Who are the quarterbacks who’ll matter in the 2019 NFL Draft, and what’s the college perspective on all of the top prospects?
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After too much speculation, too much evaluation, and way, way, way too much talking, here are your answers.
From the college perspective, here are the top quarterbacks in your 2019 NFL Draft, starting with the ones who’ll be in the mix, and then diving into the five who’ll actually matter over the next ten years of the pro football world.
15. Easton Stick, North Dakota State
6-1, 224: He’s nowhere near the talent of the NFL guy that former North Dakota State Bison star Carson Wentz was/is, but he’s a big-time baller who finds a way to get the job done … in college.
His skills and talent don’t necessarily translate to the next level – he doesn’t have the arm, and despite his lack of high-end wheels, he’s more effective as a runner. He’s worth a flier, but there are way too many missing parts.
Projected Round: Sixth Round
14. Nick Fitzgerald, Mississippi State
6-5, 230: It all depends on what you want the guy to do. If you want him to be your Day One starting quarterback, he’s a hard pass in the draft. Accuracy and consistency are big concerns, and he all but needs to start over when it comes to learning how to throw a forward pass. However, he’s got ideal size, can run, and for a creative offensive coordinator, there’s something to work with.
If you like what New Orleans has done with Taysom Hill, take that up a few notches with what you can do with Fitzgerald. Get him in, use him in a variety of ways – including as a receiver – and in three years of development, he could be a lottery ticket that pays off big.
Projected Round: Fifth Round
13. Brett Rypien, Boise State
6-2, 210: There’s a whole lot missing. He’s not all that big, he doesn’t have a live arm, and he’ll never be a power pitcher, but he’s a veteran who played at a high level – playing the better teams were never a problem – for four years.
He’ll never be a strong starter who can carry an NFL team for long periods of time, but he can be a terrific midrange thrower with the accuracy and make-up to step in at the ready as a reliable No. 2 guy.
Projected Round: Sixth Round
12. Jordan Ta’amu, Ole Miss
6-3, 221: Here’s the problem. The guy had DK Metcalf, AJ Brown, and DaMarkus Lodge to throw to, and the Ole Miss offense still stalled way too often. However, he’s a good-sized bomber with a next-level arm who can be careful with the ball and not make too many big mistakes.
It’s a bit alarming that he couldn’t do anything against the great LSU, Mississippi State or Alabama defenses of last year – outside of one big early play against the Tide – but the tools are there to work with in a camp. There’s enough upside to eventually grow into a reliable backup.
Projected Round: Free Agent
11. Gardner Minshew, Washington State
6-1, 225: Before he ends up as a high-end college football coach, the former East Carolina Pirate-turned-Washington State Cougar isn’t all that big, doesn’t have a big-time arm, and isn’t the type of franchise quarterback who can take a team to a title over a full season.
Give him a system to run, and he can go full Nick Foles and step in for a few games and keep a campaign alive. He’s the guy that coaches want on the team, he’s accurate and can run a quick-hitting passing game, and he’ll be fantastic in practices – he’ll be an impossible guy to cut.
Projected Round: Sixth Round
10. Clayton Thorson, Northwestern
6-4, 225: Ehhhhhhhh, he’s fine. He could be a low-end starter, but he’s not a long term solution to a quarterback problem. The problem with having Thorson will be that he’s just good enough make a team think that he’s the answer, but he falls into the Just A Guy category.
With that said, he’s got the right size, he throws a nice ball, and unlike about at least ten other guys on this list, he’s got starting talent and will be around the league for the next ten years.
Projected Round: Fourth Round
9. Kyle Shurmur, Vanderbilt
6-4, 230: If you’re looking for your pet project guy, here he is. Shurmur has terrific NFL size, found a way to survive playing in the SEC without a whole lot of next-level talents around him, and he’s got the NFL pedigree as the son of New York Giant head man Pat Shurmur.
No, he doesn’t have the huge arm for his size, but he’s an accurate short-range NFL passer who knows what he’s doing. He’ll never be a field-stretcher, and he’ll never come up with an Aaron Rodgers-like laser-beam in tight coverage, but don’t be stunned if he turns into a terrific backup who can Nick Mullens his way into a decent run at some point.
