QB Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State

You guys might not have expected that Weeden would be my next in the QB series, did ya? I've done Ryan Mallett, Blaine Gabbert and T.J. Yates.

Someone has asked me about Weeden before and honestly I just didn't even bother to hone in on him. I mean, he's an underclassman, this is his first real year starting...the easy thinking is, why bother looking at him? Especially if you happen to know that he took a 5 year sabatical from football in order to pursue a career as a pitcher for the Yankees (2nd round draft pick out of high school, 90+ mph fast ball).

The reason I'm looking at him is because of the fact he's 27 years old, turning 28 this year, and because I have to think that Justin Blackmon will be coming out this year. Mike Gundy wants the two to stay in school, for obvious reasons, but what is in the best interest of both is probably to head out to the NFL...and if Blackmon goes, then with Kendall Hunter also graduating, Weeden would be misguided to go back to school and turn 29 while still not holding an NFL contract.

Where do I put this guy? Believe it or not, in terms of pure QB play, I'd put him ahead of everyone not named Andrew Luck. He's that good.

Background: The background is as puzzling as it gets, and throws off all kinds of red flags. How often do you see an NFL star QB that took 5 years off from football to try a baseball career? You don't. You really just, don't. He came out of high school a pretty good high school quarterback, but an even better baseball player. He had every intention of going to Oklahoma State to play baseball and football, but he was drafted in the 2nd round by the Yankees, which was the Yankees' highest pick that year. He had a 90+ mph fast ball and they thought his arm was electric. He got a pretty good amount of dough, too. He's married, he finds it weird going back to college and taking classes with kids that look like they should still be in high school. Weeden's story is straight up Johnny Moxon-ish. In 2009, Zac Robinson went down with an injury, and his primary backup Alex Cate was asked to fill in on national television against the Colorado Buffaloes. Cate's outing was a disaster, he went 0 for 9 in the first half with an interception. At halftime Weeden was told in the locker room that he would be going in, down 14-10 and about to be embarrassed on national television by the much lower ranked Buffaloes. Those in the media around him questioned if he even could have known he'd be going into the game, he seemed so calm. His response, "My main thing going in was to get the guys around me, the offensive line like Russell (Okung) and Andrew Lewis, guys that had been there and played for four years and guys that might have been thinking, ‘man, we don’t have Zac (Robinson) and we’ve got a third-string quarterback in here.’ I wanted to calm them down as much as I could and told them I’m going to do as much as I can, and if you guys will give me time then let’s see if we can go win a football game." Weeden was 10 of 15 for 168 yards and 2 TDs, led the offense to 3 TDs total, and won the game 31-28.

When asked why in 2009 he was still just a 3rd string QB, Mike Gundy pointed to Weeden's practice habits, the fact that he could seem a little bored at practice at times. Those close to Weeden point to the fact that he was so much older and more mature than everyone, his perspective and calmness after a bad throw may have been mistaken for an "I don't really care" attitude. Still, that remains a red flag. What did Weeden have to say about it?

When you're a baseball convert like him, still a little surprised that the team phoned you up and made you a football player after your baseball career fizzled, and he's so much older than all the kids around him, I think maybe he was a little happy to be on the team, wanted to keep his head down, not make any waves. That probably threw Mike Gundy off about him, beind older you would hope that Weeden would make every attempt to capture control of the team and steer them in a mature direction. In 2010, the team has pointed out that he's the first to report and the last to stay and that he works the hardest, and really that it has always been like that, but that in the wake of Gundy's comments about why he was a 3rd stringer, he's done a better job making sure everyone sees that he's the hardest worker out there. Reported to be a very competitive guy in a number of ways, he's a very good golfer (won a scramble tourney with a 58) and also played basketball in high school. Avid fantasy football player.

