2012 NFL Draft: Is Justin Blackmon a Better Prospect Than Andrew Luck?

These days, the sports media has a way of singling out one college quarterback prospect every summer, and hyping him up to be the guy.

Jake Locker, Brady Quinn and Matt Leinart are just a few recent examples of this. And now it seems it’s time for Stanford’s Andrew Luck to take his seat on the mythical throne.

Luck, without a doubt, is the best quarterback prospect since Matt Ryan. In fact, he’s even a tier above Ryan, who was taken by the Atlanta Falcons with the third pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.

Luck is special and from everything we’ve seen thus far over the past two seasons, he’s got franchise quarterback written all over him.

He’s a Peyton Manning caliber prospect, who has all the tools and intangibles you look for in a young, developing quarterback.

He’s even proven he can win the big game, which is something everyone knocked Peyton for when he was at Tennessee.

The Stanford signal-caller has already universally been hailed as the future first pick of next year’s 2012 NFL Draft.

He’ right where Locker was a year ago.

Right where Leinart was in 2005.

And right where Peyton Manning was in 1997.

Luck’s s the guy. He’s the cover boy of college football.

Now we get to see if he can live up to the lofty status which the media has created for him.

We saw Locker buckle under the pressure this past season, as did Leinart. Both underperformed as seniors and failed to recapture the magic and the buzz they created for themselves as juniors.

Manning, on the other hand, managed to handle it, and he was rewarded with the crown of No. 1 overall pick of the 1998 Draft.

Luck could have fulfilled his destiny of becoming the top pick if he had decided to leave Stanford after his terrific performance in a blowout Orange Bowl victory last season. But Luck opted to stay in school for another year, breaking the Carolina Panthers’ heart and spawning heated debate about his return.

After leading the Cardinal to a 12-1 season and finishing second in the Heisman voting last year, Luck has hit the elite stride that few college quarterbacks ever reach.

The 6’4’’, 235-pound junior has all the momentum going in his favor, but as we’ve seen, sometimes that momentum can carry a heavy burden. 

It certainly won’t be easy for Luck to match the sensational season he had last year, and if there’s any sort of sign of regression, he’s going to hear some grumbling about his decision to come back.

Luck will enter the season as the No. 1 guy, but he’ll have plenty of worthy adversaries who will challenge his position.

One player in particular who could really give Luck a run for his money is Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon, one of the breakout stars of the 2010 season.

Before last year, if you had asked a college football fan, living outside the state Oklahoma, which team Justin Blackmon played for, they most likely would have responded with a ‘Who?’ But after Blackmon wowed onlookers and dominated the competition in 2010, he’s now got the eyes of the entire college football universe focused on him for the upcoming season.

Blackmon came out of nowhere to take the Big 12 by storm last season, hauling in 111 passes for over 1,700 yards, which earned him the Biletnikoff Award.

After putting together such an eye-opening campaign, the 6’1’’ 205-pound redshirt junior could have entered the 2011 NFL Draft and likely been a Top 20 pick, but instead, Blackmon opted to return to Stillwater for another year of making magic with QB Brandon Weeden.

It’s safe to say, Big 12 defensive backs wouldn’t have minded seeing him go.

Now it’s true, it’s rare that a wide receiver goes No. 1 overall in the draft, no matter how good they may be.

The last one to do it was Keyshawn Johnson back in 1996 and we’ve seen players like Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald and A.J. Green all get passed up for highly touted quarterback prospects.

Still, Blackmon might be right up there with the likes of those three, and if he can come up with a second consecutive monster season, who knows how high his stock could rise?

There have been questions posed concerning Blackmon’s timed speed, but if you’ve watched what he's capable of doing on the field and if you've seen the way he just flat out takes over games, it’s obvious that he’s the type of playmaker that NFL teams are looking for .

So will Blackmon ultimately be able to challenge Luck?

Only time will tell, but right now it looks like it’s shaping up to be an exciting battle to watch this season.