What Cardale Jones Must Prove to NFL Scouts to Become Top QB in 2016 Draft

"I’ve got some pretty impressive tools in my garage as well, but it doesn’t make me a master carpenter."

This is how former NFL general manager Ted Sundquist described Cardale Jones, per the Football Educator, a quarterback at Ohio State. Jones was a screwball for the draft community. In his three games as a starter, he earned more rings than most college players do in their career.

With starting quarterback J.T Barrett out with a broken leg, Jones made his first start in the Big Ten Championship, which the Buckeyes proceeded to win 59-0 over the Wisconsin Badgers. From there, the team beat the top-ranked team in the postseason in Alabama at the Sugar Bowl, then the second-ranked Oregon Ducks in the national championship.

Jones managed to post quarterback ratings of 255.8, 113.5 and 163.6 during that historical stretch. The question rose: Did he do enough to declare early, as a redshirt sophomore, based off just three games?

There are examples of players who have succeeded in the NFL and were drafted highly, despite little tape. Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah was a virtual unknown from BYU who blew up around midseason for the Cougars in 2012, eventually propelling the edge-rushers' selection as the fifth overall pick in the following draft.

Kyle Long, the son of Howie Long, only played offensive line for one year at Oregon and wasn't even a full-time starter, but he was selected with the 20th overall pick. Long has made both Pro Bowls since being drafted in the same class as Ansah.

With that being said, neither of them had only three games of real competition, and neither played the most important position in the sport. Jones decided to return to school, set to compete against 2012 and 2013 Big Ten Quarterback of the year Braxton Miller, a senior who missed 2014 due to a shoulder injury, and Barrett, who won the award as Millers' replacement.

There's no promise that Jones even wins the starting job for the team in Columbus, but that doesn't stop draft hype from building around him. After all, the last time we've seen quarterbacks lead championship teams out of nowhere, they were Jameis Winston for the Florida State Seminoles and Cam Newton for the Auburn Tigers. Both were first overall selections, a goal some have set for Jones in 2016.

There's bias in watching games live, though. When one watches games weeks apart, with long breaks between drives and even plays, an evaluator doesn't get a good grasp of what an individual can do consistently. With the draft declaration date pressed right after the national championship, there wasn't much time for the majority of the media to "go back to the tape."

With plenty of time in the offseason, though, I would guess that some questions begin to arise with Jones' game. First, and maybe most importantly, draft writers are going to quickly learn that he isn't the athlete he was originally billed as.

He doesn't have a bad arm by any means, that would be a ludicrous statement, but it's not in the elite tier, either. If you're going to draft a quarterback based off arm talent, he's going to need to be a Matthew Stafford type.

Against Alabama, probably Jones' most critically acclaimed game, he was praised for two deep touchdowns. The first came halfway through the first quarter, while the second came at the beginning of the third quarter. What you'll notice is that both times the receiver had to turn around for the ball, rather than catch it in stride over his shoulder. This is consistent through all of Jones' reps.

At the NFL level, outside cornerbacks are going to have more speed to catch up to the ball, and they'll be able to find the ball better than college defensive backs do. In essence, those throws will work at the college level, but they are batted incompletions in the league a majority of the time.

I'm certain he can throw the ball to any corner of the field, but arm strength is more about the ability to throw a ball with high velocity on a rope rather than the distance one can throw to. If there's so much air under the ball that a defensive back can catch back up to the pigskin and make a play, does the distance of the pass even matter?

That's one issue Tajh Boyd of Clemson had years ago. Boyd went from a draft selection to playing in the Fall Experimental Football League (FXFL) in 2014, finally earning a spot on the Pittsburgh Steelers' offseason roster.

Now, I don't think Jones' arm compares to Boyd's, but he's an extreme example of why that specific attribute matters for NFL translation. Jones' ability to throw the 9-route is more similar to Teddy Bridgewater, the Minnesota Vikings' starting quarterback who was drafted with the 32nd overall pick in the 2014 draft.

