This kid is as good a QB as you can ever expect to get in the 7th round, great value imo.

Kinda crazy to say about a 7th round QB, and I've never said it before about a 7th round QB, but I see no reason why he can't be an NFL starting QB, not sure how quickly he can pick up an offense, but I wouldn't be shocked to see Moore get released in camp.

 

I agree, probably the perfect guy to risk rolling the dice on late to add competition but not necessarily create outright controversy at the position. Look out, though, if he tears it up in preseason. Happy feet were really the only knocks on his scouting report, but that was against LSU in a torrential downpour. His story reads like a dream...

He looks like Kaepernick, if he was a pocket passer, lol. His rookie hazing haircut should be epicly hilarious.

 

i wish the best for him..don't have a lot of conviction but i hope he can net us a higher pick for which we paid or he can reach backup level.

 

That's a good point. This organization has been relatively unfamiliar with creating equity from their backup QB's. The last one I can remember was Scott Mitchell. The fact remains that backup QB's are very good trade fodder for teams.

On a completely diffent slant. I could probably write a rock opera about Matt Moore's tragic tenure under Philbin...If he gets cut, I'll probably have to sing a song on Lebatard called "Matt Moore's Lament", lmao.

 

Regardless if this kid ends up being good or not I don't care.
This is just a great story.
The odds of making it to the Pro's alone are astounding and then you get to play for a team you really loved? GTFO.
If the kid actually makes it and stays with us. Great feel good story. Hope he does well.

On top of that I'm glad to see we'll keep dredging for QB talent. Should take one every draft IMO. Position way too important.

 

Love everything about this pick.

01. Worked through tremendous adversity, never handed a thing, two medical redshirts, three coaching staffs and still came out on top.
02. Local, loves the Dolphins and will do anything to make his career work here.
03. Extremely competitive.
04. One of, if not the highest producing QB in FBS history in 2014-15.
05. Pro size and pro arm strength, great ball spin, great touch, throws one of the most catchable balls in the draft.
06. One of, if not the most accurate QB in the draft by every meaningful measure.
07. Exposure through Jeff Brohm's system to a lot of pro route concepts, progression reads, check downs, hot routes, motion, protections.
08. Lined up under center some, but more importantly turned his back to the defense on play-action a ton out of the pistol in WKU's power-based system.
09. Handled pressure like a pro (check downs, hot routes); has the best numbers vs pressure of any QB in the class to prove it.
10. Dan Marino took an active part evaluating this year's QB class, thought Doughty was better than most. Last time he evaluated QBs for Miami, he picked Phil Rivers out of a hat.

 

Doughty is a film rat. He was having his girlfriend at the time quiz him of different routes and stuff. He will spend the extra time to pick up the offense. I would be stunned if he is not already staying up at nights going over the offense.

 

07. Exposure through Jeff Brohm's system to a lot of pro route concepts, progression reads, check downs, hot routes, motion, protections. I don't think any of the experts even took that into consideration, it is very important stuff.

 

His accuracy is pretty impressive on film, I thought he was Penningtonesque with his ability to throw into very small windows consistently. he puts the ball where his guy can get it, and the D can't.

 

In high school, Doughty was coached by former Dolphin great Jeff Dellenbach. He got to know Dan Marino's son a little bit as they went to school at the same time but mostly he got to know a kid that Dan and his wife hosted as an exchange student. Doughty used to bring him home from school every day, so he would hang out at the house and ride the zip line that Marino had from the house into the lake in front. Dellenbach had Dan out to practice maybe 3 or 4 times to throw with the team and share some things.

Doughty isn't embellishing when he says Dan Marino was his idol. Before he was drafted by the Dolphins, before he was even done with his college career, he has talked about playing in the back yard as a 5 year old, pretending he is Dan Marino, etc.

Doughty was a 3-star recruit. He was a pro style guy and the recruiting was a lot hotter for dual threat players so his recruiting never heated up like it should have. Jeff Brohm was the OC of FAU at the time and recruited Doughty there under Howard Schnellenberger, but Coach Willie Taggart of WKU also had his hands on Doughty and when Brohm left FAU, Doughty went with Western Kentucky.

By the way, Miami produced some pretty great quarterbacks that all played around the same time in Teddy Bridgewater, Rakeem Cato, Jacoby Brissett and Brandon Doughty. Props.