Surrounding Cast & Offense: When you have Justin Blackmon catching the ball, and Kendall Hunter running it, things get pretty easy for you as a quarterback. That's why the very first game that I honed in on Brandon Weeden was his game against Kansas State. Justin Blackmon got suspended for that game in the wake of his DUI. I want to say something about this offense though. Justin Blackmon played 10 games in 2009. He was a nobody. Kendall Hunter was not productive in his 8 games, though a lot of that had to do with injury issues. Dez Bryant was of course suspended. There are a couple of big differences between then and now. Justin Blackmon really got serious about his off season work habits because he realized he had an opportunity to truly replace Dez Bryant. Kendall Hunter got healthy. Dana Holgorsen was hired from Houston. But you know what? I wonder if the biggest difference wasn't Brandon Weeden's assumption of the starting QB job. The offense scored 42 TDs in 2009 and 62 TDs in 2010. Is that all Blackmon's change in work habits, or Hunter's return to health (especially considering Keith Toston's production in 2009), or Dana Holgorsen? I think a good part of that was Weeden. The offense itself is a shortgun spread. It's much less reliant on the QB as a runner this year than it has been in the past with Zac Robinson. Weeden only ran 17 times all year. That's a huge difference from Zac Robinson's 111 rush attempts in 2009, or his 146 attempts in 2008. This is an offense that asks Weeden to sit back and go through progressions, finding the open guy. It may be spread, but it is not an option offense. And he certainly did not have a LT of Russell Okung's caliber, which makes it all the more amazing that Weeden took only 9 or 10 sacks all year long.

Throwing Skills: He is the best pure thrower in the Draft, bar none. Better than Andrew Luck. His arm is smoking hot. He spins the ball extremely well. If you get the chance, and you're not a professional WR, kindly decline the opportunity to play catch with him. He will break your fingers. His receivers joke that he spins the ball so fast that the ball actually does another revolution after they get their hands on it. He was, after all, a major league caliber pitcher. The disturbing thing (considering his johnny-come-lately status) is that there is an unnerving naturalness to the way he throws the football, and the accuracy he gets. Every throw is in his arsenal. Every single one, including ones that demand touch (more on that later). He regularly pitches the ball 30 yards on a frozen rope, with incredible accuracy. He owns the sideline throw. Whether it's a comeback or out route, even if he's on the far hash in college (which is a lot further away than in the pros), he can the out route perfectly to the sidelines and complete the ball. His deep accuracy is obviously good enough to complete deep ball after deep ball to Justin Blackmon. The guy truly does not miss many throws. When he's off, it is often a mechanical issue, trying to throw off his back foot. Otherwise he has the accuracy to hit people in stride at 30 or even 40 yards, and not have them have to adjust to the ball. He can split defenders with that fastball of his like nobody in the Draft, and yet it's the accuracy that impresses you the most, and his ability (as you might expect from a pitcher) to select the appropriate throw for the appropriate situation. In the Kansas State game I think there was literally only one throw where he was able to step into it and it sailed high on him, and that throw was 25+ through the air. It is truly no wonder, as Simon recently pointed out to me, Mike Sherman the long time coach of the Packers and now Texas A&M's Head Coach thoroughly complained about having to play against Weeden during his halftime interview.

Throwing Mechanics: I find absolutely nothing wrong with his throwing mechanics, generally speaking. He doesn't have a delivery that worries me. He gets his shoulders aimed well on the deep ball. He gets the ball up when he needs it up. The most consistent dig on his mechanics would actually be his tendency to throw off his back foot at times. His accuracy and arm are so amazing, that when you see a really off throw, the chances are very good that it was because he tossed it off his back foot in the face of pressure and tried to get away with something. He has interceptions and near interceptions that can be attributed to this tendency.

Pocket Mechanics: His footwork and setup remind me of Blaine Gabbert's, which is to say a little on the sluggish side. His setup speed is better than what Gabbert generally showed prior to the bowl game. He just has the look of being thoroughly relaxed and in total command. He is, after all, 5 to 7 years older than most of these guys, and 6'4" and 230 lbs making him about as big as some of the guys chasing after him, and bigger than all the guys out running patterns and in coverage. He is not stiff in the body, but his foot and fake mechanics can be a little stuff at times, not unnatural, just too smooth. They're not at the T.J. Yates level of execution bordering on obsession. A fake is anything but smooth, you want people to truly think the other guy has the ball. He's not there yet. He's got a job to do and it's to throw the ball, and he puts himself in position to do that. His fundamental mechanics are not at all what I would call 'bad', they're just at a point where you have to say they could definitely be better and he could step with more urgency. I see pros with his exact mechanics all the time, even really good ones.

