Ryan Mallett "sensational" during workout; Could Dolphins be interested?

I think making my presence seen in this thread is enough to display my excitement...

It's nothing I haven't said myself before, but it's nice that more people around here are believers than there were last month.

They called me crazy... they'll see... they'll all see!

 

Draft......him.

 

Riiiight. Jamarcus Russell, big arm, limited mobility & intangibles. Looked great in shorts. I'm so glad fans dont make draft choices.

 

this would be my choice if we were to draft a QB. Mallett should transition to the NFL rather nicely imo

 

Ironically, this description is much more accurate in describing someone else...

HINT: His picture is somewhere on this page and it's NOT Woody Harrelson

 

The more I watch Mallett and the more hear him in interviews, the more I want to draft him.
He might end up being Marino 2.0.....big arm, limited mobility, off-field rumors about drugs, falls in the draft and sees a handful of QB's get taken before him....just sayin.

 

Mallett's biggest problem IMO is his propensity to melt down. I think the game against 'Bama derobed him. Arkansas's D fell apart, and so did Mallett. He made some boneheaded throws that you just wish he could have had back (no, the receivers didn't fall down). He has it physically, I just question how prepared he is mentally to run an NFL offense. He's IMO a project.

 

Okay, we can't compare current NFL QB's to better ones, but we can compare unproven not even drafted QB's to Hall of Famers?

 

He not comparing them in the pros. Just their similar trajectory from the college ranks.

 

IMO him, Gabbert, or Newton are great picks at 15th.

 

First of all, I never said we can't compare QB's.
Secondly, I'm only comparing Marino and Mallett's "path to the draft." You can't deny the similarities.

 

I'd be OK with Mallett and Gabbert.....

 

I sure as hell hope we draft Ryan Mallett if he is there at fifteen.

 

Stop looking in the mirror so much.

 

If only they had two top 20 picks, lol

 

I saw a piece about him on espn sports science, big kid, strong arm. Would be a good fit, but who knows what Ireland is thinking.

 

I have no opinion on this topic. I just wanted to show off my new sigpic...

 

I doubt we do, that is the lingering effect of Ross's Big Adventure, now they would have to be willing to committ "career o' side" to take a Qb at #15, and I like Mallet more than most do, it just does not appear to be in the cards, especially with no Free Agency this yr.

And does this mean that Cam Newton is officially off of the wish list for everyone?

 

I don't think Cam Newton or Ryan Mallett will be there at number fifteen. I don't think Julio Jones will be either.

But, if Ryan Mallett is there I doubt we pass on him. I just don't see how we can. QB is our number one priority. If we don't fix that, no playoffs, wasted season.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Mallett falls to the second round although I think he will go in the late 1st mostly b/c some team will fall in love with his ability to make great throws while playing in shorts.

 

the dolphins should take him at 15

 

me now if he's our pick at 15.

I can see it now------ pregame he arrives in a wife-beater and diamond-studded, Cadillac hood ornament necklace.





I gots 2 watches biatches----- 1 fo the time it be........ and 1 fo the time I be tappin dat a** later. Werd.

 

But this regime is so conservative. I think they'd rather go with the known (Henne) than draft someone and take a chance. I think they live or die with Henne.....and its probably going to be the latter rather than the former.

 

If they pass on Ryan Mallett or Julio Jones if they are there at fifteen, the fans will destroy them all season long. They may as well quit before the season starts.

 

Oh if Henne is the starter, and the 1st game at home that Henne misses 3 or 4 passes in a row, or throws an INT, you will hear a wail from the crowd that will remind you of the Sammie Smith sucks calls in 1989. It will get very, very ugly and heads will roll, before the season is over. I hope I am wrong, but my gut feeling is we are a train wreck waiting to happen.

 

I sure as hell wouldn't bet against it. That seems like our MO.

 

Yeah...and Mallett threw his 3869 yards and 32 TDs last season in shorts too...c'mon man, you are better than that...