This is a man that earned his starting job at Western Kentucky more than once. He redshirted in 2010, then made an appearance against Navy in 2011 that won him the start over Kawaun Jakes the following week against Indiana State. But he tore his ACL and meniscus just three snaps into that game and got put on the shelf. The injuries complicated his 2012 as well, resulting in him playing just three snaps as the third QB on the depth chart. Jakes became the established starter under Taggart, and was very productive which helped Willie get the USF job the next year.

Heading into spring ball under new Head Coach Bobby Petrino, Doughty was considered an afterthought as everyone had their eyes on Damarcus Smith who was the dual threat guy with a cannon arm and lots of speed, or the big 6'7" kid James Mauro (who spent 2012 ahead of him on the depth chart). But it was Doughty who stood out, threw 5 touchdowns in the spring game, and made himself the chalk favorite heading into the fall when he was eventually named the starter. It wasn't because he had the physical impressiveness of Damarcus or Mauro, it was because he fully immersed himself in the playbook and knew it backwards and forwards. He recalls how he used to have his girlfriend quiz him on the reads during their spare time together.

Right out of the gun WKU did something relatively unthinkable. Doughty completed 80% of his passes and they beat an SEC opponent, the Kentucky Wildcats. Spirits were pretty high heading into another SEC game against Tennessee the following week, but Doughty threw an astounding five picks in the game and they got thrashed by Butch Jones's bunch. The following week when Doughty threw three more interceptions (along with three touchdowns) in the midst of a loss to South Alabama, that got him briefly benched against Morgan State which Petrino used as basically another spring game competition. During that game he rotated Todd Porter, Nelson Fishback, Damarcus Smith and Brandon Doughty like you would in a preseason game. At the end of the day, Doughty won the job back, they stuck with him for the year and he cut down on the interceptions and finished with a great 21 of 37 for 255 yard, 3 TD and 0 INT performance in the final game of the year.

The next year Petrino left the program, Jeff Brohm was elevated to head coach, he brought in Tyson Helton as Doughty's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Helton probably doesn't get the credit he deserves. Pretty much every stop along his career he's done something pretty remarkable with someone in his unit. When he was coaching special teams at Hawaii he made Chad Owens a record breaking return man. When he was coaching special teams at Memphis he made Stephen Gostkowski a record breaking field goal kicker. When he was coaching quarterbacks at UAB he made Joe Webb one of the most productive QBs in FBS history. His one year at Cincinnati under Tuberville he coached TE Blake Annen and was part of an offensive coaching staff that broke school and conference records for offense with QB Brandon Kay. Brohm and Helton had coached together at UAB so that's how they reunited in WKU, and the result was perhaps the best two-year stretch of offense the FBS has ever seen.

I don't know if this is something to be praised or not but you can tell that Doughty is a very competitive guy and has a pretty clear sense of which quarterbacks he is better than, which quarterbacks are actually any good. When Bobby Petrino took over at Western Kentucky, Petrino having of course also coached some well regarded (in the draft anyway) QBs in Ryan Mallett, Brian Brohm and Mark Brunell, Doughty kind of threw some backhanded shade at Tyler Wilson, saying:

During Combine interviews, Doughty made it a point to say several times that he is the most accurate quarterback in the draft (more on that later). When he was asked about whether playing LSU was any kind of revelation as far as level of competition was concerned, I love his story about it:

Q: "In a game like LSU where you threw I think 61 passes?"

A: "61. In a torrential downpour."

Q: "Playing a defense like LSU stacked front to back on that defense, was there something specific you learned? You said you don't follow college football, but is there something about that matchup you came away with?"

A: "Don't get it twisted, I knew what LSU was gonna do. They ran two different coverages, (cover) four trail and man coverages the entire game, so I knew what they were gonna try to do. They were tryin to beat us with talent. Beginning of the game their mike linebacker was playing actual mike, at the end of the game he's playing D-End it's like 'holy cow,' they're bringin in an extra nickel cuz we're tryin to throw it all over the place. We had to make some adjustments five minutes prior to that game because it was raining so hard. We were gonna try and push them vertically a little bit more, but it's hard to grip that ball with it getting so wet out there. It was crazy, before the game during warmups I was like, 'We are not gonna play this game there's no way,' (the water) was four inches deep on my cleats and I was like 'Dang, I need some more cleats'. That was the weirdest game I ever played in, but it was cool."

