by Liam Madigan-Fried
Imagine if you will, that you are grocery shopping one day, and you decide to try your luck at finding a few big, juicy red apples. When you get to the apple cart, you see at once that there are no perfectly round and succulent specimens. But rather there are a few…good options. Sure, there might be a bruise here or there, and they might be a bit undersized, but with the right cook and the right recipe, you could still make one hell of an apple pie! That’s exactly where we find ourselves with this year’s batch of incoming rookie quarterbacks. The 2016 quarterback may be devoid of any shiny red Blake Bortles or Jameis Winston's on the tree, but with undeniably raw yet talented prospects such as North Dakota State's Carson Wentz and Cal’s Jared Goff topping off this year’s talent pool, teams looking to add a quarterback this year should get exactly what they paid for.
Stud:
Jared Goff (Junior-Cal)
This one was a hard decision with Carson Wentz having a great workout at the Scouting Combine last weekend. However, I’ve got to give the edge to the Cal guy. Despite some questions about his overall physique (most notably his nine-inch hand size), Goff showed on day two of the combine that he has the talent to be a potential top-five pick. Goff's Combine workout showcased the excellent arm strength and unrivaled accuracy that garnered him national attention while he was at Cal and further solidified why he should be the first quarterback taken in April's draft. Although Combine and Pro Day results are hardly telling factors of future success (ex: Teddy Bridgewater’s less than stellar showing two years ago), Goff has an established body of work in his three years starting at Cal to back him up on his path to the draft. In those three seasons, Goff threw for an impressive 12,200 yards (96 TD’s, 30 INT’s) to go along with a completion rate of 62.3% on a team that lacked top-end offensive talent. Though he might be the most talented passer in this year’s bunch, one question remains: Is Goff, the kid who grew up and played in sunny California, the right fit for the harsh climate of Cleveland, the likely first team to select a quarterback with the number two overall pick? Or will the Browns chose to go with Wentz, who has plenty of bad weather experience after playing in the frozen tundra otherwise known as North Dakota for the past three years? Only time or the monkey with the cymbals that the Browns so obviously use to make their draft day choices will tell.
Bust:
Christian Hackenberg (Junior-Penn State)
It disappoints me to have to include Hackenberg in such a category considering I’ve been a fan of him since his magical freshman year under the tutelage of former Penn State (and current Houston Texans) head coach Bill O’Brien. However, his status as a bust is largely going to depend on what team he ends up with. With his combination of impressive size (6’4, 228lbs), athleticism (4.78 40, 7.04 3-cone drill) and elite arm strength, I’m worried that a weak, quarterback-needy team will force him into a starting situation that he's just not ready for at this point in time. If any team expects this kid to be their franchise savior within his first couple of years in the league, they’re bound to end up with the next Brandon Weeden or Josh Freeman. Hackenberg is an incredibly raw prospect with a slew of problems with accuracy, reading defenses and decisionmaking that need to be fixed before he becomes a starting quarterback in the NFL. If any team expects too much from him at once, Hackenberg is destined to fall flat in the pros.
Steal:
Kevin Hogan (Senior-Stanford)
This is one quarterback I believe is destined to be a draft day steal. In his four years playing at Stanford (three starting), Hogan has thrown for a combined 9,385 yards 75 TD’s and 29 INT’s and completed a commendable 66.6% of his passes. He closed out the 2015 season with a four-game winning streak that culminated in a blowout 45-16 win over Iowa in the Rose Bowl. The aforementioned winning streak would've been at 11 games had it not been for a narrow 38-36 loss to Oregon in Week 10. His numbers might not as dazzling as this year's top-rated QB prospects, but Hogan has proven time and again that he's an exceptional game manager who has the ability and intelligence to make clutch plays when his team needs them. He might not possess the ideal arm strength and athleticism of his Stanford predecessor Andrew Luck, but Hogan can give a team who has the time to develop a young prospect the chance to gain a future efficiency machine (Cowboys anyone?)
Unknown:Brandon Doughty (Senior-Western Kentucky)
Doughty turned in a decent days work at the combine despite running the slowest 40 time for quarterbacks (5.22). Doughty had a stellar career at Western Kentucky, throwing for a combined 12,855 yards,111 TD’s and 34 INT’s and an overall completion rate of 59.6% (his completion rate would be higher had he not been lost to injury in 2011 and 2012.) Many skeptics will rightly point to the fact that Doughty wasn’t exactly facing top notch competition while at Western Kentucky, which is why it is difficult to tell whether his collegiate success will translate into the NFL.
Connor Cook (Senior-Michigan State)
Although though he's bit a behind Goff and Wentz, Cook possesses one of the more impressive resumes of any quarterback in this draft class. During his four years as a starter for Michigan State, he thrown for a combined 9,194 yards (71 TD’s, 22 INT’s) and led the Spartans to a pair of Big Ten Championships in 2013 and 2015 and a Rose Bowl victory in 2013. However with his rather unimpressive completion rate (56.5%) and well-documented character problems, Cook is going to have be damn near perfect throughout the rest of the pre-draft workouts and interviews to sneak back into early-round consideration.
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