Senior Bowl 2012: Can 28-Year-Old Brandon Weeden Be a First-Round Draft Pick?

Oklahoma State quarterback Brandon Weeden has been a standout at this year's Senior Bowl practices and he's likely to have an excellent showing in Saturday's game.

The Sporting News' Russ Lande said that Weeden has been the best quarterback of the week and other draft experts agree. However, Weeden is 28 years old, and his age might be the biggest drawback for teams that would otherwise be willing to draft him in the first round.

Weeden entered Oklahoma State in 2007 after a five-year Major League Baseball career. The former professional pitcher redshirted his first year and played just one game in 2008.

He took over the starting job in 2010 and completed 66.9 percent of his passes for 4,277 yards, 34 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. Weeden was even better in 2011, with a 72.3 completion percentage and 4,727 passing yards for 37 scores and 13 picks.

Now that he's looking leaps and bounds better and more pro-ready than his fellow Senior Bowl quarterbacks, he has more than a good chance of attracting first-round attention from a number of NFL teams who need a starter with his skill set.

That pitching background certainly has played a part in Weeden having a strong arm and a high degree of accuracy. Those are things that are hard to teach a quarterback if he comes into the league without them; generally, teams just have to sit back and hope these things improve.

Weeden has practically every attribute to make him worthy of earning a starting job in his rookie season. He's no Andrew Luck or Robert Griffin III, to be sure, but there's certainly going to be more than just those two quarterbacks taken in the first round and Weeden deserves to be third one drafted.

Weeden will be 32 years old when his rookie contract is up, and that fact is likely giving interested teams a pause when considering using their valuable first-round pick on him. However, they shouldn't let his age determine his value.

It's not as though Weeden will magically transform into a pumpkin once he turns 32.

Though it's presumptuous to say that he will be able to play at a high level into his late 30s, there's little reason that his age should be considered a drawback if his talent is far greater than the other remaining quarterbacks in the draft.

If Weeden plays as well in the Senior Bowl as he's looked in practices this week, a team would be well-served to use their first-round pick on him. Age is but a number, after all, and teams should be far more concerned about a player's level of skill and talent than how old he is.