From my own notes, playing MLB Kendall Beckwith like a D-End is what LSU did against Texas Tech's wide open spread passing attack in the bowl game. So by the end of the WKU game, LSU knew they had turned WKU into a one-dimensional passing team. I thought Doughty's 325 yard, 3 TD and 1 INT performance against LSU was very good, all things considered. As he said they went in thinking they were going to challenge LSU's man coverage vertically more but then the torrential downpour nixed that plan, so they had to be patient throwing short passes. Doughty's interception was not his fault. The receiver fell down on the route (see: downpour) and that gave the football to the defender. There were several drops because of the rain, too. Even so, Doughty had them in position to go for the win down 34-20 at the beginning of the fourth quarter before LSU broke the game open on WKU's defense.

The 2014 and 2015 statistics for Doughty:
763 of 1092 for 9885 yards, 101 touchdowns (97 passing, 3 rushing, 1 receiving) and 19 interceptions and 8 fumbles, 32 sacks for -243 yards lost, 14 runs for 69 yards gained, 1 reception for 7 yards.

As for arm strength, something I posted elsewhere:

Additionally on arm strength, he won the "Accuracy Challenge" over Cardale Jones and Cody Kessler in the Quicken Loans All Star Challenge this year. Kessler and Doughty beat the pants off Cardale in the accuracy competition but tied one another so they had to break the tie with a distance throw. Doughty won with a 64 yard throw.

His OC Tyson Helton on the process of developing the offense to fit Doughty:

If you want to get a good feel for what Brandon Doughty is as a passer, these are the games to watch.

vs Marshall 2014 https://youtu.be/SBwEcLHyDU4
vs Central Michigan 2014 (Bowl Game) https://youtu.be/c2LRgcaJ194
vs La Tech 2015 https://youtu.be/mtoRNy9QmBs
vs LSU 2015 https://youtu.be/ysj8nhKyFC8
vs South Florida 2015 (Bowl Game) https://youtu.be/xjHp6IQ044k

The first came in 2014 and even though to that point he had amassed good statistics (310 of 460 for 3,853 yards, 36 TD, 8 INT) this was really the game that let me know that Brandon Doughty was a real NFL prospect worthy of my attention. It was against Marshall to that point was undefeated, with a defense allowing only 16.5 points per game through 11 games. I had watched Marshall all year as they were a pet project of mine and I knew just how good that defense was. Neville Hewitt ended up on the Dolphins, Darryl Roberts drafted by the Patriots, they had another NFL talent at safety A.J. Leggett that will not end up in the league for disciplinary reasons, D.J. Hunter had INCREDIBLE athletic ability (4.38 at 5'11" & 205 lbs), James Rouse (6'5" & 277 lbs, 4.89) had NFL tangibles in addition to classic senior captain intangibles and production, the kind of players you make good defenses out of at any level of FBS ball. Doughty was on the road in a loud stadium and cut through them like a hot knife through butter, throwing 8 touchdowns, another two would-be touchdowns (receiver dropped one, didn't locate the ball in the air on another) and then tossed the 2-point conversion to win the game in OT. Just a truly incredible performance, the kind you need to have at some point in your career if you're going to be a "boring" pocket passer prospect, to prove that your passing skills alone are capable of taking you to an unreal level of performance.

Now, why is it that I call him the most accurate passer in the draft? Because he was. Let's start out with this:

http://www.cfbstats.com/2015/leader/national/player/split01/category02/sort03.html

Which shows that he led all other passers in completion percentage by 2.5 percentage points (in other words the distance between #1 and #2 was as big as the difference between #2 and #11).

But we can also show higher-resolution statistics put together by Pro Football Focus

http://www.milehighreport.com/2016/4/11/11392352/pffs-pre-draft-qb-analysis

I broke those numbers down three ways. First off I stripped the non-pressured snaps away from the pressured snaps which you can infer pretty easily by subtracting the data given. I wanted to see how successful (completion or drop, divided by drop backs) the passers were when they were NOT pressured. Then I wanted to get a sense for how successful (completion or drop, divided by drop backs) the players were when pressured. Finally I wanted to get a sense for how often they do something negative (interception or sack, divided by drop backs) when pressured.

Brandon Doughty was 1st in all three categories. Not only that, he was +2.6 standard deviations away from the group average in the non-pressured success category, and +1.8 standard deviations away from the mean in the pressured success category. He was +1.1 standard deviations from the mean in terms of not having negative plays while under pressure. It wasn't just that he was the most accurate, he had the most control over his offense in every situation, even when pressured. He had a full handle on his hot reads, his check downs, etc. He used what little athleticism he does possess to its utmost to evade pressure and get the ball to an open receiver's hands. He did not take sacks.

