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QBs as high first round draft picks have been low percentage picks for the last decade. Look at the top QBs in the league now. The Mannings and McNabb were top picks (McNabb was two), and Rivers was in the top 5, but Favre and Brees were second rounders, Brady was a sixth rounder, I think, and Romo was undrafted. Rothlisburger was a first rounder, but somewhere around eleven or twelve.
Meanwhile a lot of high profile QB picks have busted. Alex Smith, JaMarcus Russel, David Carr, and Tim Couch were all number one picks. Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler, Akili Smith, Ryan Leaf, Harrington, Leftwich, and probably others I've forgotten were high picks, and have been average to awful. It's hard to say on Carson Palmer--two great years sandwhiching a lot of mediocrity to me means the jury is still out. And some, like Stafford, Ryan, and Vince Young, it's just too early to say for sure. I'm leaving out Michael Vick because I don't really know how to call him. And there's Brady Quinn, whom the experts picked high but whom the NFL scouts passed on. I think everyone but Cleveland, who just likes pretty white boys over talented less white QBs, knew he was a bust.
I like Bradford, but I don't think I'd trade up for him. Honestly I don't rank him that much higher than McCoy. He had two great years, but he's been injury prone. He won the Heisman in a close ballot amongst McCoy and Tebow. McCoy beat Bradford on the field that year. They were both stat machines in the years they played. Bradford's a little bigger, and that's the only edge I give him. Certainly he never proved anything on the field that McCoy didn't prove, too. I don't see Bradford as that much more of a good bet than McCoy or Clausen.
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