Christian Ponder's arm strength center stage at Florida State's pro day

[hoops]

so its safe to say ck that you would have a medical red flag next to christian ponders name on your draft board???

 

[ckparrothead]

no question qb is the bigger need than rb for us...by far...but i'm asking myself this question...is christian ponder a better pro than mark ingram??? i'm having a hard time wrapping myself around that one...real hard time

i mean lets say ponder is penny with a stronger arm just for exercise purposes and ingrams emmitt smith all over again...who do you think is the guy teams would covet/regret passing up most???

i know what my answer is...

Ponder doesn't need to be a better QB than Ingram is a RB, in order to be far more valuable than Ingram to your NFL team and its ability to win games.

 

[ckparrothead]

so its safe to say ck that you would have a medical red flag next to christian ponders name on your draft board???

Absolutely but the nature of the medical red flag needs to be considered. It's not a "he has a bad shoulder" or "he has a bad elbow". It's that he's suffered a myriad different kind of injuries including cracked ribs, separated shoulder, bruised elbow, torn fascia in the elbow, someone in here says he suffered a concussion at one point (I hadn't heard about it until now but I'm not discounting the possibility)...it's sort of like Ronnie Brown. Ronnie Brown never played a full year without getting hurt in college. In the pros, I think he's only played two full years without getting hurt, both were years where he shared a significant amount of his carries (1283 snaps to Ricky's 959, 414 runs to Ricky's 320). Everyone always excuses Ronnie's injuries as "freak" occurrences, but you add them all up and they're not. He's a very physical runner, a little upright, doesn't have great mental instincts or vision, and so hits come at him that he doesn't have as much mental warning as some other guys out there, he gets hurt in a lot of different ways. Ponder gets hurt in a lot of different ways.

The caveat is, Ponder's a quarterback while Ronnie's a running back. Christian isn't going to be asked to run the ball like he was in college, and the NFL believe it or not protects its quarterbacks way better than the NCAA in the pocket while they're passing. I see NCAA quarterbacks taking these vicious, often unnecessary blows all the time that I *know* would be flagged in the NFL. So there's some reason to believe he'll be a healthier pro than he was in college.

 

[Built2Win]

I know Henne bashing is in vogue, and I'm not trying to say the guy is all pro or anything, but that's a little ridiculous. There aren't 15 quarterbacks in this draft that would beat out Henne for a starting spot on the Dolphins.

ok maybe 15 Qb's was a little high
im going to to cut that figure in half at 7 quarterbacks in this draft
will be better than henne..

 

[ONole1]

Absolutely but the nature of the medical red flag needs to be considered. It's not a "he has a bad shoulder" or "he has a bad elbow". It's that he's suffered a myriad different kind of injuries including cracked ribs, separated shoulder, bruised elbow, torn fascia in the elbow, someone in here says he suffered a concussion at one point (I hadn't heard about it until now but I'm not discounting the possibility)...it's sort of like Ronnie Brown. Ronnie Brown never played a full year without getting hurt in college. In the pros, I think he's only played two full years without getting hurt, both were years where he shared a significant amount of his carries (1283 snaps to Ricky's 959, 414 runs to Ricky's 320). Everyone always excuses Ronnie's injuries as "freak" occurrences, but you add them all up and they're not. He's a very physical runner, a little upright, doesn't have great mental instincts or vision, and so hits come at him that he doesn't have as much mental warning as some other guys out there, he gets hurt in a lot of different ways. Ponder gets hurt in a lot of different ways.

The caveat is, Ponder's a quarterback while Ronnie's a running back. Christian isn't going to be asked to run the ball like he was in college, and the NFL believe it or not protects its quarterbacks way better than the NCAA in the pocket while they're passing. I see NCAA quarterbacks taking these vicious, often unnecessary blows all the time that I *know* would be flagged in the NFL. So there's some reason to believe he'll be a healthier pro than he was in college.

The concusion occured in the bowl game.

 

[2413fanphins]

Thats it right there. His pro-day was the one thing this offseason where his arm was completely healthy. And, coincidentally, he threw the better then he has in a year and a half. He looked like he justified everyones expectations people had for him before the 2010 season.

so in other words, people who may have not liked his last college season, or his combine, or the senior bowl... now need to forget all that cuz he dazzled on his proday...

the few short weeks from the combine was all his shoulder needed to get over the hump??? I don't know about all that... I just don't see taking him in the first, end of story.

 

[spydertl79]

Was just glancing over the National Football Posts draft stuff (what a great site). Wes Bunting has Ponder rated as the #1 QB, slightly ahead of Gabbert.

 

[Spesh]

so in other words, people who may have not liked his last college season, or his combine, or the senior bowl... now need to forget all that cuz he dazzled on his proday...

the few short weeks from the combine was all his shoulder needed to get over the hump??? I don't know about all that... I just don't see taking him in the first, end of story.

No one is stopping you from making inaccurate grades. If you feel the need to slam a man who won the senior bowl MVP with a bum arm, feel free.

