By John McMullen
One game matters.
To illustrate my point, I give you Brady Quinn and JaMarcus Rusell
Quinn was the consensus No. 1 pick in the 2007 NFL Draft before the LSU Tigers faced his Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Sugar Bowl.
Russell? A junior with a strong arm projected to be a first day pick if he declared. (That’s a third rounder for those of you uninitiated with draft speak.).
Today, Quinn has fallen -- albeit not too far -- and Russell has been a shooting star, the new presumptive No. 1 with a ticket to the Bay Area in sight. When you consider how much money NFL teams pour into scouting, it’s really stupefying that an organization could possibly change its draft boards to such a degree after just one game. But, that‘s exactly what happened all around the league.
Why?
Sure, the Tigers trounced the Irish but it wasn’t all that hard to figure out why -- LSU had vastly superior speed on both sides of the ball. Quinn certainly didn’t forget how to be an NFL quarterback in one night, his receivers couldn’t get separation and his offensive line was whiffing against better athletes.
“When you look at a senior, people start to beat them up a little bit more easily than they can the juniors who only come out January 15th,” NFL Network's lead draft analyst Mike Maycock said in a recent conference call. “Brady Quinn hasn't thrown the football since the bowl game. The bowl game was a tough game for Notre Dame.”
So with that one tough game, Quinn went from sure fire hit to a free-fall and Mayock for one is isn’t quite sure why.
“I mean, to me Brady Quinn is still the same quarterback I watched as a junior, and he's still a franchise-type quarterback,” Mayock said. “All those perceptions don't really get to me because I can sit down with the game tape.”
Of course, Mayock still gushes over Russell like everyone else. “From a physical skill set perspective, I've never seen a college quarterback with more ability than JaMarcus Russell,” Mayock raved. “You put the tape on and it's frightening. He's 6-foot-6, 260 pounds. He can make every throw. He's got better touch than you would expect. He's got a pretty good feel for the game for a guy that hasn't had all that many snaps.”
So why wasn’t Russell a sure fire star on January 2?
The questions with JaMarcus Russell are going to come up on the work ethic side and how much the guy loves football or doesn't love football,” said Mayock.
And there you have it -- we just might be witnessing the sequel to Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf.
“At the top end of that NFL Draft, you're playing guys $10, $15, $20 million guaranteed top,” Mayock said. “If you miss at the top end, you can set your franchise back three to five years, especially with a franchise quarterback. As we get closer, the scrutiny on JaMarcus Russell will increase, especially off the field. So how much does the guy love football? How hard is he willing to work? Really that's what Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders have to decide.”
In every draft -- history is the ultimate judge.
The Raiders have about six weeks to figure out which side of history they want to be on.
John appears on this page every Saturday. You can contact him at jmcmullen@phanaticmag.com
4 comments:
I keep reading about how one game should not determine whether B.Quinn or J.Russell should be the number one pick. But it is not just one game that proves J.Russ is a better QB than Quinn.
For Quinn, it's the Ohio State game in last year's Fiesta Bowl, it's the Michigan game this year, it's the USC game, and it's the LSU game. Quinn has struggled against good defenses, even when the ND had the superior talent: he struggled against Georgia Tech, he struggled against Mich State, he struggled against UCLA.
J.Russ on the other hand has consistently shown that when the game is on the line, he can win. In his first college game ever against Oregon State, he came into the game in the 3rd qtr with LSU down 9-0 and threw a TD on his 3rd possession and in the 4th qtr with LSU down 15-7 he threw a TD on the last possession of the game and rushed for the 2 pt conversion to tie the game and take it into OT. He did it again in the 4th qtr against Iowa in the 2004 Capital One Bowl, he did it against Arizona State after Hurrican Katrina, he did it against Alabama the 3rd ranked team in the NCAA, he did it this year against Tenn, against Ole Miss...
It's not about one game, it is about both players' body of work. And J.Russ's body of work is superior to Quinn's.
You just made my point, partially. Quinn is a much better quarterback. Russel was behind a good O-Line, Quinn was not. Russel had a good running game behind him. Quinn had an inconsistent one. Look who Quinn had his "bad" games against this year: 3 BCS teams. Against GT and MSU, he only strugled for one half. His recievers also dropped a ton of balls this year.
How did Russel do against Auburn this year? He lead his team to a 7-3 loss. His great games you listed were not against top programs like USC, Michigan, and Ohio State either
Everybody keeps talking about Russel's arm strength; that he can throw the ball 80 yards down the field. When does a QB in the NFL have time to drop back, wait for his recievers to run 70 yards or so, and then throw the ball; except for the hail mary throw at the end of the game?...never! Quinn has a hell of an arm too, good enough to get the long throws where they have to go.
People keep forgetting that football is a team sport, and when you have a team with as much weaknesses as ND had, it's hard for a QB to win every big game he plays in. Quinn has nothing to do with a game when his defense gives up 40 points. In every big game they have scored at least 14 points if not more...and against top teams, that is pretty decent, in my mind.
So everybody can jump on the Russel bus, I don't even want Brady to go to the Raiders, they will make him look terrible (good luck Russel), I'm just asking for a little more respect given in the direction of Quinn
Not to rain on your Big 10 parade, but I think we saw in the bowl games which conference was stronger. JRuss didn't lose the Auburn game, it was taken out of his hands by Jimbo Fisher who chose to run the ball that day. There were the 2 overruled P.I. calls in the endzone committed by Auburn, that you can clearly see that the replay official blew the call. I can also argue that at the end of the year Auburn was as good as Ohio St. and Michigan. I'm not saying that teams in the Big 10 are bad but I am saying that Ohio State and Michigan would have been 4th and 5th in our conference. Florida, LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas were in my opinion better. My personal feeling is that Wisconsin was the best team in the Big 10 this year. Hope this gives you pleasure to read, but I'm a homer, and LSU is where the heart is....GEAUX TIGERS.
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