Offensive Command: This is not an area of weakness but I doubt it is an area of true strength, yet. He runs the offense and he runs it fairly well, setting protections and audibling plays, but he's not always great at identifying blitzes and getting everything lined up the way he needs, and staying on the same page with receivers. I have seen him be on the wrong page with receivers, though not entirely sure which player's fault it was. On the plus side, he knows the playbook and he knows the routes that are being run out there. He understands the concepts of what Holgorsen is trying to get against certain coverages. Look at the Texas A&M game, when he had a really bad first half because he was confused with the blitz packages that A&M were throwing at him. He started off the game 6 of 13 for 35 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs and also with a lost fumble. He and Holgorsen adjusted by the end of the 1st Quarter, and then Weeden went 22 of 29 for 249 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs...en route to a 38-35 victory. On the negative side, you can see some game management issues that come with inexperience, like being at points of the game where you need to run out the clock, and throwing the football away on the roll where you could have run forward and slid to keep the clock going. Situational awareness is not yet a strong suit for him.

Reading Defenses: Aside from the obvious arm and accuracy, this is one of the areas of Weeden's game that truly floored me. There's a quality in a quarterback that I think is just too rare nowadays, especially being a Miami fan and having to live through Chad Henne's play at the position. That quality is, if you give him enough time, he WILL see the open man, and more often than not, he'll get the ball to him. There's a feeling of expectation, after you watch him for a few hours, watch a hundred throws of his or so. He sits back, reads the field, makes his progressions, and finds open players. He doesn't hurry through his progressions. He doesn't seem to miss open people. He even finds people open while scrambling. There is no doubt that his receivers are coached well on coming back to him and helping him on the scramble, but his ability to find the open man and get it to him is special.

Timing & Anticipation: This is an up and down area of his game. On the plus side his timing on throwing the football is very good, as far as getting the ball out right as the receiver makes his break. This is what you want, a guy that has a good sense for when the ball needs to be out to maximize spacing and a receiver's position on the football. The negative is that he's not a guy I would accuse of "getting the ball out" quickly. But, is this truly a negative on a guy that only took an astounding 10 sacks in 2010? I struggle with that. I want a guy that gets the ball out hot but I also want a guy that isn't afraid to stay back there and find an open guy. Blaine Gabbert bails on his plays early like clockwork, as if it's part of his progression (and it is). Weeden will go ahead and sit back waiting for a guy to get open, and it's kind of amazing how easy he can make it look to feel the pressure when it does come, and get the ball out. Only 9 or 10 sacks versus 470 attempts. In my tracking (which is different from the official stat lines), I have a sack something like only once every 66 dropbacks. ABSURD. This suggests that holding onto the ball is not necessarily a weakness, but an ability that he has, him making the most of the tools in his toolbox.

Ball Location: I want to give him an A+ on this but that might make him seem too perfect I guess. He's off on his location on some balls, just as they all are. But, it's really not that often. What will really blow your mind is when you realize that his location on a lot of passes in tight man over the middle is low on purpose, because that's what he is supposed to do and he knows it. As I said before, he has the best combination of pure accuracy, arm strength and pitch selection in college football right now. It shouldn't be a surprise his location grade is high.