Secondly, Jones' legs aren't elite, either. Once again, they aren't a knock, but his range is closer to 4.7 or 4.8 in the 40-yard dash as opposed to Newton's 4.59 mark. As a runner, he's a young Ben Roethlisberger, someone who can make plays when concepts break down, not a quarterback who's going to outrun players up the sideline.

There are more similarities to Roethlisberger in his game, too. At times, when Jones committed himself to the pocket, he was able to break tackles with his 6'5", 250-pound frame, standing like a statute. When he wanted to make one man miss, he'd reduce his surface area with a dip move, vaulting the defender over him or spinning around him.

This only happens when there are reads left in his progression, though. Once his reads run out, he completely sells himself out as a passer and tucks the ball. This is fine at the college level, where he can outrun defenders with his 4.7-4.8 speed, but Johnny Manziel, who ran a 4.68 40-yard dash, learned the hard way that the NFL's defenders are much faster than the NCAA's.

What master passers like Aaron Rodgers do is break the pocket, but they keep their eyes upfield, looking to make a strike, while the defense has to play outside of its frame of reference. Quarterbacks like Jake Locker have busted in the league, because they've looked to run the ball too early. Prospects, such as Brett Hundley of UCLA, who was drafted in the fifth-round in this past draft, have also fallen due to the same trait.

Twice against Oregon, he faced 3rd-and-long situations with a clean pocket, but he decided to run the ball 15 and 17 yards from a first down, failing to convert on either attempts.

Slumping over his shoulders as he stepped up, he gave up his opportunity to throw the ball, as his body would have been out of position to get off an accurate pass. That allowed the defense to pin its ears down in an 11-on-1 situation in space, which led to the ending of drives.

There are also other smaller issues with his game. Whenever he sees a man in a one-on-one situation, his mind tells him to just get the ball in the area, rather than get good placement on the throw for his receiver. This was exemplified with his deep passes, but some of his boundary throws are also going to look worse at the next level when defensive backs are better at getting their heads around to look for the ball.

He also didn't face much pressure behind a strong offensive line, which allowed him to take his time to make reads in Urban Meyer's spread system. Meyer's approach to quarterbacks allowed for the drafting of Tim Tebow and Alex Smith in the first round, and in Smith's case, with the first overall pick.

Oddly enough, Aaron Rodgers, who was passed up for Smith, was labeled as a "Jeff Tedford quarterback" coming out of college due to his coach's track record with throwers.

My biggest question for those who love him as a prospect really just surrounds the narrative of him as a collegiate player. If he would have thrown three interceptions against Alabama, which had the opportunities to capitalize on three very poor passes, and Ohio State lost in the Sugar Bowl, how much differently is the football world viewing Jones?

Would we even be sure he would have been the clubhouse leader for the 2015 starting job for the Buckeyes? It almost feels like there's a tax put on him for his team winning those last two games, causing his overall value to cost more.

At his peak, I think he's more of a "system" passer than a vertical thrower. To me, he's close to a Marcus Mariota type of prospect, with diminished legs if not also an arm, who needs to win with his mental game rather than a risk-taking approach with a cannon. He's never going to be Joe Flacco during his Super Bowl run, but he could be Roethlisberger during his green years.

If he can prove over time that he can consistently capitalize on blitzes with ball placement, which he's done at times, and he can sync his freelancing with a deep-strike threat, which he's done at times, there's a shot that he will go first overall. One year from the 2016 NFL draft, though, Jones has a lot to learn.

By September, should he quicken his feet during drops, eliminate his run-only mentality when breaking from structure and develop better placement on his throws, everyone will forget about the flaws he showed to the world during the three most talked about games to start a player's career in the sport.

He very well might be the first prospect to hug Roger Goodell next May, but that's all up to what Jones does next, not what he's done in the past.