Yet the proof is very, very visible. He threw with authority as a junior. He got injured and had surgery. When he recovered from the injury and surgery he threw with authority. This is no different then any other potential draft pick that gets injured. But if you want to keep kicking a long dead horse while everyone walks away from it, again, no one is stopping you.

 

[cyoung]

so in other words, people who may have not liked his last college season, or his combine, or the senior bowl... now need to forget all that cuz he dazzled on his proday...

the few short weeks from the combine was all his shoulder needed to get over the hump??? I don't know about all that... I just don't see taking him in the first, end of story.

Based on your comment here, you have showed that you are lacking knowledge on the topic. So, you either don't like him because of your lack of knowledge, or your dislike for the college he's coming from. I personally feel like the latter is the reason for many people on this boards dislike for him. There is no way that anybody can say he hasn't impressed with everything he has done and continues to do.

 

[RobertHorry]

Maybe if you're a girl or throw like one. At my age I can still sling a football 60-65 yards but it doesn't mean I'm accurate enough to hit a WR in stride while being covered by a DB.

So no, throwing a football 50 yards is not hard to do.

This is hilarious. You can sling the football 60-65 yards? I see. So you can throw it as far as Henne, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Colt Brennan and other NFL QBs? Because at the QB skills challenge, Flacco threw it 71, Henne threw it 67, Ryan threw it 62 and Colt Brennan threw it a legit 60 yards.

Hell Brees maxed out at 60-65 in the challenge. So you can throw it as far as Drew Brees?

Maybe throwing it as far as you can in your backyard is what you constitute as 50 yards, but throwing the ball a LEGIT 50 yards is not easy. Yet you can throw the ball 60-65. Outstanding arm you must have!

I'll use our own Chad Henne as an example. So your telling me you can throw it this distance as he does in the throw? Its 65-68 yards.

Hell I can throw 50 yards and I'm 15. I'm hardly the strongest I could be as well. But for an NFL QB you better be able to throw it 50 yards.

Do you guys honestly know what your talking about? I played a year of college football before I decided to focus on academics. Its not easy to throw the ball 50+ yards on the money. A 60 yard throw on the money is extremely difficult and throwing it 50 yards itself is hard as well.

[video=youtube;ZJmNn5aHN0U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJmNn5aHN0U[/video]


Or can you throw it this distance just as Matt Ryan does?

[video=youtube;KrhwC2Xy6tI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrhwC2Xy6tI[/video]

 

[Built2Win]

henne = rocket arm with a bird brain

Marino had the rocket arm and his brain wasn't so big either
the difference he had swagger and fire something u barely see in henne..

All that talk of u never see henne get too mad was looked AS A positive trait bullcrap!
Competitive fire is what lifts your game and those around you
it is where second wind is found and pride is born!

 

[HurriPhin]

This is hilarious. You can sling the football 60-65 yards? I see. So you can throw it as far as Henne, Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco, Colt Brennan and other NFL QBs? Because at the QB skills challenge, Flacco threw it 71, Henne threw it 67, Ryan threw it 62 and Colt Brennan threw it a legit 60 yards.

Hell Brees maxed out at 60-65 in the challenge. So you can throw it as far as Drew Brees?

Maybe throwing it as far as you can in your backyard is what you constitute as 50 yards, but throwing the ball a LEGIT 50 yards is not easy. Yet you can throw the ball 60-65. Outstanding arm you must have!

I'll use our own Chad Henne as an example. So your telling me you can throw it this distance as he does in the throw? Its 65-68 yards.



Do you guys honestly know what your talking about? I played a year of college football before I decided to focus on academics. Its not easy to throw the ball 50+ yards on the money. A 60 yard throw on the money is extremely difficult and throwing it 50 yards itself is hard as well...

Or can you throw it this distance just as Matt Ryan does...

Come on, is it really that hard to believe that there are some decent amateur athletes out here in internet land. So because I can toss a football 60-65 yards doesn't mean I can be a QB. I never said I could throw it on the money either. And at 6'2" I can also still dunk a basketball (which has won me some nice little side bets on the courts) but it doesn't mean I can play worth a lick. I was a qualifier multiple times for the AVP tour when I was younger so I have mad respect for professional athletes and their outstanding abilities. Just like certain athletic freaks perform well in the NFL combine doesn't mean they can translate their talent to the gridiron. A single athletic accomplishment doesn't mean anything towards being a proffesional athlete.

 

[Roonnette]

Ted Ginn and Chad Henne, Awesome bomb. We hadn't seen enough of those plays, and we've seen too much time management.

 

[spydertl79]

Ted Ginn and Chad Henne, Awesome bomb. We hadn't seen enough of those plays, and we've seen too much time management.

[video=youtube;B-Jar435rnc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Jar435rnc[/video]
Its too bad he has such a ****ty arm

 

[cyoung]

[video=youtube;B-Jar435rnc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Jar435rnc[/video]
Its too bad he has such a ****ty arm

Man, it would be nice to see that in a Dolphins uni. Nice velocity, good yardage, and right on the money....all while scrambling.