 

Unfortunately I think we're going to have to suffer, yet again, as DolFans before the right GM/Coaching/Drafting combination is found to make this into a viable franchise again. I have completely lost faith in the present regime. THe other bad thing is, I don't trust Steven Ross either, and that if he does blow these guys out, that he has the football smarts to hire the right guy to turn our decade long frustration around. So far he seems more Dan Snyder than Arthur Blank/Mara Family/Rooney Family. Our near future could be bleak even without these guys.

 

What was it about? I missed it

 

Actually if you really watch him play and watch a lot of his games, he does indeed have mistakes at critical moments, but he also plays really well at critical moments. I wouldn't call it a tendency one way or another, it's just that people tend to remember the critical screwups more than they remember the good throws in critical moments. For every Alabama, you'll find a Georgia, when he made the throws that won the game in the end. And as for Ohio State, it's easy to focus on the throw that ended the game, when they began that drive in a very difficult situation down by 5 with 1 minute remaining and needing a TD otherwise they lose. But what about the drive beforehand? That drive they had a much more reasonable 6 minutes remaining, and if I remember correctly they needed to punt on that drive because his receivers dropped balls again, which they'd been doing all game. On that drive I thought Mallett actually threw really well. But then you get to a minute left, incomplete pass on 1st down (can't remember if that was yet another drop or not), and on 2nd down if you watch that interception play close you see that his OL let a free blitzer straight up the middle for a free shot at Mallett, and all of his receiver options were totally blanketed. He's staring at 3rd & 10, or 3rd & 18 if he gets sacked...and he tried to force a ball in there not seeing the DL that had dropped back into coverage (which I find is very common for QBs not to see...including Dan Marino).

I think Mallett is pretty much neutral in critical moments of the game. Sometimes he'll screw up, sometimes he'll play real well. But he throws so well during most of the game, he's not often going to be in that type of situation where he's got a minute left and needs a TD otherwise they lose.

There are a lot of winning QBs out there, ones that can and have won Super Bowls, that are like that in the crunch, if the pressure is dialed up enough they may make a critical mistake. Or they may come through. I tend to think now that coming through in the crunch is not a trait of a quarterback so much as an offensive unit, because even Tom Brady screws up in the crunch. We Miami fans know that, we saw how that game ended in 2004 when Miami was en route to a putrid 4-12 and the Patriots were en route to a third Super Bowl, and Tom Brady threw the costly interception (I think wasn't it to Brendan Ayanbadejo?) that lost the game. We saw it in 2009 when Tom Brady tossed up that lollypop to Channing Crowder that lost them the game. Peyton Manning screwed up in the clutch against the Saints in the Super Bowl. I think the ability to knuckle down in the crunch is an offensive unit thing, not a quarterback thing, and I'll say it right now based on what I remember of Bobby Petrino's offenses at Louisville, which were productive and well-designed but EXTREMELY sloppy and had no real winning character, I find it totally unsurprising that Arkansas' offense would be inconsistent in crunch situations.

 

He threw for those yards in college. I'm sure you're good enough to know that many players have had great college stats and been failures in the pros. The key is looking at the conditions that are most similar to the pros. In the pros, Mallett will face much more pressure and have to extend the play with his athleticism. That is what he was worst at in college and he lacks the athleticism to extend the play. Further he has demonstrated a consistent pattern of not working hard so there's no reasonable expectation that he'll suddenly become a hard worker.

 

I have yet to hear a compelling argument which lays out how Ryan Mallett is significantly different than Chad Henne.

Henne has a gun for an arm, can make all the throws, have good size, and came from a big program with a proven track record. Both lack touch on the short routes, and have poor pocket presence. Why not just double down on the guy who doesn't cost a first round draft pick?

But if they liked Henne, they'll like Mallett. That much is certain. They'll also like McElroy for that matter.