Under Pressure: I'm really stuck on this one. When a guy only takes a sack every 50 to 70 times you ask him to drop back (depending on your tracking methods), you tend to want to say "umm, yeah...he's good with pressure". When he does take a sack, it tends to be a fairly big loss though, having lost 108 yards on those 10 sacks (average -10.8 yard loss). Additionally, he's lost 4 fumbles on the 17 times when he either got sacked or ran the ball, and fumbled at least 2 more times but either recovered it himself or had a teammate recover. He's thrown 13 interceptions, and that's a fairly high interception rate (2.8%). Some of those interceptions are under pressure. But, there's a scary aspect of some of this. This is his first season starting...and you'll notice that most of his fumbling and sacks were at the beginning of the year. Seriously, tally up all his sacks, penalties (intentional grounding), fumbles, and interceptions. You get 24 of those minus plays all year long. Of those, 19 happened in the first 7 games, and only 6 happened in the last 6 games. He was getting better and getting safer with the ball as the season wore on. What's funny about that is his last 6 games were played against Kansas State, Baylor, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arizona...where the first 7 games were against Washington State, Troy, Tulsa, Texas A&M, Louisianna-Lafayette, Texas Tech and Nebraska. He faced tougher competition in the second half of the year but he was improving in how he handled pressure so much that it didn't matter. Over those final 6 games? He was 171 of 253 for 2050 yards, 13 TDs, 4 INTs, 1 or 2 Sacks, 5 Rushes, Net +14 yards, 2 Fumbles (0 Lost). That is pretty unbelievable stuff right there.

Touch: This is one of the more surprising aspects of his game. You figure he's a fastball pitcher from baseball coming over to play quarterback, the guy might be trying to just sling everything on a rope. But, he's really not. He understands the need to throw change-ups, the need to drop the ball over top of defenders. The only criticism would be that at times he doesn't take enough off his shorter passes so that receivers can catch the ball easier. Every throw is in his arsenal from a touch perspective. He throws with arc on the deep vertical, getting the nose of the ball down. He gets the ball up and down when it needs to clear underneath zone defenders. He can throw the back shoulder, or the fade.

On-Field Demeanor: He is a very cool customer on the field. You can tell his experience and maturity have helped him tremendously in this respect. He plays with the short memory of a cornerback, or...a major league pitcher. You get a homerun hit on you, you can't keep thinking about it. You have to move on. He does that. Specifically note the Texas A&M game, as I mentioned. That game started as a disaster. He settled in and had a hell of a game, overall, and they won. In the 4th Quarter, he's 49 of 71 for 490 yards, 7 TDs and 1 INT in the 4th Quarter, with 5 runs versus only 1 sack, a net of +8 yards, with only 1 Fumble. That's just special. Remember how I talked about how at times it seemed like he might be a little confused by what teams are trying against him, and then he would settle in a little bit? That is most definitely supported with evidence. Of his 13 interceptions and 6 fumbles, 8 of the interceptions and 5 of the fumbles occurred in the first half of games, leaving only 5 of the 19 negative plays in the second half. He converted about 44.4% of his 3rd & 4th downs with 7 yards to go or less, and 36.7% of his 3rd & 4th downs with between 8 and 14 yards to go. He has 9 TDs on 3rd & 4th down versus 5 Interceptions and 2 Fumbles (none Lost). His game management on 3rd & 4th downs needs improvement, but you'll also notice there isn't much of a dropoff in him when you go from a 3rd & 5 to a 3rd & 10...he's got the arm, accuracy and eyes to convert long 3rd downs.

Feet: His feet are not exceptionally quick but they are exceptionally smooth, and he's moving a little faster than you'd think on that long 6'4" frame of his. The proof is in the pudding, he moves seamlessly away from pressure and keeps himself free. The fact that I could only find 9 or 10 sacks/loss of yardage all year, shows what I am talking about.

