It'll be interesting to see if Jameis Winston comes out next year anyway despite his protests that he won't. It wouldn't shock anyone to see him change his mind. All eyes will be on he, Brett Hundley and Marcus Mariota. But I think it's just foolish to make claims about where Mariota would've gone this year. That tells me the scouting process with Mariota never got beyond the inch-deep analysis. They see that he's big enough, that he's definitely fast, he's very productive, and throws a good ball. But that's pretty much all they know because they've not even begun to analyze the tape and find out if he throws the ball accurately or if he reads defenses. You can't make claims about a guy going #1 overall or top 3 overall or something like that if you haven't even begun to digest that stuff.
Particularly what I always wondered about Mariota is whether he's really all he's cracked up to be under pressure. He's going to play another year and that gives him time to improve but for all this guy being a great athlete and having quick feet and everything, he's really quite average (or worse) when pressured in the pocket. Sometimes he makes good plays when pressured. Most times he doesn't. Sometimes he makes really bad plays. Just look at the Washington State game. A lot of people are going to be dazzled by the overall production in the game, 23 of 32 for 317 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs with a big TD run on top of it. But a lot of that production was definitely college stuff that doesn't translate well to the pros, even if you're watching Nick Foles run similar style offense in Philadelphia. The thing that impresses you when you watch Foles run the Kelly offense at the pro level is how much pocket presence Foles has and the ability to sense the rush and do something about it. If you're going to run that style of offense with Mariota I think it's fair to say he's going to need to do the same. But when defenses like Washington State and Stanford actually collapsed the pocket and got to him, they sacked him 6 times in the two games and he fumbled the football on 4 of those 6 sacks. He also fumbled the football against Arizona in that loss. He fumbled the ball twice in the bowl game against Texas when he faced productive pass rushers Cedric Reed and Jackson Jeffcoat. He fumbled the football when Anthony Barr sacked him in the UCLA game too. A lot of people would look at the fumbles and focus on them as the problem and indeed they are a big concern, but I think it goes deeper than that. It's the fumbles relative to the overall pressure he faced in the pocket at Oregon. He didn't face a ton of pressure. He mostly had clean pockets and plenty of time to execute the quick throws they favored. But when he didn't have those thing it's always sack-fumble, sack-fumble, sack-fumble, sack-fumble, sack-fumble. He's actually right now pretty similar to how Blaine Gabbert was when he came out of Missouri. Both have the pure tools to potentially be good at dealing with pressure. But both show bad tendencies. Blaine Gabbert used to scramble away from ghosts and you see a lot of that with Marcus Mariota as well.
Now that I'm looking closer, I'm having trouble finding games where he DIDN'T fumble the football at least once. Tennessee - Fumbled on a 5 yard loss Arizona - Fumbled on a 1 yard run Oregon State - Fumbled on a 3 yard loss Washington State - Two sack-fumbles UCLA - Two fumbles, one a sack-fumble Stanford - Two sack-fumbles Texas - Two sack-fumbles I've got 11 of them so far. And the way he runs from ghosts in the pocket is eerily reminiscent of Blaine Gabbert. Luckily he's young and there's plenty chance for him to improve.
Bryce Petty will sneak in and be the #1 pick in 2015. This is my bold prediction. Last season, over 4400 yards of offense (passing and rushing), 46 tds, and only 3 ints. I expect his numbers to be even better this upcoming season, which is scary. When i look at QBs, i like to always find how they did when their team was either tied or losing by 7 points. Shows me how he handles adversity. Last season in those situations, Petty completed 60% of his passes for 1549 yds, 14 tds and 0 ints, 166.36 qb rating. By comparison, Winston completed 80% of his passes for 916 yds, 8 tds and 1 int, 205.20 qb rating. And, Mariota completed 60% of his passes for 791 yds, 6 tds and 1 int, 150.82 qb rating. Before i found out how dumb Winston is, I would have called him the best QB for sure. I think he's a hell of a locker room leader and i like his cockiness. Plus, his stats are off the charts. But, I can't trust this guy. Too many red flags for me (and it takes a lot for me). So, now it comes down to Petty and Mariota (I take Hundley out because i have never seen him). Mariota has nice stats, but i just see a great athlete. I don't see a leader. He admitted in USA Today, I don't like shy/quiet QBs...I need someone who can be a leader of men. He has that Teddy Bridgewater personality, which is why i think Teddy will fail in the NFL. Bryce Petty plays with fire and has the stats to back it up. I watch Baylor games and I've seen this guy on the sideline getting after his teammates. I love it. I think NFL teams will start taking more notice too.