My best guess is that Seattle trades for Kolb once the CBA happens, Hasselbeck is cut loose and winds up here on a two year deal, leaving us to draft a developmental guy in McElroy.

 

I basically agree that Mallett is similar to Henne. I think Mallett is a slightly better physical prospect but a bigger bust risk due to character questions. I think Mallett is more accurate as long as he's not under pressure, but under pressure I think he is less accurate than Henne. Mallett is more aggressive and he's better on deep passes. On the other hand, Mallett has had his work ethic questioned everywhere he's been. I don't see any reason to expect he'll suddenly become the leader that is first in and last out. I also don't see any examples of QBs that have had a poor work ethic and then succeeded unless they were just incredibly gifted athletes. Mallett is not an incredibly gifted athlete. All he really does well is throw when he's not under pressure. There have been hundreds of QBs like that in the past. It's simply not enough to be a great NFL QB. It is, however, enough to impress in shorts and get you over drafted.

 

Unless the throw is of medium distance and takes some touch

 

Based on what? In college, every team that faced him knew he lacked elite mobility and was a pocket guy, and so they blitzed him mercilessly, pinned their ears back and went after him. He beat those blitzes, consistently, with his arm and yes even with his legs, extending plays and throwing big passes. He faced more exotic blitzes and and pro-style pressure packages than any other quarterback I saw in college football this year, and his offensive line was ill-equipped to deal with it. They were awful in blitz pickup, awful at holding their water before the snap and taking in line adjustments, and they were not very good pass protectors. The line was full of big maulers that block well for the ground game. The best of the OLs is DeMarcus Love who was Mallett's left tackle and will have to move inside to Guard if he has a future in the NFL, which is a big IF at the moment because he sucked at both guard and tackle in Senior Bowl practices and has been appropriately shoved downward on teams' draft boards. Ray Dominguez is not a pro prospect.

The NFL will end up doing the opposite. They'll do to him what they do to Chad Henne. Chad Henne beats the blitz. Ryan Mallett beats the blitz. The NFL isn't going to blitz him non-stop to where Mallett can average over 10 yards per ATTEMPT, with tons of touchdowns and not very many interceptions, the way he did against those SEC defenses. They're going to sit back and try and read him, make things tighter on him and see if he can consistently read the defenses and be patient.

That's incorrect, IMO. What showed up as his most consistent flaw in college was consistently reading disguised coverages, and staying patient. He progressed on that during his college career, but hasn't progressed on it enough yet to succeed in the NFL. He'll need to continue the progression he's shown from 2009 to 2010.

Consistent based on what? One report that Bobby Petrino in 2009 didn't think Mallett was taking bowl preparation seriously enough? That's not a pattern and it's not "consistent". That's a single data point. Sort of like the single data point of Ron Zook tossing Vontae Davis out of practice because he was not taking practice seriously enough. Now, that incident and the reputation that followed, is nothing short of a JOKE...considering how hard Vontae works and how dedicated he is.

 

I'll oblige.

The very first difference that anyone should be able to see very, very clearly, is in how aggressive the two players are throwing into defenses. Ryan Mallett shows far more aggressive tendencies, and it's not even close. Sometimes he's aggressive to his own detriment. Chad Henne was not a guy with a high YPA or YPC in college. He worked with talent, Ryan Mallett doesn't own the franchise on having worked with some interesting talent. Chad Henne threw the ball to Braylon Edwards, Steve Breaston, Jason Avant, Mario Manningham and Adrian Arrington. But Chad Henne has always been risk averse and that's why his his YPA puttered around 6.9, 6.6, 7.6, and 7.0. A career 7.0 YPA while throwing to those guys? That's a conservative quarterback. And it wasn't just a matter of completion percentage either, his career YPC was an unimpressive 11.7 and didn't really get much better (11.4, 11.3, 12.4, 12.0).