So why did he fall to the top of the 7th round? Because he ran a 5.14 in the forty yard dash. Don't take my word for it, listen to Gil Brandt:

, Brasfin, dolfan32323 and 6 others like this.

Basically I think people that try and dissect Doughty for these nuances and figure out why the NFL let him get into the 7th round...it's really just two things:

1. He ran a 5.14
2. He played in the Group of Five

The NFL seem perfectly comfortable with the idea that the next great quarterback to come from behind those two strikes against him, will be the next great exception to the rule. I'm not even sure they put a ton into their evaluation of Doughty, at least not stuff that actually moved the needle one way or another, aside from those two things. Keith Wenning (MAC) and Brandon Doughty (CUSA) were essentially put into the same box, and not without reason.

Brandon Doughty could check all the boxes you want him to check, and as long as the above two things were true, it wasn't gonna matter a whole lot. Maybe if he had a sick Cardale Jones caliber arm or something, I dunno. But I do see people trying to figure out these nuances like he doesn't have as good arm strength, or a he has a hitch in his delivery (he does???) or he doesn't throw a catchable ball (flatly untrue, IMO), etc. I think that's getting it all twisted. He's a 5.14 runner coming out of C-USA. That's what this is.

When you've seen exceptions to the level of competition requirement it's generally accompanied by a guy who notches very athletically impressive boxes (like Wentz). When you've seen exceptions to the athleticism rule, it's generally accompanied by a guy who played good competition (like Mannion or Mallett).

Jimmy Garoppolo is the only guy I can think of that had level of competition AND athleticism going against him, but that was the Patriots. They're perfectly fine drafting a player three rounds higher than anyone else would've taken him. Plus Jimmy G ran two-tenths better than Doughty.

 

I imagine you are right on the money on why he lasted, because after watching tape I was wondering.

He didn't seem all that slow on tape, perhaps it was the comp, or maybe he has game speed, probably a bit of both, but timing over 5 it would seem to me that he should have looked lumbering and slow, but it didn't stand out to me.

PS, they are still waiting for Dan to finish his 40 time, lol.

 

There is tape of him out there in high school and he was much more mobile, now he knows how to play the QB position and doesn't need to run as much. I just don't think the experts did their homework on him.

 

Great Posts! Funny you mention Cardele because Doughty out threw him in that distance competition you mentioned earlier. I heard one scout knock him because he slid a yard short of a TD in a game. I was like really, that is what you picked out out of 10,000 yards throwing and 100 plus TD's?

 

He reminds me of Pennington, smart and accurate. Both played in CUSA.

 

Sort of like when a scout complained that Eli Apple, stepson of a five star chef, doesn't have any life skills and can't cook for himself. Guys who trained with him were like, err, he just cooked me dinner the other night and it was fire af.

I'm convinced there is nobody more dishonest, even when not trying to be dishonest, than Anonymous Scout.

 

I somehow failed to mention that Doughty has tattoos all over his left arm but none on his right. He hasn't put any on his right arm because he considers it god-given. LOL.

This kid has already absorbed the teachings of the church of the right arm of God. Hell, he was baptized in no less than the waters of Lake Marino from the Marino family zip line.

This is prophecy.

 

1} I think the scheme is something you really have to take a hard look at to see if the production is a pretty big derivitive of that scheme, he's always in the gun and he has mastered that particular system, next level he's gonna have to change things up, get up from under center and whatnot.

2} His size at a little over 6'2 is not ideal.

3} not a lot of quickness to maneuver within the pocket..

4} While I like his passion and ability to stand in the pocket at all costs, I don't think there is enough talent in those legs to make some plays on his own, and I just don't see a good enough passer to become a starter at the NFL level..

Ill def be rooting for him cause of his story but I think if Logan thomas has his head on strait their both 24 years old, I wouldn't count him out.

 

Just to expand upon some of these...

1. He actually took snaps under center at Western Kentucky, particularly play-action. He also ran a lot of play-action from the pistol which means he regularly turned his back to the defense. Any objective evaluation of the WKU system would show he's far ahead of most college QBs with perhaps only Connor Cook being further along in terms of system translation.

2. He's not 6'2". He's 6'3". When you are 3/4ths of an inch above 6'2" and you consistently round it down to "a little over 6'2" then I have to believe you're intentionally misleading to try and make a point.

3. Hence the 5.14

4. Hence the 5.14

 

Best case scenario: Doughty continues to beat the odds and excels. Logan Thomas successfully converts to a receiving TE. Zac Dysert becomes a very cheap,very good #3. Matt Moore is traded before the deadline for a 2017 5th.