Overall: After watching several games of his, I feel like I just saw the best Quarterback in the Draft. But, I know I didn't, because I know that Andrew Luck is an exceptional prospect, the likes of which doesn't come along every year. I can tell you that the naturalness with which Weeden plays the game is downright scary. I am not about to be scared off by his age at 28 years old. He is already better than anything Miami has at quarterback. If he were to declare, I would not hesitate to use the #16 overall pick on him. That's right, 28 years old or not, he's a superb draft prospect. He isn't just an arm. He's a natural quarterback that happened to not be playing quarterback until 2007. The combination of size, accuracy, touch, arm strength and ability to manage pressure, make him the complete package. The biggest problems (aside from age) are twofold. The first problem is, I am not totally convinced that he knows what he could be as a professional quarterback, and is therefore 150% committed to mastering every detail of the position in order to become elite at the next level. His background is anything but conventional. There's a red flag that he stayed a third string quarterback until he led that great comeback against Colorado in 2009, he seemed like he was content to keep his head down and not be 'the man'. The second problem is, considering his footwork is already a little on the lazy/unpolished side as opposed to like a Pat Devlin or T.J. Yates, and considering the last time he played in a system aside from Oklahoma State's was 2002...it might be an adventure getting the guy used to taking snaps under Center and dropping back. I am not at all worried about the possibility that he benefited from the presence of Justin Blackmon. He showed against Kansas State (and that Colorado game in 2009) that missing Blackmon wouldn't be much of an issue. It's scary when you consider that he's been getting better all year.

Will he come out? I certainly hope so.

 

I agree. But, John Beck was set to be 27 years old in his rookie year...and he was drafted at #40...and in retrospect that was pretty high given his skill set.

I don't know what they see or what they'll do, I can only say what I see and what I'd do. I wouldn't hesitate. You can't be THAT freaking picky about the position, it's a recipe for continued suckitude. The way the rules are set up nowadays to protect these guys, quarterbacks are lasting longer than ever.

Given that his baseball career supposedly ended due to mounting injuries though, there's a lot of medical stuff needed to be sorted out on him.

 

Where'd you hear that?

Sometimes these scout advisory grades are just dumb. Every year you hear ones that are total head scratchers.

 

I'm with ya all the way.

Some guy, same guy that claimed he's friends with Jeff Ireland and that a month or so ago Jeff's line of thinking was to trade down to recover the 2nd round pick, get Pat Devlin and a RB...says that now the front office is feeling the heat from Stephen Ross and they're in win now mode, they're thinking along the lines of trying to trade the #16 to Cincinnati for Carson Palmer and their 2nd rounder, replace Ronnie Brown in the 2nd and then use the 3rd and 4th to try and get speed on offense wherever they can find it (WR, TE).

It's just a fun rumor but somewhat plausible.

 

Perspective? Perspective is ignoring franchise QB skills because you're worried that you might only get 8 to 10 years out of him rather than 12 to 15 years? That's perspective?

You're right, Beck should not have had the high grade that he did. Physically he wasn't that impressive on the field. He was also older than most people but not necessarily more athletically mature, which is a difference. Brandon Weeden is not just older, he's more athletically mature. He's had to deal with the ups and downs of being a professional pitcher, trying to work his way up through the farm system, going on the road, having buses break down in sweltering heat then having to pitch that night, dealing with failure, dealing with pressure, dealing with injuries, all that...he's done it, and it shows on the field. Because of all that experience, I think he handles pressure better and is more ready to play as a rookie than most guys.

 

Well anyway I just asked Brandon Weeden if it was true about scouts telling him 4th round and he said it wasn't, he's still waiting on his grade from the Advisory Board and he's not sure where I could have heard that.

 

Well, until I see better confirmation than that, I'll assume Nawrocki is a little full of it or that the scouts are playing their cards close to the vest, or that they're not looking into it hard enough.

I mentioned Weeden's ability to stay calm and get control of a bad day. He had that going for him when they faced Texas A&M, who developed blitzes to confuse him at the beginning of the game. They pressured him, he started off 6 of 13 for 35 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs, plus a lost fumble. But he settled down, figured out what they were doing to him, went 22 of 29 for 249 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs, won the game.

He did the same thing against Oklahoma, only difference is they didn't quite win the game. Oklahoma pressured him and coverage-wise showed him some things he hadn't seen. It got bad. At one point he was 9 of 21 for 59 yards, 0 TDs and 2 INTs...and he very nearly threw at least one other INT. One of his INTs was a miscommunication with a WR who cut his route off and Weeden wasn't expecting. But both involved coverages that Weeden wasn't expecting.