He was what he was, an overly-conservative quarterback with a good arm, paired with a fantastic ground game that drove the team. You could certainly say about Ryan Mallett that he's a QB with a good arm paired with a fantastic ground game, but nobody in their right mind would say he's conservative in his passing tendencies. Mallett has a career 8.3 YPA and a career 15.2 YPC. He has the same interception rate Henne had coming out (actually a little bit lower) but unlike Henne he throws interceptions because he's aggressive with the ball, and your offense is MUCH better off that way.

Being aggressive with the ball and creating big plays that way creates breathing room, creates hesitation and more conservative defensive tendencies, which increases your team's margin for error. Notice that in 2010, Miami's passing game had NO margin for error. Every time someone screwed up, whether it was Henne's fault or whether a receiver fell, quit on a route, etc...the defense was ALWAYS in prime position to capitalize on the error. That's in part because Henne's conservative tendencies (which he established in college as a means of compensating for his lack of clear post-snap field vision) allowed defenses to be aggressive in their reading of our offense. They were always in good position to make a play. A more aggressive quarterback that makes plays can create more doubt in a defense, more conservative coverage tendencies. Ryan Mallett does this. He reads the field better and is able to make aggressive throws that result in big plays.

Once you get beyond that, which is a HUGE difference, not to be overstated in any way, you have some other pretty key differences. Ryan Mallett is taller, and that's a good thing. He sees the field better and has more potential and ability to use the shallow crossing routes over the lines. You already see this in college, it's not something you have to buy on faith. It's something you see. Mallett throws the ball better to guys on the move laterally, especially on shallow crosses. Henne gets his balls batted down, and doesn't see well enough to place the ball well on guys moving left to right or vice versa. Mallett uses his eyes better. I've seen Mallett look off defenders. I remember when Chad Henne came out, I had not ONCE seen him do that. Not even one time. And while he does it in the pros now, because he's learned to, it's not really a part of his game, and probably never will be. For an early sign of that, you just go back to the fact that he never did it in college. And when it comes to comparing Mallett and Henne, Mallett has done it in college, has embraced it more than Henne did to this point. Ryan Mallett's deep ball is also far more accurate. Should I even delve further into that? Do I need to? Or can we just call a spade a spade on that one?

One further issue I'd like to address is feet, since that's viewed to be similar between the two. I just want to point out that Chad Henne's slow feet are NOT due to a lack of athleticism. You look at Henne's Combine performance, he should be more athletic in the pocket than he is. I did a study across the league of starting QBs and their 40 times and where I thought for sure Henne must be far below average in the 5+ range, I discovered that he is in fact just average in that respect (4.92). And 8'10" broad jump isn't so bad. There are a lot of guys out there that ran slower and have far quicker feet. What I've found is that slow feet can often be a function of a slow brain. And that's what I think is the case with Chad Henne. Ryan Mallett on the other hand has 4 more inches of height and 20 more pounds of flesh to move around, and so he's just not all that fast. But I think his feet are quicker than Henne's, and to me that suggests that Mallett thinks more quickly than Chad Henne does. He sure doesn't have quicker feet because he's more athletic. Nor does Tom Brady have quicker feet because he's more athletic than Henne. Henne is more athletic than a lot of guys that have good, quick feet.

Anyway, I get that stylistically you've got two guys that resemble one another. But stylistic similarity has never been a valid basis for drawing conclusions about a draft prospect's worth. For every style there is you can find five guys who resembled that style who succeeded, and five that failed. I think there are pretty undeniable differences between Mallett and Henne, and Ryan Mallett should be regarded as the better on field prospect. It's the off field stuff that requires investigation. But the one thing I can guarantee on that front is that nobody in this thread has enough dirt on him to form a valid conclusion on that front. Nobody. Not me, not anyone here.

 

Thanks CK, I've been waiting for someone to break it down like that.

 

I think a lot of my apprehensiveness on drafting Ryan Mallet is because I really wanted Arkansas to beat Alabama. I hate Alabama.