 

He held his own in the first half against LSU.. Was picking that defense apart.. Second half though showed the difference between LSU talent vs Western Kentucky..

 

One post from CK>every beat writer...CK, You're the best, man!

 

You can tell y'all really don't like RT17 raving over a 7th round pick that might not be in the league next year... Is RT17 really that bad? If this guy can play I still don't see him being better than MM

 

no offense, but WTH are you not seeing? Have you not watched any film at all? I could see you saying he is slow, but to say he is not a good enough passer when he led college the past 2 years in passing seems really odd. If you watch any film that has been posted you can see he can make all the throws. I'm kinda convinced you haven't watched any of the film CK has posted or you would see he has taken snaps from center, and he does have enough legs to move around in the pocket and away from pressure. Watch the bowl game from last year and you will see everything he can do.

 

CK did the homework, I can assure the beat writers have not .

 

If you watch his film there is a lot to rave about. MM, who I really like, has supposedly always been a bad practice player, I believe that has held him back.

 

I thought he was doing alright in the second half too. I would've loved to see that game played in good weather instead of that torrential downpour. Five minutes before the game they had to change the game plan and go away from trying to challenge LSU vertically which is what you'd like to do when they're playing man coverage all day long.

The rain made it a slop game, which favors the LSU ground attack with Leonard Fournette, especially with Western Kentucky's best RB Leon Allen injured all year.

 

Yes I have, may I remind you there have been lots of qbs who have had greats stats in college who do not translate to the pros..Im hoping that he's good enough to become our backup and then net us a higher pick then for what we paid, Im sorry that my opinion on that is different than yours..I just dont see a starter.

 

Not true at all. Being excited about a 7th round QB is not reflective of ones feelings about the starting QB. I see no downside to a good or great back up.

 

He's literally the first QB that the Dolphins have drafted since Ryan Tannehill, and before that Chad Henne (unless you count Pat White). There's no basis for reading into our liking the pick that we don't like Ryan Tannehill. We don't often get to see Miami draft a QB.

 

Don't forget Higbee was out a large part of the season too

 

To say he is not a good passer just seems insane to me based on the fact that is what he is known for. most accurate passer in college the past 2 years, but he is not a good passer? Just odd statement.

 

And lest we forget he's actually a good person, here is a guide to some of the tattoos on his left arm (remember, none on his right, because his right arm was "god given" lol):

Orange-leafed flowers and praying hands for the grandpa that raised him
Colon cancer support ribbon for his mom
A missing puzzle piece for autism support for his cousin

When his playing days are done he plans to start some churches.

And here's a pretty chart:

 

I did not say he was a ''bad passer'' I said I don't think he's good enough to be a starter at the next level..

 

Some more fun with PFF.

[video=twitter;704503649612013568]https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/704503649612013568[/video]

[video=twitter;700537053549895680]https://twitter.com/PFF_College/status/700537053549895680[/video]

I was actually wondering about that time to throw figure and I'm glad I found it, as well as the context. That's what separates him from a Brandon Weeden.

 

Look at Hackenberg, my God what are the Jets thinking? Still don't know what the fuss is over that dude.

 

I have a Jets fan friend of mine for whom I wrote a review of Hackenberg and he really put it best, "So what you're telling me is that Christian Hackenberg is very consistently bad across all situations. Awesome."

 

Quick exercise on Brandon Doughty's arm strength. I think these two back to back throws are instructive:

https://youtu.be/Zjpp1-5cR1s?t=4147
https://youtu.be/Zjpp1-5cR1s?t=4171

Both throws are opposite hash to sidelines, so they're both long throws. But the color guy very astutely points out that Doughty had a lot more zip on the second one. The reason is he had the clear space to step into the second throw whereas if you look at the first throw, Doughty couldn't step into it at all and had to go pure arm on the throw to get it where it needed to go. He got hit by the defender right after he released the ball.

I have almost the exact same distance on those two throws, about 35 yards through the air on both of them. But on one he's got 45 mph average speed and on the other he's got 51 mph average speed (the difference translates to about two-tenths of a second). I think that really gives you a good feel for the range of his arm in context of what's happening at his feet. The first throw wasn't bad, but it certainly didn't show off good velocity, and when you look at what is happening around his body you can see why. The second velocity is normal NFL starter caliber velocity, Tannehill-like.

That range reminds me of Andrew Luck.