Projected Round: Sixth Round
8. Jarrett Stidham, Auburn
6-2, 218: There’s so much there to like, but he didn’t show it off nearly enough. He’s got good enough size, and the basic tools are all there – including a fantastic arm and decent mobility – but he never busted out like he should’ve. Last year was when he was supposed to take his game to a whole other level, and outside of a nice late stretch in the win over Texas A&M, he couldn’t turn it loose.
To be fair, the Auburn O line was an issue, but he didn’t make the players around him better. On the plus side, he could be a whale of a mid-round steal in an awful quarterback class. Let someone else pay retail for the top five guys. In terms of talent, Stidham could be in the top three on this list.
Projected Round: Fourth Round
7. Tyree Jackson, Buffalo
6-7, 249: This type of pick never seems to work. Whether it’s Cardale Jones, or JaMarcus Russell, or Christian Hackenberg, or Logan Thomas, or Ryan Mallett, or Brock Osweiler, sometimes it’s easy to fall in love with the jaw-dropping tools. Big, huge arm, all the dream NFL skills that just need some coaching and tweaking to put all together, and … nah. But you don’t want to be the team that misses out if and when that type of guy really can put it all together.
Jackson is wildly inaccurate and inconsistent, and he trusts his arm way too much, but he can move, and he can make throws that no one else in this draft class can dare dream possible.
Projected Round: Fourth Round
6. Daniel Jones, Duke
6-5, 220: The problem with Jones is the same as it is with Northwestern’s Clayton Thorson – only at a steeper price. Yeah, he can absolutely play, and yeah, he can be an NFL starter. But is he the type of quarterback who’ll win you a Super Bowl because you have him? Nah, but he can be a good piece of a great team that’s got everything else in place.
Some team is going to take him in the first round because of his size, mind, and polished mid-range game, but what are you going to do, play him? In a league with so much high-end quarterback talent, you’re going to hitch your wagon to a moderately accurate passer with decent tools in the first round? Love him in the third, hard pass in the first.
Projected Round: First Round
5. Will Grier, West Virginia
6-3, 215: Okay, okay, there’s a lot not to like.
He doesn’t have a cannon for an arm, he needs some rebooting of his mechanics, and last season he showed a strange penchant for giving the ball away/taking a sack at weird times. But he’s got a beautiful touch on his deep passes, he’s got the right personality for an NFL locker room, and he’s a gamer’s gamer.
To go way too vague, some quarterbacks just play the part of an NFL starter. Russell Wilson sort of fits that category – there were things missing in his game and style, but he just had it. That’s Grier.
There are plenty of ways to knock him, and if you’re looking for reasons not to take him, they’re definitely there. Get him in the right system, though, and he’s going to turn out to be a terrific value get in a lousy overall quarterback class.
Projected Round: Third Round
Real Value: Mid-2nd Round
NEXT: All he does is throw like an NFL quarterback …
4. Ryan Finley, NC State
6-4, 213: The first three quarterbacks will come off the board, and Daniel Jones will be there in the mix – if not one of those first three – and then someone will have their guy waiting right there.
Whatever team takes Finley will say all along that he was their No. 1 guy, because all teams say that about their pick. But in this instance, that might actually be true. There are enough knocks on the other top quarterbacks in this draft that Finley might just be the top guy for some offensive coordinator and head coach who just want a rock-solid stand-up double of a quarterback draft pick.
Finley has been through the wars, and he’s been able to adapt and adjust to what was needed. As a junior, it was his job to act as the conductor of an offense loaded with weapons – and not screw things up to let the great defense do its job. He hit 65% of his throws with just six picks.
Last year, the offense was all on his shoulders to run, and he carried the team – there wasn’t any running game to rely on – with close to 4,000 yards while pushing the ball down the field more.
He’s an NFL-skilled passer who isn’t going to be a Pro Bowl talent on just any team, but he can certainly be a functional starter who could blossom into a statistical star in the right system.
No, it’s not going to happen, and he’s certainly not TB12, but this is the guy New England should in its bullpen for 2021.
Projected Round: Second Round
Real Value: Second Round
NEXT: Try to blow off the Jay Cutler comps …
3. Drew Lock, Missouri
6-4, 228: The arm, the arm, the arm.
Try to blow off the Jay Cutler comps in terms of his physical appearance, and try to focus on the Cutler-like arm and athleticism.
