Jake Locker: What Does He Know That the Rest of Us Don't?

Some NFL draft experts have said that Jake Locker quite possibly could have been the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. If not taken No. 1, he surely would have been chosen in the top five.

Last I looked, that would mean millions of dollars for Locker.

Last year's No. 1 pick, quarterback Matthew Stafford, signed a six-year deal with the Detroit Lions for $72 million, with almost $42 million guaranteed.

That means that Stafford could pull a Ryan Leaf and still walk with $42 million!

Mark Sanchez, the fifth player taken in the draft and the second quarterback, signed a deal making him the highest-paid player in the history of the New York Jets. It pays Sanchez $50.5 million over five years with $28 million guaranteed.

Jake Locker may have just passed on $50 million to $75 million—with more than half of it guaranteed.

Surely some little birdie didn't land on his shoulder and say, "Hey, Jake, those NFL draft experts don't have a clue what they are talking about. You'll be lucky to go in the seventh round, let alone be a top five pick."

Did Husky head coach Steve Sarkisian tell Locker that if he stayed another year he would be the first player taken in the 2011 NFL Draft? That doesn't hold any water, because Jake might have been the first pick this year!

Locker also knows that next season the Huskies not only face a tough Pac-10 schedule but also face Syracuse, BYU, and Nebraska. They have a schedule that ranks among the toughest in college football.

Jake is clearly aware that the Huskies will return 10 of 11 starters on offense, including three potential All-Americans.

Not one person will tell you that Jake Locker lacks in his ability to absorb knowledge, analyze it, and make good decisions. He is far from being a dumb football player.

So, it's got to be that Jake knows something the rest of us don't know.

Could it be that Jake Locker knows better than the rest of us about how good a coach Steve Sarkisian really can be? After all, Sark didn't do too badly in his first year as a college head football coach, and will surely improve in 2010.

Does Locker know far more than we do just how much better a quarterback he will be next year, after being tutored for one more year by one of football’s best quarterback coaches?

Maybe Jake knows that Jermaine Kearse, Devin Aguilar, and James Johnson have only given us a tiny glimpse of how good they can and will be next year.

It could be that he knows much better than we do that Kavario Middleton has the talent to become a beast of a tight end in 2010.

Does Locker know better than us that Chris Polk could be one of the nation’s best running backs in 2010? Has he seen so much more of Polk in practice to know better than us that Polk could be an All-American next season?

Having played against his own Husky defense day in and day out, does Jake know more than we do about how much better defensive coordinator Nick Holt is going to have the Dawgs playing come next year?

Does Locker know much more about this year’s recruiting class and last year’s redshirts than we do? Does he know that there are more talented players in the bunch than have been reported?

Many times, in life and in sports, people make decisions that appear to be the wrong choices. Others decry those decisions, only to find out later that the person making the decision had a lot more information than others.

There is one thing I do know for sure—Jake Locker knows something we don't know.