2011 NFL Draft: Ranking the Top 10 Quarterback Prospects
The upcoming NFL Draft is rich with promising quarterback prospects. There are probably at least a dozen quarterbacks in this draft that some scouts would tell you could be solid starters in the league.
There is also no shortage of teams looking for a quarterback. The Panthers, Bills, Bengals, Cardinals, 49ers, Titans, and Redskins could all use a quarterback, and those are just teams drafting in the top ten.
One thing is for sure about quarterbacks in this draft: there will be a ton of movement among them. It's inevitable that one or more quarterbacks will drop to the middle or late part of the first round.
There is also going to be at least one quarterback that a team falls in love with and reaches for unnecessarily.
There are tons of combinations for how the top ten quarterbacks could shake out, but here's my two cents on how they should be ranked.
10. Pat Devlin: Delaware
1 of 10The most often used comparison for Pat Devlin is Joe Flacco, and it's easy to see why.
Like Flacco, Devlin began his career at a big Division I school and spent his early years riding pine. Flacco started at Boston College and Devlin started at Penn State. Like Flacco, he also chose to transfer to Delaware to get the chance to start.
They even have similar body types. Devlin stands 6'3 and weighs in at a sturdy 225 pounds. Devlin may even be a better athlete as he has a vertical leap of 33 inches and runs the 40 yard dash in 4.81 seconds.
He won't get confused with a cornerback or wide receiver with that speed, but that's a respectable number for a quarterback.
Playing FCS (formerly I-AA) football, the stats may be a little distorted, but they do show what Devlin is capable of.
In his two seasons as the starter for the Delaware Blue Hens, Devlin piled up 5,696 passing yards. His touchdown-to-interception ratio was a solid 38-12.
In his senior season, he had a pass-completion percentage of 68 percent, on the way to being named the Colonial Athletic Association's Player of the Year.
Devlin is not quite the prospect that Flacco was coming out of Delaware, but he is an intriguing prospect for teams that may not be looking to get into the first-round quarterback sweepstakes.
9. Greg McElroy: Alabama
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With so many quarterbacks in this draft showing off freakish athletic ability, Greg McElroy gives teams a different look.
He played on a team that didn't throw the ball as much relative to most of the nation, he isn't all that physically imposing, and he doesn't have blazing speed or a cannon for an arm.
What he does have, though, is a sky-high IQ on and off the field and a track record for winning. McElroy scored a 48 out of a possible 50 on the Wonderlic test at the NFL Combine.
He also went all of his high school career and up to halfway through his senior season at Alabama before he had lost a game as a starting quarterback.
It's also not as if he's a complete stiff on the field, either. In his career in a Crimson Tide uniform, he threw for 5,691 yards and 39 touchdowns.
Don't look for McElroy to fold under the pressure of the NFL. He is used to playing in front of huge SEC crowds and national TV audiences, and the pressure from the Alabama faithful to win is greater than the pressure from any NFL fan base.
Maybe McElroy isn't a breakout star that a team drafts to take over right away, but he is a great option for a team that needs a mature backup who can absorb the offense and be ready to play at a moment's notice.
8. Andy Dalton: TCU
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Few quarterbacks have had the perception about them change more than Andy Dalton.
During his freshman and sophomore seasons for the Horned Frogs, Dalton was seen as a "game manager" whose job was to keep from giving the game away more than trying to win the game for them. A good game for Dalton was based almost solely on him not turning the ball over.
To some degree, the "game manager" stigma was true, though. His freshman season, he had 10 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. His sophomore season, he cut down on interceptions and only threw five. His touchdowns, though, stayed relatively low at 11.
It wasn't until his junior season that things began to click for Dalton. It was then that he began piling up stats and going out and winning games for the Frogs.
Over his junior and senior seasons, he threw 23 and 27 touchdowns, respectively, while keeping his interceptions down to eight and six in those two seasons.
It was also in those last two years that Dalton began to show up on NFL scouts' radars. Dalton always had the size they like in a quarterback at 6'2 and 215 pounds, but finally the numbers were beginning to jump off the page as well.
In total, Dalton threw for over 10,000 yards at TCU to go along with 71 career touchdowns. His 66 percent completion rate as a senior was good for TCU's all-time completion percentage record. He was named the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year for those efforts.
