2012 NFL Draft Prospects: Ranking Andrew Luck and the Top 10 Quarterbacks

Danny FlynnJun 3, 2018

At this time last year, everyone around college football seemed to be busy building up Washington’s Jake Locker as the next great quarterback prospect.

As a consensus preseason favorite to be the No. 1 pick of the 2011 NFL draft, Locker had to deal with an enormous amount of pressure throughout his senior season and he inevitably failed to live up to the colossal expectations many people had for him.

Sure, Locker didn’t fall that far down the ladder, as he still ended up being a top-10 selection. But it just goes to show that no matter how great you think a quarterback will be, there are no guarantees in the sport of college football.

This year, it’s Stanford QB Andrew Luck’s turn to take a ride on the hot seat that proved to be much too warm for quarterbacks like Locker, Matt Leinart and Brady Quinn in past years.

Luck is now the it quarterback prospect in college football, and he’s the undisputed favorite to be next year’s top pick.

Only time will tell whether or not Andrew Luck can become one of the few who actually lives up to the hype, but one thing is for certain, Luck’s going to have his fair share of capable challengers who will be looking to take his title of college football's top quarterback.

Let’s have a look at some of the top eligible quarterback prospects for the 2012 NFL draft and see which players will be chasing Luck this season.

1. Andrew Luck, Stanford

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Anyone who says that there’s a quarterback in college football who is better than Andrew Luck is just trying too hard to be a controversial contrarian.

There’s nothing that we’ve seen so far that suggests that Luck isn’t the top quarterback in the country, and the margin between him and everyone else may not even be at its widest point yet.

The Stanford signal caller wowed onlookers in 2010 with how easy he made things look.

The 6’3’’, 235-pound junior displayed the combination of intelligence, pure skill and overall ability that you just don’t see very often.

Luck completed over 70 percent of his passes for over 3,300 yards and threw 32 scoring strikes, as he led the Cardinal to a 12-1 season and their first ever BCS bowl game victory.

The Carolina Panthers were set to make his dreams come true and take him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft, but surprisingly, Luck decided he had unfinished business at Stanford and opted to return to school for another year.

Luck now enters the 2011 season as college football’s chosen one.

A Heisman Trophy, a national title and the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft are all realistic goals for Luck, who could be the best quarterback prospect we’ve seen rise from the college ranks since the turn of the millennium.

2. Landry Jones, Oklahoma

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Oklahoma quarterbacks never used to be very highly thought of by NFL scouts, regardless of how successful they may have been in college.

Guys like Josh Heupel and Jason White both led their respective Sooners squads to national championships, earned Heisman buzz and put up big stats along the way, but that didn't stop them from falling into the draft's later rounds.

Sam Bradford has since changed the perception of Oklahoma quarterback prospects and it now looks like he’s opened the door for his replacement, Landry Jones, to follow in his footsteps and eventually become a first round draft pick in the near future.

Jones took a huge leap forward last year after struggling to find his footing as Bradford's last minute replacement in 2009.

The 6’4’’, 220-pound junior led the country with 405 completions, throwing for over 4,700 yards and 38 TDs on his way to guiding Oklahoma to a 12 win season, a Big 12 title and a victory in the Fiesta Bowl.

Jones will enter this season as the leader of the nearly unanimous preseason No. 1 ranked team, so it’s obvious that he’ll have his fair share of opportunities to shine this season.

The Oklahoma quarterback may play in a pass-heavy offense which certainly helps showcase his strengths while masking a few of his deficiencies.

There’s no doubt, though, that Jones has the real deal kind of skills to play at the next level, and if he can put up another monster season at Oklahoma in 2011, he’ll likely solidify himself as one of the top quarterbacks of the 2012 class if he decides to leave a year early.

3. Matt Barkley, USC

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It didn’t take very long for college football fans to take notice of Matt Barkley.

As soon as coach Pete Carroll announced that he was going to have a true freshman quarterback steer his mighty USC ship, you knew that Barkley had to be special.

There aren’t many young true freshman quarterbacks that can walk onto the USC campus and start from game one.

Just ask Matt Leinart, Mark Sanchez and John David Booty. They all had to wait their turn.

