Hyped Prospect Mitch Leidner Far from Being a Future NFL Franchise QB

The definition of a franchise quarterback has changed over the years. Before the salary cap came to the NFL, teams were able to develop their rosters better, as they were able to establish schematic programs instead of haphazardly acquiring talent and hoping that their coaches could find a way for their personnel to mesh. Between the salary cap and the rule changes in the league over the last decade and a half, there has never been more of an emphasis on finding a quarterback.

Instead of building full rosters, teams now mortgage their futures for savior quarterbacks in the NFL draft, seemingly the only realistic way they can add talented passers in this era of professional football. Since the NFL is now a parity league, due to the salary cap and free agency, quicker and better results are demanded by owners, the media and fans. It's no longer odd if a staff gets fired after just one season with a franchise.

The writing is on the wall for any front office and coaching staff taking over a team: Find a quarterback or you're out. With cheaper rookie contracts under this collective bargaining agreement, finding a passer on a first deal is essentially a cheat code. All of this coming together means that the league has never been more thirsty for incoming quarterbacks, even though you rarely see developed "pro style" passers on Saturdays.

This is where the idea of franchise passers gets warped. It's no longer about who a prospect is or what he can do, but what he might be or might do. There is no better example of this in the projected 2017 draft class than Mitch Leidner of Minnesota.

Listed at 6'4" and 237 pounds by the Golden Gophers' official site, and just short of 6'4" and 236 pounds on NFL Draft Scout, the Big Ten passer checks off multiple boxes for coaches who like traditional passers. This is the start of the "what he could be" journey.

The first draft pundit to mention Leidner as a potential "sleeper" in the 2017 draft was Benjamin Allbright of CBS Sports in mid-March:

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Always try to give a QB to look for as a "sleeper" for the next class, last year that name was Carson Wentz. This year it's Mitch Leidner.

— Benjamin Allbright (@AllbrightNFL) March 19, 2016"

By the middle of May, ESPN's Mel Kiper, the biggest name in NFL draft coverage, had the Minnesota quarterback listed as his second overall senior prospect at the position. In a class which may only see one or two underclassmen declare, that's an incredibly important projection. Fanbases of teams who have ongoing quarterback controversies, like the Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers, now have Leidner on their radars, even though just a few months ago no one had considered the prospect a major domino in the draft.

There's reason for that. First, Minnesota isn't a major program in college football. Against Power Five teams, the Gophers were 2-7 in 2015, with wins over Illinois and Purdue, who went 2-7 and 1-8 against the Power Five respectively. Purdue's only win came against Illinois. It would be disingenuous to say that any Minnesota game was must-see television last season.

Second, Leidner didn't do anything statistically which made you think about highlighting him as a player to watch. In the Big Ten, hardly a quarterback conference, he finished sixth in the league in completion percentage, among ESPN's qualified players, behind the likes of Jake Rudock, C.J. Beathard, Chris Laviano, Joel Stave and Nate Sudfeld. In passing yards, he was seventh. In yards per attempt, he was ninth. In passing touchdowns, he was eighth. In quarterback rating, he was ninth.

By simply piecing together the information of his frame and statistics, you could have made an educated guess that his hype was built around his peaks as a passer and not his efficiency and polish. After going through a film study, you can confirm this is the exact case.

There's no doubt about his potential. When you watch Minnesota's 2015 broadcasts, you see his ability to zip a ball with tremendous arm strength over and over and over. When you see his Brett Favre-ish release, you quickly embrace the fact that he's going to be called a "gunslinger" over the next 11 months, despite the fact that Favre's wild play cost two different teams in NFC Championship Games later in his career. We're a generation removed from that player being the NFL's prototypical passer, outside of a short stint during Joe Flacco's Super Bowl run.

Leidner is an easy evaluation, as his strengths and weaknesses are very visible in the Gophers offense. He's a vertical thrower with up-and-down accuracy. Even when his targets are seemingly covered, he's going to throw them jump balls, which is how Christian Hackenberg, once considered a future first overall pick, gained draft momentum as a freshman at Penn State.

As a runner, Leidner is able-bodied, but he's a bit clunky. In terms of aesthetics, he's similar to Ben Roethlisberger and Blake Bortles, which will likely lead to him being compared to those two throughout the draft process. Unlike Roethlisberger, though, he's not a statue who can simply shrug off a pass-rusher like a pesky insect.

There are flashes when Leidner looks to have "it." There are plays when he might look off a zone defender, just to come back to a target. He also has shown the ability to go through quick, full-field reads when he's not just attacking deep secondaries.

Unfortunately, the amount of peaks he has are balanced out by the passer's valleys. He can't consistently miss on underneath passes like he did during his junior season. Another issue he has is with squeezing the ball too hard, a common problem with quarterbacks who have big hands, which leads to wobbly balls. That was an issue for Bortles coming out of Central Florida, too.

The Bortles comparison holds some weight and, because of the recency of his draft, will likely stick. The issues I have with tying their names together as the end-all, be-all are that Bortles was a year younger coming out of school, and he was much improved in his last year with the Knights.

Leidner is more like 2012 Bortles than 2013 Bortles, who led UCF to being the third mid-major program to make the Fiesta Bowl. Bortles started his electric junior season with a 90-plus-yard bomb on the second play of the team's season-opener against Akron. Even prior to his final year, he dominated certain games, like the team's bowl effort against the Ball State Cardinals in 2012. Leidner has yet to have that performance.

The Minnesota quarterback shouldn't be considered a game-changer, but a potential game-changer. Until he develops as a college player, it's reckless to crown him as a prized jewel in the coming draft class. If he does grow, though, expect vertical passing teams, like the Arizona Cardinals and New Orleans Saints, to be on him like white on rice.

In a thin quarterback class, some are jumping the gun on Leidner's chances to be a first-round pick, but the fact that it's not out of the question makes him a player to keep an eye on in 2016. As of now, he's a name you want to write in pencil on your watch lists, not in pen in your mock drafts.

He has the consistency and efficiency of an average Big Ten quarterback but the tools of an NFL starter. Until he can separate himself from the pack in a conference which hasn't had a first-round passer since Kerry Collins in 1995, you shouldn't label Leidner as a future first-round selection.