Dalton not only won a ton of games at TCU, but he improved every year on campus. He is currently shooting up draft boards as teams see that he has many of the traits they want in a young quarterback.
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7. Ricky Stanzi: Iowa
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Like Dalton, Stanzi worked hard to shed the image that his team was winning games more in spite of him and less because of him.
His first two seasons as a starter, he had 31 combined touchdowns and 24 combined interceptions. While those aren't embarrassing statistics, they also aren't going to get the attention of NFL teams.
It wasn't until his senior season that Stanzi began to make people take notice. In that season, Stanzi had his first 3,000-plus yard passing season, set his career high in touchdowns with 25, set his career low in interceptions with six, and had a career-best 64.1 percent completion rate.
At 6'4 and 223 pounds, Stanzi has more than prototypical size at quarterback. That's more like the ideal size of a quarterback. He also knows a thing or two about big games as the Big Ten Conference has a playoff atmosphere to just about every conference game.
All told, Stanzi threw for 7,377 total yards and 56 touchdowns in his Hawkeyes career. He'll be a good mid-round option for a team looking for an experienced, mature passer who won a ton of games in a premier college football conference.
6. Colin Kaepernick: Nevada
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Even with a guy like Cam Newton in this draft, there are those that feel that Kaepernick is the best dual-threat quarterback to be had.
The raw statistics tell you that story. Kapernick is the only player in NCAA history with over 10,000 career passing yards and 4,000 career rushing yards. He had 82 passing touchdowns and 59 rushing touchdowns.
Any person who thinks that Kaepernick is strictly a scrambling quarterback who completes passes only when forced is sorely mistaken. Colin is a great quarterback who runs well, not a great runner who happens to play quarterback.
Kaepernick increased his total passing yards every season along with his completion percentage. He only threw 24 total interceptions in his four full years as a starter. He got better each season and fell one game short of likely leading Nevada to a BCS bowl game.
His measurables are just as appetizing as his stats. Kaepernick stands 6'5, weighs 233 pounds, runs the 40 yard dash in 4.53 seconds, and has a vertical leap of 32.5 inches.
I don't know if you can call Kaepernick a sleeper because he is probably going to be a high second-round pick, but if he is, I think he's going to make some quarterback-needy team drafting in the second round very happy.
5. Jake Locker: Washington
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Locker is an incredibly polarizing figure in this draft.
Many think Locker is destined for NFL stardom. They choose to look at things like his size at 6'3 and 231 pounds, the fact that he had a 4.50-second 40-yard dash time, and the lack of talent around him at Washington.
There are probably more who think Locker has been overrated since he began playing college football and that the NFL won't be any more different.
That group chooses to focus on things like his relatively low completion percentage (around 55 percent), a relatively high number of interceptions (53 in his career), his high sack totals given his speed (74 in his career), and his injury troubles.
There is truth in both. There's no doubt that Locker has the athletic gifts to be successful, to which his speed and 35-inch vertical leap attest. His gutty performance in a Holiday Bowl victory over a seemingly superior Nebraska team seems to show that he is a natural leader as well.
You also have to consider that Locker never really reached the level many thought he would. He was brought in with much fanfare. Many thought that he would lead the Huskies to heights they hadn't seen in a decade or more.
He just never quite got there. He weathered an 0-11 season and ended his career by helping the team win a bowl game. Strides in the right direction certainly, but you would expect more from a supposed once-in-a-lifetime player like Locker.
One thing is for sure about Locker. One team will fall in love with his gifts and take him late in the first round or early in the second. What happens after he is selected is still very much up for debate.
4. Christian Ponder: Florida State
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Ponder is a quarterback who was lurking in the middle rounds of draft boards until the season ended. It was then that had put the lingering injuries concerns to rest and showed scouts that he is a much better athlete than most had him pegged.
Ponder's numbers were plenty good, but they don't exactly blow you away, either. Ponder never had more than 20 touchdowns in a season and he averaged about nine interceptions per season in his three seasons as a starter.
He did, however, complete a large percentage of his passes. As a junior, he completed 68,8 percent of them, as a matter of fact. For many, accuracy is the biggest indicator of future success as an NFL quarterback.
