Terrelle Pryor and Cameron Newton Should Return For Their Senior Seasons

Back in August when I put out my 2011 NFL Draft: College Football Scouting Guide, I ranked Ohio State’s Terrelle Pryor and Auburn’s Cameron Newton No. 1 and No. 6 respectively among underclassmen quarterbacks.

The rankings were as follows.

1. Terrelle Pryor, Ohio State
2. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
3. Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
4. Andrew Luck, Stanford
5. Nick Foles, Arizona
6. Cam Newton, Auburn

I realize now that was a little ambitious of me to rank both so high and put them in the same company as more NFL ready quarterbacks such as Luck, Mallett, and Gabbert. But when I looked at both I saw two supreme athletes, who at 6‘6 250 pounds were nearly identical to each other in size and stature, that had the type of natural skills that you don’t see every day in your average dual threat quarterback.

These were two premier players who didn’t deserve to necessarily be written off because they didn’t fit the mold of a conventional NFL drop back passer.

At the time, all I had to go off of when judging Newton was hearsay and intrigue. You would hear whispers creeping up from Alabama that he was doing some special things during Auburn’s spring camp and that he had a world of potential. But he was still a shot in the dark at that point.

With Pryor, I had already seen those special things in big spots. Most notably with his performance in a Rose Bowl victory over Oregon.

This was a young man that had LeBron James type hype upon entering the college football world and with that came criticism and second guessing with every misstep of his early college career.

Maybe that “I like rooting for the guy everybody loves to knock” side of me came out a little too much and therefore I hyped Pryor up a little more than I should have. But that doesn’t change the fact that I think he and Newton can both make it as starting quarterbacks at the next level.

It is going to take time, patience, and proper development to make it happen though.

Right now both quarterbacks are at a stage where, for the most part, they’re still simply getting by on their superior athleticism. Especially Newton.

I think Pryor has the advantage of playing in a more conventional offense with more pro style reads, as opposed to Newton who plays in a Gus Malzahn system that can sometimes be characterized as gimmicky. Plus, Pryor has had nearly two full years to get his feet under him as a starter while Newton has had just eight games going up against top caliber defenses.

Up until now, neither has proved nor demonstrated that they have the passing prowess to handle going up against an NFL defense in the near future.

Pryor lacks the arm strength and zip on the ball that you want to see out of an NFL quarterback and he often times leads wide receivers instead of fitting his passes into tight windows. That's something we saw a lot of in the Wisconsin loss.

Newton, on the other hand, maybe one of the highest rated passers in the game at the moment and he does happen to have a stronger arm than Pryor. But don’t get too jazzed up by the numbers. The junior still has some strides to make as a passer before he can play quarterback at an NFL level.

There’s no doubt in my mind that barring some super-strong finish to the season by either, that both should return to college for their senior year and continue to develop as passers.

Especially with an NFL lockout looming on the horizon that could throw a major wrench into the 2011 NFL Draft as far as underclassmen looking to declare is concerned.

I doubt that the NFL Draft Advisory Committee would give either a first round grade at this stage. And while there is a good chance that with so many quarterback hungry NFL franchises out there that one if not both of them could be selected somewhere in the late first, early second round area, it doesn’t change the fact that they would still have to take the proper time to evolve into pro ready quarterbacks.

That means that once they take that time to gain confidence in their abilities, learn how to properly read defenses and digest all the nuances of the position that they can certainly be impact players in the NFL.

Heck, look at some of the quarterback play you’re seeing in the NFL right now. Sometimes it’s so bad it can hurt your eyes.

There is room for Terrelle Pryor and Cameron Newton in the NFL.

Yes, they need another year to continue to develop, but I read some of the critics who simply write them off and say they can’t throw, or that they're going to have to move to wide receiver, and it just seems so shortsighted to me.

These kids can play, and we’re only going to continue to see more players like them coming up through the ranks in the coming years.

So if we want to sit back and set up a specific framework and conventional rules of what an NFL quarterback has to be and not let things evolve over time, then we’re going to keep seeing the same mediocre and questionable quarterback play which plagues the league today.