Not Barkley, though. The former 5-star recruit came in and made an immediate statement by beating a highly ranked Ohio State team in Columbus in just his second game as a starter.

Barkley’s breathtaking fourth quarter comeback in such hostile and pressure-packed conditions gave us all a little teaser of what was to come.

Although he’s battled the injury bug during his career, the 6’2’’, 220-pound junior has still managed to throw for over 2,700 yards in consecutive seasons.

Barkley may not have one tool or facet of his game that overwhelms evaluators, but the Trojan quarterback has all the traits you look for in an NFL quarterback.

If Barkley can lead USC back to national prominence this season, he should really carve out a name for himself as an upper echelon quarterback prospect.

4. Robert Griffin III, Baylor

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No one is quite sure yet what Baylor’s Robert Griffin III is going to be at the NFL level.

A quarterback, a running back, a wide receiver, maybe even a mix of all three?

Nobody's completely sure. The only thing we do know is that Griffin is one of the most dynamic athletes in all of college football and that he has somehow managed to finally put Baylor on the Big 12 map.

The 6’3’’, 215-pound dual threat speedster accounted for over 4,000 yards of total offense in 2010, carrying the Bears to a long-awaited winning season and their first bowl game since 1994.

Griffin, who completed 67 percent of his passes for over 3,500 yards last year, may not be your prototypical pro style passer, but he’s proven to be the type of game-changing playmaker who warrants serious interest as a developmental prospect.

It’s a little too early to start calling him the next Mike Vick, but it’s clear that Robert Griffin III is a special player who deserves the type of attention we reserve for only elite caliber college football players.

I'll say it now: Watch out for the Robert Griffin-Kendall Wright connection at Baylor this season.

It could get quite dangerous in a hurry.

5. Brandon Weeden, Oklahoma State

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Brandon Weeden must not have heard all the preseason prognosticators who picked Oklahoma State to finish in the basement of the Big 12 South last season.

In just his first year as a starter, Weeden guided the Cowboys to an 11 win season and earned himself First Team All-Big 12 honors.

The 6’4’’, 220-pound senior shined in Dana Holgorsen’s Air Raid attack, throwing for over 4,200 yards and 34 TDs.

The Weeden to Justin Blackmon passing combination quickly became one of the most feared in all of college football.

Now with Holgorsen gone, Weeden could see a slight reduction in his overall productivity, but he’s got Blackmon back and the type of team around him that should be able to contend for a conference crown.

The fact that Weeden will be 28 years old this season could certainly hurt his draft stock, but the big gunslinger has shown that he’s got the type of arm and poise to handle playing in the NFL, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him make a move up the boards similar to what Blaine Gabbert did in 2010.

6. Nick Foles, Arizona

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It’s easy to take one look at Arizona’s Nick Foles and say this guy’s got an NFL future ahead of him. It’s obvious that Foles has the perfect build to be a pro quarterback.

What’s not so obvious, however, is if Foles has the internal makeup to handle everything that comes along with leading an NFL offense.

The talent is there, that’s a given. But when you look back on the past two seasons of Foles’ career at Arizona, you see a quarterback who has had a tendency to implode when the going gets tough.

Last year, after pacing the Wildcats to a 5-1 start and showing so much promise, Foles returned from a midseason injury and the team proceeded to collapse, losing the last five games of the season.

The devastating fall overshadowed an otherwise respectable season, in which Foles threw for over 3,100 yards and 20 TDs.

If he wants to salvage his NFL stock, the 6’5’’, 240-pound senior has to figure out a way to keep his team winning with consistency.

Foles has as much raw ability as any quarterback in college football, now he just has to prove he can handle the spotlight and the pressure with more composure.

7. Ryan Lindley, San Diego State

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It’s a shame that coach Brady Hoke flew the coop to Ann Arbor, because I believe that if Hoke would have stayed, this San Diego State team could have been a real player in not just the Mountain West, but on the national scene as well.

Not only do the Aztecs return one of the best running backs in the nation in sophomore sensation Ronnie Hillman, they also have one of the top quarterbacks as well.