But what I love about the guy is he's so even-keeled, he doesn't allow the blowout to get under way. From that point on he goes 19 of 22 for 198 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT...and the INT he threw was really a fluky INT, popped up. They lost in the 4th Quarter 47-41 because no matter what their defense just could not stop Oklahoma.

 

This is a guy that causes me to question my own sanity. Either everything I've learned over the years evaluating the QB position is for naught, or the market is just flat wrong on this guy Weeden.

 

Fully agreed.

The more I watch him, and trust me I'm addicted to watching his games, the more I'm floored.

 

My instincts say Brandon Weeden will come out, and I tend to trust my instincts. I'll tell you why I think so. I follow the logic.

1. Before Dana Holgorsen's arrival, Gundy was running the offense. He was the play caller. Holgorsen came in with a whole new system and a whole new playbook, to the point where in interview during the Baylor game Gundy said that he's still learning the system himself and so he has no way to personally calibrate Weeden's progress in the system, he has to just trust Dana's word. When Mike Gundy was running the offense, Brandon Weeden was #3 on the depth chart. That offense called for Zac Robinson to run the ball a lot (nearly 300 times in 2 years), and that's not Weeden's game. Holgorsen is now gone, off to West Virginia. What is the fate of the offense? Will it go back to Gundy? Will Gundy keep trying to run a system that as recently as a month ago he said he still doesn't fully understand? I don't know the situation with the offense up there and what is happening, but if I'm Weeden, I'm scared. Gundy could change it back to the Zac Robinson system and that might not be good for Weeden, especially in his 28 year old body. Nothing quite like shortening your NFL career before it even began.

2. Even more than that, why would Brandon Weeden show unusual loyalty to the guy that kept him #3 for multiple years because for some reason he just didn't like him? At this point I would think that Weeden is a bigger fan of Dana Holgorsen than he is Mike Gundy. Gundy's attitude and offensive preferences resulted in such stellar NFL talents as Zac Robinson, Bobby Reid and Alex Cate being ahead of him on the depth chart over the years. He didn't get his shot until Zac went down injured, and then Alex Cate went 0 for 9 with an INT on national television, risking Oklahoma State getting embarrassed in front of a national audience. Now of course, conveniently Gundy tries to claim that there's been a big difference in Weeden's attitude and work ethic. Does Weeden REALLY agree with that? I don't know that he does. I think he believes he's working just as hard as before, but that people are doing a better job of noticing. Now the same attitude that was mistaken for non-chalance and lack of focus, is recognized (correctly) as professionalism, maturity and the ability to suffer adversity and never get rattled. There's got to be a little part of him that says, yeah...eff you Coach Mike...even if he loves the school, loves the program, loves the players, loves the fans, etc.

3. Kendall Hunter is leaving. Justin Blackmon MAY leave as well. That's your leading rusher and the guy that took a lot of pressure off you, and by far your leading receiver, the guy you leaned on often especially early in the year. Having to play without them, and without Dana Holgorsen, has to be at least a little scary. It's got to already feel a little bit like a reboot. Well, the NFL is a reboot. He's already being rebooted, so why not make the jump?

4. He's 27 years old with an injury history to his throwing shoulder, and he has to be conscious of that. He's only got so much time. He can't afford to waste any of it. I'm sure he's a logical guy and if he doesn't think of this logic I'm sure agents coming after him will but, the year he gives up is not going to be a cheap rookie year. The year he gives up is going to be one of his final years in the NFL. If he becomes a successful QB then the chances are the final year in the NFL, the year he retires, he'll be under contract for a large amount of money...maybe 8 figures. THAT is the year he's giving up, if he goes back to school.

5. He just graduated this year. This is big. If he's already got his degree, then one of the BIG reasons to stay in school...is gone. He could start to work on his masters, but again he's got to make a decision about whether doing that and foregoing an extra year AT THE END of his NFL career would balances out. It really doesn't. Your masters can be gotten after your NFL career. You can also use your NFL career to get into being an announcer or something like that. He knows this.