Call me foolish.. I'll tell ya what I think is foolish, after seeing the kid play at 18 and nineteen years old, that at anytime a third round grade would enter the mind.
Yeah, that's what i'm hearing. I plan on watching a few UCLA games this year to check him out. I don't watch many PAC 12 games unless it's Oregon or Stanford. I'm in Texas, so they don't show many West Coast games here...just SEC and BIG 12. I'm a Michigan Wolverines fan, so of course i watch many B1G games too.
Yeah, i coach high school ball here in Texas. Used to coach NCAA DII football at SBU (beginning of my coaching career & where i learned all about coaching offense), which is the reason for my sig. As a matter of fact, our defensive coordinator was an ex Miami Dolphin, EJ Junior. Our WR coach and co-offensive coordinator used to work in the Patriots' front office under Belichick, JC Dawkins (i learned so much from him). It was a hell of an experience for just a DII coaching gig. We turned a perennial loser into an offensive powerhouse for the 2 years we were there. Best time of my life. My avatar is my alma mater, where i played football and also coached the year we won the SWAC championship.
A hybrid of the Tony Franklin spread offense. Same as Chip Kelly, Art Briles, and Gus Malzahn. Everyone took Tony's spread offensive principles and tweaked it to make it their own. Through clinics, i got a chance to meet and learn from both Franklin and Malzahn. I have been following Malzahn since his high school coaching days though. My high school in Arkansas used to play against them, and I was in awe of what they were doing on offense. Even though i was only a high school student, I saw his genius. Needless to say, his teams used to kick our as**s, lol. That's when i learned how important coaching was. Our team used to have all these All-State players, and Malzahn would just have all these slow, unathletic guys who wouldn't even start on our team (no b.s.). His offense could not be stopped though. Their game plan and his playcalling was a thing of beauty to watch, even as his opponent. At the end of the game, we would all just be standing around like "wtf just happened", lol. I was jealous as hell because our offense was a power run, option offense that consisted of basically 6 plays. I wish we had a coach who was half as smart as Gus. We made it to the state semifinals based solely on our talent. Meanwhile, Malzahn's team went on to win the state championship solely because of coaching....smh. It's funny how i still get pissed about that to this very day. Anyway, here's a little clip of what our offense looked like (it's our qb's junior highlight tape on youtube). We used to have team highlights on youtube, but i think the head coach took them down once he left. The QB and RB now play in Canada. [video=youtube;NgDNLtxKzAA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgDNLtxKzAA[/video]
#1) New York Jets: Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon Many Jet fans may complain about this mock being unrealistic because it has their team at No. 1 overall, but that would completely ignore the fact that Houston went from a divisional winner to owner of the worst record in the league. New York has very little talent on its roster, and it only made things worse by bringing two terrible characters for the locker room to be the team's new starting quarterback and running back. The former Eagle quit on his team in 2011 and 2012 (not to mention 2005 in Atlanta, which was embarrassing), while Chris Johnson constantly throws teammates under the bus when he's not playing well. They will poison the Jets, who will be atrocious by the end of the 2014 season. It's a close call between Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston in terms of talent, but the former has a slight edge right now. With most things being equal, Mariota is clean off the field. Baseball will hurt Winston a bit as well. NFL personnel might be worried that Winston will have interests elsewhere. Walterfootball but it's the first mock I've seen..
PFT reporting that both may stay in school il 2016.. lets hope not..it would suck to have to wait to show some folks that this is a legit #1 overall prospect.
