No consensus yet for top QB pick
Carson Wentz might have edge at outset of NFL scouting combine.
There is no strong consensus on the NFL draft’s top quarterback as prospects prepare to air it out at the scouting combine Saturday.
But conversations with evaluators in and around Lucas Oil Stadium yield an impression that California’s Jared Goff and others have ground to make up after North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz impressed on the field and in interviews at the Senior Bowl.
“I knew once (Wentz) got around the coaches and stuff, they’d eat him up,” one veteran scout told USA TODAY Sports, speaking on condition of anonymity for competitive reasons. “This guy’s unique. He’s just different. And, obviously, he’s 6-5, 230, and can spin it like a mother.”
The evaluation process is just getting ramped up, espe- cially for quarterbacks. For many NFL coaches, Saturday’s workout will be their first significant exposure to underclassmen such as Goff and Memphis’ Paxton Lynch. Most personnel departments already have met to set an initial board, though, providing a window into thinking within the league.
In advance of the throwing session, a question posed to general managers and other scouts for six teams — who’ll be the first quarterback taken? — yielded four votes for Wentz and two for Goff.
An executive for a seventh team said he thought the first
quarterback taken would be Goff until he saw the measurements Thursday morning: 6-4, 215 pounds and 9inch hands, which aren’t prohibitive to success but fall a little short of the ideal threshold.
“He’s smart enough. He’s going to work hard enough,” said one scout who had studied Goff extensively. “He understands how to move in the pocket. Got good feet. He’s a good enough athlete. Easy, quick release.”
That scout also raised a question about Goff’s ability to drive certain throws, though that’s one he can start to answer in workouts. Goff, 21, started more college games (37 to Wentz’s 23) while playing in the Pac-12. But North Dakota State is a bigtime program in its own right, having extended its run of Football Championship Series titles to five with Wentz, 23, at quarterback for the last two years.
One GM said Wentz’s edge came down to the physical traits: bigger and sturdier build, 10-inch hands, exceptional athletic ability for his size. Unlike Goff, Wentz has played a lot from under center.
A personnel director said Wentz was the better interview, too. It’s hard to poke a hole in him.
That the Cleveland Browns own the No. 2 pick and new coach Hue Jackson stressed the value of hand size in bad AFC North weather fits into the thinking Wentz is their guy, assuming nobody leapfrogs to No. 1 in a trade with the Tennessee Titans to get him first.
Still, it’s early. Everyone prefers different flavors. One offensive coordinator who had done preliminary work on all the quarterbacks said he could see three of them being the first taken — including Lynch, based mostly on his own rare physical traits and raw ability.
“The guy can make any throw he wants. He has plenty of arm,” an executive for a different team said of Lynch. “There’s other people that love him more than me. I think it’s going to take a little bit.”
Several scouts also predicted Michigan State’s Connor Cook could end up being the best quarterback to come out of this class. But he’s far from a first-round lock because of widespread concern about his personality and leadership ability, as well as issues that show up on tape, including his mechanics under pressure.
They’re all expected to throw Saturday. So are Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg, Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott and a handful of others likely to be drafted in what one GM called an unusually deep class, albeit one that might lack a clear, franchise-type guy at the top. For now, the best bet is Wentz. “To me, Carson has passed every test,” the first scout said. “I don’t think it’s even close.”