Kryk ranks his Top 5
Almost everybody agrees on who the Top 5 quarterbacks are in this year’s NFL Draft class. You just won’t find much agreement on the order.
That’s because as celebrated as this fivesome has been as a group (they’re all expected to be first-round picks, which would be only the third time since 1967 as many as five passers went that high), each has his warts.
Indeed, as NFL Network’s chief draft analyst Mike Mayock said on a conference call with reporters on Friday, “The two easiest quarterback evaluations I’ve had in the last eight or 10 years are Andrew Luck and Carson Wentz … I don’t see anybody in this class that I get the same gut feel for as those two.”
Here’s how I rank the almost-fantastic five:
1. SAM DARNOLD:
Likeliest to sparkle.
Has all the physical tools — size, arm — plus impressive ability on the run to find receivers deep or short. And Darnold apparently checks all the boxes off the field. If anything, he’s too humble. Darnold shone much of the time at a big-time school, on big-time stages, against bigtime defenders. His biggest negatives? The toonumerous careless pocket fumbles and forced interceptions he threw in college. But they’re more easily correctable than any of the principal flaws of the other four. Hello, Cleveland!
2. JOSH ROSEN:
Analysts gush over his proready, top-shelf passing skills: pristine mechanics; he excels at reading defences and going through progressions; he’s as accurate as you could hope for; and he’s got the right mix of confidence and leadership personality. Some knock Rosen’s California rich-kid upbringing, and question how much he ‘needs’ to succeed in the pros. That’s all bull. If anything, the fact he has made it this far suggests his love for the game already is a proven fact, and thus is unlikely to
dissolve should he score a huge second contract. Rosen’s biggest problem is pocket awareness. Too often in college he didn’t seem to have any, and got pounded and hurt so much that some think he’s frail and smaller of frame than he actually is. Skeptics fear his pro career, as a result, will be short.
3. BAKER MAYFIELD:
He’s the Napoleon of quarterbacks — born with a giant’s attitude, aggrievement and ambition, all crammed into a defiantly undersized frame. The most daring aerial playmaker of this bunch, Mayfield is highly accurate too, and more proficient with pro passing concepts than many believe. But as much as Oklahoma players and coaches insist that his Sooners teammates, without exception, loved the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner, it’s an entirely different beast trying to win over grown men with over-the-top cockiness built on a blank pro resume. He’s often compared to Johnny Manziel both on the field and off. At Mayfield’s short size to boot (few NFL QBs who stand 6-foot-1 or shorter ever make it), Mayfield is a bold dice-roll as a Top 10 selection.
4. LAMAR JACKSON:
My takeaway from watching him throw at the combine was he relies way too much on his talented arm, mechanicswise. The 2016 Heisman winner doesn’t get much below his rib cage into most throws; hence his footwork is a mess. That means he has a long, long way to go to become a reliable pro pocket passer. But he’s a breathtaking athlete who can make more than enough progression reads and throws, inside and outside the pocket, as to be able to succeed right away under a bold, open-minded coaching staff in a non-traditional pro offence.
5. JOSH ALLEN:
Retired head coach Bruce Arians has said he wouldn’t hesitate to draft a QB, or any player, who didn’t play big-time college ball, so long as he dominated against lesser completion. Allen didn’t. He was good, not great. What’s more, he might possess the strongest arm since Jamarcus Russell, as Mayock says, but Allen’s sub60% accuracy (he’s especially deficient throwing to his left) and reported blank-stare confusion when facing curveball defensive looks in college are screaming warning sirens.