Mariota may be better off staying in school a little longer. It could make him a better player. But a lot depends on his growth this year. If he's significantly better than the player he was a year ago then perhaps he should come out early.
Calling B.S. on this one. There is no meaningful data to suggest extroverts are better leaders than introverts. In fact, there is evidence to the contrary. Confidence is what truly matters.
Evidently Marcus Mariota is taking the following classes this semester to finish up the credits he needs to graduate: Yeah I'm going to go ahead and say I seriously doubt Mariota will be staying in school beyond 2014. If he were serious about staying in school for academic reasons, he wouldn't be taking golf and yoga to finish up his degree. Actually it makes me a little surprised he didn't come out in 2014 and makes me think the Advisory committee didn't give him the grade he wanted.
Will you stop with this advisory board stuff, dude would of been first Qb taken. Have you seen Winston talk lately.? Ill stand by my prediction...Mariota > Winston
I heard Mariota took a wonderlic and scored a 5 and that's why he stayed in school! I have no proof it's just something I heard! SENT FROM MY LG G-FLEX ON THE NOW NETWORK FROM SPRINT!
Not joking and it was from a recent interview. He needs two credits to graduate and he's filling them by taking Golf and Yoga.
So what if he is taking golf and yoga? What is his degree in? What other classes has he taken? Some colleges require X amount of credits outside your field of study. Perhaps that is the case here and he has no interest in taking an actual class outside his major? This needs context. Not just OMG GOLF & YOGA. Not saying that was your reaction CK just making a point.
If you look at the original point I was making I was just trying to say his course schedule makes it look unlikely that he stays in school until the 2016 draft. DJ had said it looks as if both Mariota and Winston could stay in school instead of coming out in 2015. When you see a guy taking golf and yoga to finish up his credits, sorry but he's not got graduate studies in mind. He's waiting to get out. No need to jump to conclusions about what I was trying to say. It's all right there written out pretty explicitly.
Well, it is a good sign that he is able to complete his 4 yr degree in less than 4 years, no matter the major.
I agree. But his not taking his final semester seriously from an academic standpoint tells me he's probably not going to stay in school until the 2016 draft, despite rumors to the contrary. He's coming out in 2015, I'd venture.
FWIW I don't think Winston is a very good QB. He has bad ball placement and sometimes his throws wobble too much for my liking, lacking velocity. His biggest strength is his strength and he plays like Big Ben in that sense on the college level. Incredibly hard to bring down. That along with his passing (which is fine for the college level) could make him a star college wise but I don't see many skills that transfer to NFL level competition. Id have to watch Mariota harder because I really havent scouted him at all.
I was talking about the part where you said he's not a first round pick this 2015.. No big deal you don't like the dudes game, I figured that out when you said he wouldn't be a first round pick 2014 if he came out??which I completely disagree with, both observations that is.
Except I didn't say that. Listen if you've got a bug up your butt just because I don't nuzzle the dude's taint enough for your tastes that's fine. But at least give me the benefit of not misrepresenting what I said.
This Michigan State game will be a big test for Marcus Mariota. They have a very physical and capable defense.
I feel that game is a huge test for Michigan State defense. Up front the Ducks have Grasu and those nice pulling linemen. They will stretch them left and right.
The Oregon offense is a huge test for every defense they face and have been whether Dennis Dixon is running the offense or Marcus Mariota is running it. I accept that as a given. But if Marcus Mariota is trying to be a #1 overall pick and the top QB in the land then this is a defense he needs to show well against. He can start by not fumbling the football every time he's touched. He fumbled the ball 19 times in 2012 and 2013 versus only 35 sacks during that time. That's absurd and he needs to start proving he can take contact without coughing it up.
Mind you, I'm not excusing Brett Hundley's 18 fumbles over 2012 and 2013. He needs to stop as well. But Hundley did get sacked 87 times during that span and his OL has generally been horrible in protection. I'm not sure either guy is going to be worthy of a top-end 1st round pick at this point, but they've got a chance this season to show they're worth it.
