

 

Clearly Bradford is a lot better than Clausen. I suspect Luck is a lot better than the other guys available in the upcoming draft.

 

yes, rankings are never wrong and draft status determines productivity.

 

My interest in the #1 pick is to trade it for more top picks. I would never, under the current agreement, draft a QB first overall. You would have to match the Bradford contract, and there is about a 40% chance you drafted a bust. Instead, draft a DT, OL, and CB with the picks.

 

I don't see any team being enamored enough with any one player in the 2011 draft to trade up to the #1 pick overall to get him. There are at least 5 or 6 guys who could probably be of equal value in those first half dozen picks. What dumbass team is going to blow their first day and possibly next years to go get Luck, or anyone else? Sorry but that trade ain't happening

 

Getting the number one overall probably increases our chances of trading down. You never know when a team is going to fall in love with a QB like luck. I agree though it is not very likely.

Cinncinnati will have a very high pick too and might give us something to move up and land Luck. They probably think they have enough on offense if they had a better QB. Palmer seems to have lost his mojo.

 

palmer is signed through 2014. further, mike brown is not the type of owner that is going to trade up so he can pay 1st overall money.