Joe Thomas (3)- Solid Left Tackle, that's all I can really say. He's not Orlando Pace, but who is. And I hope he's not Robert Gallery. Here's what bothers me about Big 10 left tackles, they don't face the type of edge rusher that they will face in the Pros. I will say that he only gave up one sack his senior year. And that sack came against the Powerhouse Bowling Green State University Falcons.
All in all this is a safe choice that immediately helps the team, and addresses a need that hasn't been addressed in the first three rounds of the draft since 1979.
Brady Quinn (22)- Here is a hot button topic. Quinn's precipitous fall from top five selection to the end of the first round played out dramatically on ESPN (until the commish ranked him out of the green room). A lot of people love this move a lot hate it. What in essence they gave up was next year's First Round pick to move up from the second round.
That's a lot to give up, especially when it might be a top five pick. Here's why I don't think its that big of a deal. If they Browns are going to pick in the top five next year they had another atrocious year this year. And Charlie Frye sure isn't the answer at QB. So they would most likely be looking at drafting a QB. By making this trade they give the QB a year jump on development and they save a ton a cap space by picking at 22 and not in the top 5.
I'm not worried that 21 other teams passed on him. Most of the teams that passed had more pressing needs than taking a QB. In picks from 10-22 only one offensive player was taken (Marshawn Lynch to the Bills) In fact the only team that really passed on Quinn after the Browns at #3 was the Miami Dolphins at #9. There's a reason the Dolphins haven't won since 1973. And has anyone seen the list of QB's that have started since Dan Marino retired, its about 12 deep and includes such stalwarts as Cleo Lemon and Joey Harrington. So lets not be surprised that the Dolphins made a mistake in passing up a potential franchise QB for a glorified kick returner.
Alright lets tackle whether or not Brady is going to be a good QB. Quinn is a four year starter at Notre Dame, the last two under coach Charlie Weiss. His numbers in those last two years are better than anyone else in this draft. Near 62% completion percentage, if that's average accuracy then that's fine. I'll take it over the below accuracy of Charlie Frye and Derrick Anderson. He has an above average arm, maybe the second or third best in this draft and he can make all of the throws. He physically has what it takes to be a top notch NFL QB.
Mentally, he makes good decisions (only 14 interceptions the last two years), and played under the biggest spotlight in college football. There are few positions in the NFL that are under more scrutiny than Quarterback at Notre Dame. He does however hesitate to make throws, which is a source of most of his inaccuracy. This is a timing issue and is not the most difficult thing to work out.
The biggest knock on Quinn is his performance in big games. Sure he never beat USC or won a bowl game, but he beat Michigan (wait who doesn't beat Michigan these days) and was an uncalled Reggie Bush penalty from beating USC two years ago. Lets be honest there wasn't a ton of talent on these Notre Dame teams. I've been hearing for the last couple of years how "overrated" ND was. Well you can't have it both ways, either they were a good team and didn't perform in big games or Quinn was the only real talent on a team that got out manned in every big game they played in. Judging by the amount Domers taken on the first day I'll go with the latter. If the biggest knock on a guy is that he didn't win big games in college I'm alright with that. Peyton Manning didn't win big games in college and he turned out alright.
Finally, I'll let the good folks at Football Outsiders (who do wonderful sabrmetric type stuff with football) tackle the QB depth in this Draft. According to David Lewin at FO, the best indicators of NFL success among college stats are games started and completion percentage. Here's what he had to say about Quinn:
In my opinion, Quinn’s college stats match up pretty well with his scouting profile. He completed 58.0 percent of his passes in college and started 46 games. This projects Quinn as a good pro quarterback, but not a great one. Here is the complete list of players drafted in first two rounds over the past ten years who started at least 35 games and completed at least 57 percent of their passes: Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper, Chad Pennington, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, Byron Leftwich, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, Jason Campbell, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler.
Are there any bad players on that list? The worst according to my numbers is Eli Manning, and he’s been decent (maybe not up to expectations, but decent). I would be happy to spend a top ten pick on most of those players.http://www.footballoutsiders.com/2007/04/17/ramblings/nfl-draft/5082/
Eric Wright (53)- First Round talent with a bunch of baggage that caused him to transfer from USC to UNLV. Kept his nose clean for two years while in Vegas. To me that deserves a second chance.
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People should read this.
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