The mountain-builders are in full throat again, saying that Ray Farmer hasn't had time to evaluate players in the draft. I find this hysterical, since Ray and the scouts have all been checking these guys out throughout the college season.
Of course Farmer has a favorite quarterback in mind, and he probably settled on that opinion sometime in January. The combine and Pro Days are very helpful--and the staff is all here, all doing their jobs as if nothing had happened.
All the tapes are being studied, and all the information is available.
In other words, BIG FREAKING DEAL. Move along, nothing to see here.
I have no clue who Farmer's guy might be. I will speculate a little, and one or two of my ten readers who mine this blog for original thoughts which they steal from me...
And look, you guys: You're stealing. I've submitted samples to a couple of you, and you pretended to ignore me. Rather than use me as an asset on your own sites, you pretend my thoughts are yours. You're phonies. How do you sleep at night?
Anyway I'll now say I think it's Bridgewater, and a week from today the football world will be abuzz with the known fact that Ray Farmer is in love with Teddy Bridgewater. And the source will be my WILD GUESS.
There's no Andrew Luck in this draft. Duh. Luck is once in a generation. The last Luck was Peyton Manning.
But Bridgewater IS a lot like RG3. Because of that bidding war the Browns lost for him, and what Washington gave up for him, his worth has been inflated.
Bridgewater is approximately as good as RG3. The rest is hyperbole.
But if it's Blake Bortles, that's okay too. In fact I changed my mind and think it's him instead. Bortles is rough around the edges and needs some polishing, so the quarterback-hungry teams drafting ahead of the Browns are a tiny bit more likely to let him pass them by.
Manziel is also a bit of a work in progress, but his athleticism and uncanny instincts make up for it. Any offensive coordinator with the brains God gave a doorknob will alter his offense to make the most of what he does best until the other requisite skills can be refined.
When all is said and done, I believe that Bortles is the most likely one to be there at four.
Shanahan's (or Turner's) ideal guy will be big and tall with a big arm. He should have good mobility, and RG3/Bridgewater/Maziel scrambling ability is just a bonus.
As a pure passer, Bortles may well have more upside than anyone else in this quarterback class. Despite the recent success of shorter quarterbacks, bigger and taller is also safer, physically speaking. Better able to see the field from the pocket, and less likely to get hurt.
Bortles fits the Shanahan offense to a tee. Kyle and his dad had to alter the Redskin offense to help RG3 get started out right, but Bortles fits Kyle's ideal scheme already.
Again, he's been compared to Big Ben. Thats' pretty lame. He's much more athletic than Ben. Bortles runs about like a pass-catching tight end, and can hurt you on the ground. Ben runs only to survive. Bortles also reads things and gets rid of the ball quicker.
Things have fallen into place quite well to set this up, as Rodney Hoyerfield is here, and Bortles needn't be thrown to the wolves immediately.
With either Manziel or Bridgewater, a lot of fans would be twitching and wide-eyed on every play of every game, just waiting for that first Hoyer interception to begin their "John-nee" or "Ted-ee!" chant.
Mike Evans isn't my favorite reciever in this draft, but is the most realistic target in the second round or even lower.
3/11 edit: oops!
One analyst said that the Browns needed another guy with speed, which is, to put it politely, wrong. The guy opposite Josh Gordon should first and foremost be reliable. Speed would be nice, but dependability is critical.
Evans was Manziel's favorite reciever. He doesn't get separation, but it doesn't matter because he's 6'4", 225. He's considered a "West Coast chain-mover".
He'll run a lot of slants and crosses in the NFL. He won't run away from anybody, although he might run them over.
Some of the mock drafts I've seen ignore wide reciever in favor of running back. I really like Carlos Hyde, and wouldn't mind that at all, but here again these guys live in Oblivia. If Kyle can implement his zone-blocking scheme, the running back thing is greatly mitigated.
Wide reciever remains more important. For that matter, the guard position is now more important than running back.
Give it a week. The parasites who raid this blog will get it out there and pretty soon it will just sort of dawn on everybody else dammit.
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