After reading your Draft Winds articles this year, I get the impression based off your research that you would be comfortable taking at least 4 QB's at number #15.(assuming you like Gabbert). Would it be fair to say that this is actually a really good/great QB class based off your scouting reports of Ponder, Newton, and now Mallett?
I ask this question becuase i hold TEDSLIMMS opionion in high regard. I have heard him say many times that Mallett is his only 1st round grade QB in this draft. I know all scouts are different but what are the chances that all 4 of these QB's not making it to pick 15?
That's really the bottom line. At first I thought there were only two 1st round caliber quarterbacks in this Draft. As I said above, I had some wrong ideas about Ryan Mallett's handling of pressure that became evident as I went along, and plus it helps you be more comfortable with a so-called "bad character" guy when you see a rapist and dog killer leading their teams in the playoffs, Super Bowl, getting congratulatory phone calls from President Obama, etc.
I still kind of had Christian Ponder in limbo because I loved him coming out of 2009, but was disappointed in his injury-riddled 2010. As we got on, I became more comfortable with him and have added him as a fourth guy I would be comfortable taking at #15.
I have been saying since 2009 that this 2011 quarterbacks class would be a good one. That hasn't changed for me. It's a unique class because of how varied it is, and how all of the guys come at you from different angles to where most people are guaranteed to love two of them and hate four of them, or something like that...but everyone loves a different two and hates a different four, if that makes sense. There are definitely six guys in this Draft with very good to elite starting talent, in the physical sense...whether it be a combination of size, athleticism and big arm (Newton, Gabbert, Kaepernick, Locker), or a guy like Mallett who combines elite size and elite arm talent, or a guy like Ponder who has as elite athletic ability as you're going to get outside of Michael Vick, to go along with a good arm and a lot of versatility to his game.
I mean you take the mile high view of this group, don't get caught up (yet) in the nitty gritty details, you don't often find a combination of six quarterbacks in a Draft class that present this way on the football field with these unique gifts. You have seven guys rated in the top three rounds right now by services like NFL Draft Scout, five of them (Gabbert, Newton, Mallett, Kaepernick, Locker) have HUGE arms...not just good arms but huge ones. Five of them won at least 10 games this year. Four of them are 6'5" or above. Five of them run better than a 4.63 in the 40 yard dash, and three of them run better than a 4.56. Seriously, you don't often see the kind of physical talent that the top of this quarterbacks class boasts.