6. In 2002, he signed a $565,000 contract. That was 8 years ago and he got it when he was 18 years old. Now, I'm not going to accuse him of being dumb with his money but as an 18 year old I'm sure he spent a little more earlier in that contract life than later in the contract life. I'm not saying he's broke or anything, he owns a house in Edmond, but he got married last year, and that comes with its own expenses, and two things seem kind of likely to me. One is, having been married a year and him being 27 going on 28, having finished his degree...they might be thinking of having a baby. The NFL money would be a big help in that regard. The second is, they've likely become accustomed to living a certin lifestyle, not a rich one by any means I'm sure, but one that you never know could be threatened if he decides to spend another year going to school and having no incoming cash flow.

7. From what little I've gleaned of his personality, he's a competitive guy and to me that means he's more likely to seek out the next level of competition. Due to his age, he's not likely to make more of the college experience than it really is...because he's not some young kid that doesn't know jack sh-t about the world and thinks what is in front of him is the end-all, be-all. This is a guy that when he went to Oklahoma State after his baseball career, it had to be surreal. He had to have asked himself many times, what am I doing here, I should be in spring training. I think part of what threw Gundy so off about him was he treated his foray into being an Oklahoma State quarterback like a game, something kind of cool to amuse him and for him to be competitive at, like his newfound golf obsession. He's already got money, he could keep pursuing his baseball career, he doesn't really need to be here...and sometimes he kind of acts like that, like he's having the college experience he never got to have because he went immediately to Florida to play in the farm system, and it's all a game to him. As he got on I think it grew more serious for him, he realized he was "all in" as a football player and his baseball career was truly over. I think he'll seek out the NFL now and see what he could become at that level.

All in all, it's time for him to go. It's truly time for him to come out. He doesn't have much starting experience, that is very true. He's been part of Oklahoma State's football program for four years now, though. He's not a baseball player anymore and he knows it. He's a football player and he's at an age in his life when he most likely wants to seek out new challenges. I get that he wouldn't allow himself to see and think about all this during the season when he's got to focus...but now he's going to have a lot of time to think about it, and sit down with his wife and talk it through.

This is the guy I want at #16 overall. Yeah, I know he'll be 28 years old in his rookie season. He would start right away in 2011, though. His learning curve is on a STEEP incline. He's got to be the most natural first year starter I have EVER seen at the college level...and remember, I fell in love with both Andrew Luck AND Sam Bradford, identifying them as future #1 overalls, when they were first year starters. This is not my first rodeo. There are growing pains you typically have to go through with drafting 1st round quarterbacks, that you won't go through with him because of his athletic experience level and maturity.

My only question is medical. Simon says that he's gone through a partially torn labrum, and tendinitis in his shoulder joint. On Twitter he made a comment saying that if Brett Favre plays a week after spraining his AC joint then he is not human, that it was the most painful injury he's ever had. So, he must have had that going on as well. One interesting thing is, even though there's reference out there (wikipedia) to him retiring from baseball due to injuries...in actuality, I haven't found much evidence of that. I've found quotes of his that talk about him questioning whether he made the right decision to go back to college for football, thinking he should've stuck with baseball, it didn't sound like there was any physical impetus to him going back.

He had a 97 mph fast ball.

 

I'll reply out here instead of PM but, you can definitely tell. He throws as many comeback routes as Chad Henne does, but with more accuracy and better ability to read the field and find the right throw, not to mention much more natural manipulation of the pocket in the face of pressure.

 

John Beck was an older draft prospect as well, we drafted him at #40 and many considered us lucky that he fell far enough for that. Brandon Weeden blows John Beck away as far as pure quarterbacking skills and talent.

 

He's 27, married, a college grad, his offensive coordinator, starr running back, and star receiver are all moving on...he'll move on. Will Miami get him? God damn I hope so.

If he were 22 and in his 2nd year starting, he'd be the #1 overall pick over Andrew Luck...with the same exact production.