Players with his size, arm strength, and passing resume are rare. Best of all, he proved he could adapt and adjust, going from the high-end, warp-speed passing game under former offensive coordinator Josh Heupel, to the controlled progression-reading under Derek Dooley last year.
He can push the ball deep, he can carry the offense by himself, and he has all the prerequisite tools. There’s one giant problem, though … he’s just not accurate enough.
To be fair, he improved under Dooley, going from a 58% passer as a junior to hitting 63% of his throws last year, but Florida game aside, he struggled way too much against the big boys, couldn’t close out Kentucky last season, and was a bit too inconsistent.
But the arm …
Projected Round: First Round
Real Value: Second Round
NEXT: Trying to break the mold …
2. Kyler Murray, Oklahoma
5-10, 207: Be honest … what’s your goal here?
Is he the next Andrew Luck or Cam Newton? Obviously, he’s not that big – and those two former No. 1 overall picks are athletic, too.
Is he the next Russell Wilson or Drew Brees? He’s smaller than those two, and both of them had big bodies of work in college – Murray only got it done for one year – and those two are anomalies considering the last few decades of Super Bowl quarterbacks.
But Brees wasn’t Brees right away – he was the last pick in the 2001 first round for San Diego – and Wilson was a flier for a Seattle team that banked on Matt Flynn being the main man.
Is he the next Baker Mayfield? It’s only been one okay season, and Mayfield’s biggest asset is being Baker Mayfield – Murray doesn’t have the type of personality that can instantly energize a franchise.
Of course Murray is a deadly-accurate passer beyond just the Lincoln Riley Oklahoma system, and of course he’s a superior winner – starting from his historic days as an all-timer Texas high school star – and of course he can start in the NFL. But look at what you’re asking for.
If he’s a No. 1 overall pick – especially in a year with so many unbelievably talented defensive prospects – then he has to be the guy who wins a team a Super Bowl because he’s just that good, and he has to be the guy who gives the team a shot each and every time out for at least ten years.
So what’s your goal here? Are you hoping for a transcendent talent who takes over the league? Okay … if you think that might be Murray, then you make your call and go for it, but you’re banking EVERYTHING on a 5-10, 207-pound guy to be able to last 16+ games.
And who had one really good season.
So blow off the size issue for now. The arm strength is unquestionably good enough, the unteachable accuracy is ingrained, there’s no bust factor outside of the injury concerns for a guy his size – he’s NOT Johnny Manziel – and you don’t win like this guy did without having something special that’s missing from most quarterbacks.
A whole lot of very smart, very good offensive minds swear that he’s the real deal and is just that sort of talent worthy of making the franchise guy. In terms of value and risk, though, this is one of the biggest calls in NFL Draft history.
Projected Round: Top Five Overall
Real Value: Second Round
NEXT: Go big or go home …
1. Dwayne Haskins, Ohio State
6-3, 231: There’s something funky happening. Whether it’s misinformation, or NFL insider guys going with anything handed to them, the world seems to have soured a bit on Haskins.
Of course, that normally means someone is sandbagging in the desperate hope of him falling down a few notches, but there are enough negatives to be a wee bit worried.
He only did it for one year at Ohio State – ask Chicago how long it took for Mitchell Trubisky to get up to speed in the game rep category after a limited college career.
He can’t move, he’s got a few mechanical issues to work on – the motion has to be more compact and efficient – and he’s going to go through at least one year of getting his butt handed to him – think Sam Darnold – before getting to the other side.
All that pales in comparison to his upside. He’s big, has a live arm, is a gamer, and turned into something special at a school that cranked out a whole lot of productive college quarterbacks.
The tools are all in place, and he’s got the makeup to take his lumps for a while to get better and better throughout the process.
More than anything else, he’s the contrast in styles in this draft next to the smallish, explosive Kyler Murray.
Yeah, there’s more bust potential with Haskins than there is with Murray. But remembering that Tom Brady, Jared Goff, Nick Foles, Matt Ryan, Peyton Manning, Cam Newton, Joe Flacco, and Eli Manning are among the most recent quarterbacks in the Super Bowl – with Russell Wilson thrown in there, too – the big bombers still rule the NFL.
Projected Round: Top Ten Overall
Real Value: Top Ten Overall
2018 NFL Draft Prospects
RBs | WRs | TEs | OGs | OTs
DTs | DEs | LBs | Safs | CBs
