2010 Quarterbacks

Flash back five years ago. The San Francisco 49ers are on the clock for the first selection of the 2005 NFL Draft. The selection is going to be a Quarterback. Some people argued that the QB's in the draft that year were not worthy of going #1, but the 49ers seemed determined to grab their signal caller of the future with that pick. So after much debate the selection came down to two people... two quarterbacks.... one 6'4 220 lb player who came from an unorthodox offense, operated mainly out of the shot-gun, had a fairly good arm, with great accuracy. He was known as the smartest QB in the draft and was though of as more of a safe pick then the other guy. That other guy was a little bit shorter and was criticized for leaving school early, perhaps only to capitalize on a great junior year. However, he had a great arm, operated under a pro style offense and had great success playing against top competition. Many still questioned him because of QB's that had come out of his school earlier had failed. Starting to sound familiar?...
The 49ers went with guy #1, and guy #2 slid into the 20's. Guy #1 is now considered one of the biggest all-time busts and guy #2 is one of the 5 best quarterbacks in the NFL today. Of course the two guys I'm talking about are Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers.

Why do I bring this up? Because not only is this years situation at the top of the draft eerily similar but you could almost interchange Smith's name with Bradford's and Rodgers' with Clausen's in the aforementioned scouting reports and no one would bat an eye.

Jimmy Clausen is an absolutely fantastic QB prospect. As mentioned before he draws favorable comparisons to Aaron Rodgers. You could also say he is similar to Matt Ryan, but with better decision making if you don't like the A-Rod comparison. Whoever you have him compared to, one must acknowledge that he is coming off of one of the best seasons of college football any junior QB has ever had. And this is with a pretty bad offensive line, a sub par running game, and playing with many of his weapons on the side-line.
In addition to all this, Clausen's accuracy is spot on, his arm is great, he takes care of the ball extremely well, he has shown improvement in a pro style offense in three straight years, he has a history of playing well in the 4th quarter, and he is physically everything you'd want from a QB.... in other words Jimmy Clausen has the makings of an NFL QB. He should be a top pick in this years draft.
Sam Bradford on the other hand is coming off some serious injuries. His arm isn't amazing (he's no Chad Pennington but you won't see him rifling lasers through the air either),he operated almost exclusively out of the shot gun, and many of his stat padding throws were quick one-read tosses that relied heavily on WR and TE play. The guy was also surrounded with a star studded offensive line. However, put some pressure on him, and what happens? Game #1 of this year, after his premier LT of 2008 is drafted, pressure gets to him...and hes hurt..... and hes out for the year. Clausen on the other hand had games where he was terrorized all game (USC anyone?!) and still put out great film without missing time.

All in all, there are a lot more question marks with Bradford as there is with Clausen, though public opinion seems to be the exact opposite. Why? Probably because of so called "character concerns". His character concerns are usually summarized with one main point: He's arrogant and cocky.
Well to me this isn't that bad. He seems like more Philip Rivers then Ryan Leaf. I want a QB with cockiness. As long as he is coachable and liked by his teammates than a little bit of cockiness is no problem. And by all accounts he seems to fit that criteria. He speaks very highly of Charlie Weis and clearly took to his coaching, as seen through his three straight years of improvement. He also apparently invited many of his Irish teammates to California the past offseason to get to know eachother better, work out, and practice their timing and route running. This doesn't seem like a bad teammate to me.

This is not a knock on Sam Bradford by any means. I did not intend to make Bradford out to be the next Alex Smith. He is a good prospect in his own right, but like Smith, he has many question marks. Regardless of my thoughts, Bradford seems destined at this point to go #1 overall. Despite this, I would not be surprised if Clausen ends up the better pro... just like Aaron Rodgers did.

Here are my QB rankings for 2010, with a projection of where they will actually go in brackets beside them.

1- Jimmy Clausen, QB, Notre Dame (Top 10)
2- Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma (Top 5)
3- Tim Tebow, QB, Florida (Round 2)
4- Colt McCoy, QB, Texas (Round 3)
5- John Skelton, QB, Fordham (Round 4-5)
6- Jarrett Brown, QB, West Virginia (Round 3-4)
7- Zac Robinson, QB, Oklahoma State (Round 4-5)
8- Tony Pike, QB, Cincinnati (Round 3-4)
9- Jevan Snead, QB, Ole Miss (Round 4-5)
10- Dan LeFevour, QB, Central Michigan (Round 4-5)

I will do a feature on other QB's (cough, cough, Tebow) after I do all of my initial positional rankings. Tomorrow will be RB's.