Ponder ranks in the top five in FSU history in passing yards, completions, total offense, touchdown passes, and completion percentage. Just as glaring, though, is what he failed to do in his career.
He never got FSU back to a BCS bowl game and never got them past the plateau that the program has hit over the last decade or so.
Of course, that's not all his fault, but like Locker at Washington, there was hope that he could carry the program to greater heights.
As I alluded to earlier, the NFL Combine numbers are what really made scouts drool. First, he showed that he was healed and healthy after missing some time last season with an arm injury.
Then he proceeded to run the 40-yard dash in 4.63 seconds and jump 34 inches in the vertical leap drill.
Ponder was a solid college quarterback with the tools to become a great pro quarterback in the right scenario.
3. Ryan Mallett: Arkansas
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Mallett is this year's winner of the "Looks the Part Award." You can watch any five minutes of a game involving Ryan Mallett and you would walk away convinced that he is going to be a star.
The guy is downright statuesque. He stands 6'7 and weighs 253 pounds. He could also probably throw the ball through the goal posts while sitting down on the 50 yard line. That's the type of arm he has.
The numbers are staggering, also. After transferring in from Michigan once Rich Rodriguez took over as coach there, Mallett basically put in two and a half seasons as a starting quarterback at Arkansas. In that time, he piled up 8,388 passing yards and 69 touchdowns.
His 24 interceptions in that time are a little bothersome, but that number may be a little inflated by the fact that Arkansas threw the ball as much as almost anyone in the nation.
Accuracy is a big concern with any quarterback that has as strong an arm as Mallett. His completion percentage stats show that any concerns over that are overblown in his case.
His completion percentage rose every year at Arkansas and last season he completed 64.7 percent of his passes.
Playing against defenses in the SEC is as good a preparation as any, and Mallett will get his chance to prove it with some team drafting in the middle of the first round or a little later.
2. Cam Newton: Auburn
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Much like Jake Locker, Newton is a polarizing figure in this draft. Some of the polarization is for the same reasons as Locker, and some of it is for very different reasons.
Newton was the most dominant player in college football in 2010. He threw for over 2,800 yards and rushed for over 1,400. He had 30 passing touchdowns and 20 rushing touchdowns.
He did complete over 66 percent of his passes, but some are afraid his high completion percentage comes from throwing to receivers left wide open thanks to the threat of Newton running with the ball.
The argument is that the elite defensive athletes in the NFL won't have to sell out to stop Newton on the run, thus leaving them to worry about the pass exclusively.
Teams would also surely prefer he had more experience against top-level competition. He played sparingly in two seasons at Florida before playing a season at Blinn College. Having played his junior season at Auburn, he has only one season of significant playing time at the Division I level.
Then there is the off-the-field and character issues. Newton was kicked off the team at Florida for stealing a laptop and hiding the evidence. Then there is the pay-for-play scandal involving Newton, Mississippi State, and Auburn.
Newton, his family, and his advisers claim that Cam did not know that his dad was shopping him around to the highest bidder. Even so, that's a huge red flag on the kid.
Newton has all the physical tools to be a star. The question remains, though, about whether or not a team is going to want to possibly use a top five pick on a kid with so many character issues.
1. Blaine Gabbert: Missouri
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For my money, Gabbert is the best quarterback in the draft when you take everything into account.
He isn't the flashiest quarterback in the draft, he doesn't have the best stats in the draft, and his team didn't have the best results of all quarterbacks in the draft. All that being said, he is the complete package.
He has the best arm of anyone not named Ryan Mallett. He may not be as fast or as mobile as Kaepernick or Locker, but he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds. For a quarterback who did very little running, that's a great time.
The best part about Gabbert is that he comes with very few of the red flags (on-field or off) that many others in this draft do. He has the requisite size, the arm strength, the mobility, and the college success that a team wants to see. He also comes completely free of character issues or injury concerns.
Don't let me paint a picture that says that Gabbert is simply the safest pick and has little upside. The guy can play and made a career of lighting up scoreboards in the Big XII. In his Missouri career, Gabbert threw for 6.822 yards and 40 touchdowns.
Gabbert is all but guaranteed to go in the first five picks. I'm guessing either Newton or Gabbert will be off the board after the first pick to the Panthers. The one that doesn't getting taken there probably doesn't make it past the Bills, who are picking third.
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