Ryan Lindley hasn’t received the same type of recognition as his new conference counterpart, Kellen Moore out of Boise State. But when it comes to who has more pro potential, it’s obvious that Lindley holds a distinct advantage.

At 6'4", Lindley has the build of a prototypical drop back passer and he’s also got the type of skill set that would fit in well with most of today’s NFL offenses.

The senior signal caller has thrown for over 6,800 yards and 51 TDs over the past two seasons, and he's shown that he has the type of arm to make every possible pass on the field.

Last year, Lindley helped the Aztecs offense finish in the top 20 in scoring offense, passing offense and total offense.

Since there’s such a pedestrian senior quarterback class this year, there is definitely room for players to really climb up the board and Ryan Lindley could be a prospect name that ends up getting real hot throughout the winter months.

8. Kirk Cousins, Michigan State

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Michigan State was one of the surprise teams of 2010, as the Spartans rose up from relative mediocrity to turn in an eye-opening 11-win campaign last season.

One of the keys to the team’s success was the play of QB Kirk Cousins.

Cousins may not have provided many highlight reel throws for the grind-it-out Michigan State offense, but he did his job, kept the major mistakes to a minimum and did the one most important thing you ask of your quarterback.

He won games.

The 6’3’’, 205-pound senior completed nearly 67 percent of his passes.and threw 20 touchdowns.

This year, Cousins will welcome back a slew of talented receivers such as B.J. Cunningham, Keith Nichol and Keshawn Martin, and he’ll also have the benefit of having one of the best running backs in the country, Edwin Baker, lining up behind him.

With a schedule that includes opponents like Notre Dame, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Nebraska, Cousins may find it difficult to replicate last year’s double digit win season.

But if he continues to develop as an all-around passer and keeps up his current pace of annual improvement, Cousins should catch the attention of NFL personnel folks during his final run in East Lansing.

9. Ryan Tannehill, Texas A&M

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At this point, it’s hard to say that Ryan Tannehill is a proven NFL quarterback prospect, considering Tannehill spent the first six games of the 2010 season playing wide receiver.

It’s those last six games, however, that truly gave us a good glimpse of what kind of winner and leader Tannehill really is.

Midway through the season, the Aggies were sitting at 3-3 with a quarterback, Jerrod Johnson, who looked like he was on the verge of sinking and dragging the team down with him.

Coach Mike Sherman knew a switch had to be made, so he threw Tannehill right into the mix and prayed for the best possible outcome.

His prayers were answered, as Tannehill proceeded to reel off six straight victories to finish the season, including wins over Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas.

The receiver convert completed 65 percent of his passes for over 1,600 yards and threw 13 TDs to just six INTs.

The 6'4" Tannehill will now be looking to lead a talented Texas A&M team to a Big 12 championship in his senior season, and hopefully show NFL scouts that he’s the type of quarterback who possesses the all-important winning gene.

10. Kellen Moore, Boise State

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Kellen Moore could be the Jimmer Fredette of college football.

Moore may not play at one of the true ‘big boy’ schools and he doesn’t have the type of raw talent to become a star in the pro ranks, yet you just can’t help but marvel at all that he’s accomplished at the collegiate level thus far in his career.

The senior quarterback is now 38-2 as a starter and he’s just eight victories shy of college football’s all-time wins record.

Sure, you can say that Moore is only six feet tall and therefore he won't be able to survive in the NFL. And yes, you can downgrade him for not playing against the best competition that college football has to offer.

When you watch Kellen Moore in a big game, though, it’s hard not to come away impressed.

Just ask Virginia Tech, Oregon, TCU, Utah, or Oregon State. They’ve all felt Moore’s wrath at one time or another.

The scary part is, Moore may not have even peaked yet as he's seemingly been getting better and improving each and every season.

In 2010, the fourth place Heisman finisher was nearly flawless, leading the country with a 182.6 passer rating and finishing the season with an astounding 35-6 TD to INT ratio.

When it comes down to it, there’s no quarterback in the country who prepares and consistently shows up on the big stage the way Kellen Moore does.

Moore may never be a starting quarterback in the NFL, but he’s the type of player you want on your sideline and in your locker room, and he’ll likely find a spot in the league as a reliable backup.