QB T.J. Yates, North Carolina

[justdev7]

Wow, I don't see either one of those guys with anywhere near the potential of Kaepernick, surely not physically.

Kapernick physically is up there with Gabbert and Mallet in terms of arm strength and he's up there with Newton and Locker in terms of athleticism. It's everything else that nobody is sure about.

 

[clashcityrocker]

Mallett is the only guy I wouldn't bother trying this paired strategy with. It would be a waste. He's not mature enough to handle it properly. He could care less what little late round pick T.J. Yates does that he doesn't do so well, he's the hot shot 1st round pick, the franchise quarterback. I'd be surprised if he got along with Yates at all. He's had issues with teammates in Arkansas. He's had issues with coaches in Arkansas.

Newton and Gabbert are team guys. They don't play the game selfishly the way Mallett does, they don't act selfish off the field, they work hard and they don't question their coaches. You could pair either one of those guys with T.J. Yates and they'd learn something. Newton absolutely throws with touch, better touch than Ryan Mallett, generally speaking. He also has arm strength that is nearly as good, if not just as good. Guys with good arms are guys with good arms. The difference between a Jamarcus Russell arm and a Michael Vick arm is not exactly the difference between a championship and a playoff berth. Arm strength tends to be a "You must be this high to ride this ride" issue, if you've got enough then it's not going to matter if you're Joe Flacco or Matt Ryan...it all comes down to your other attributes. Newton, Gabbert and Locker all have pro arm strength, more than enough.

CK, now that you've had a chance to get a better read on Ryan Mallett, I was wondering what your take was regarding this issue? Do you think it might be a good strategy now to grab Mallett and Yates, with the idea of Yates pressing Mallett, competition, fostering a more studious approach by Mallett, etc? Or are Mallett's perceived character concerns to much of a drawback in that scenario?

 

[ckparrothead]

I still do not believe pairing a Ryan Mallett with a T.J. Yates would be a beneficial strategy. Ot at least, it would be more beneficial to Yates than to Mallett. I said before, I'll say it again, Ryan Mallett may be a very successful pro and in fact I fully believe he will be one otherwise I wouldn't have a 1st round grade on him, but there are a lot of times he plays the game selfishly, and even though his interviews tend not to bother me, they do tend to bother a LOT of people, and so I find a high degree of likelihood that if you pair a 1st round Mallett with a 6th round Yates, for instance, then Mallett is just not going to see Yates as competition at all, and there's a chance it could even affect him adversely. If the coaches try and play one off the other, trying to use the competition to foster better play out of both, I could see the strategy just resulting in bad will between Mallett and the coaches.

I think you do have to be careful what situation you put Ryan Malllett in. He could accept competition at the position, but I think in his heart he'd only accept it in a positive manner if he feels like the guy he's competing with is very talented, and/or very established, etc. You try and have him compete with the equivalent of a Draft cellar dweller, the more effort you make to convince him that he's competing, I think the more upset he'd get that you're trying to manipulate him...because that's what it is, when you claim that a guy that actually has zero shot at the job is competing with a guy that everyone knows is going to get the job, it's blatant manipulation on the part of the coaches...and some egos don't take kindly to that. And no, it doesn't mean that the guy that doesn't like being manipulated that way is a bad franchise starting QB.

I think that he came to Michigan behind Chad Henne, who'd brought the team to the National Championship as a freshman, and was extremely well established. My sense is that worked out fine. That could be ignorance, I don't know what their relationship was actually like, I just get the sense that there were no problems there. The problems came when Rich-Rod came aboard and wanted change the system to one that Mallett was not going to be successful in. That's my perception, and it could be wrong. What I'm trying to say is, because of that history between Henne and Mallett, if it's true that Mallett had respect for Henne back then, then if he comes to the Miami Dolphins now and the coaches are having him "compete" with Chad Henne, I could see Ryan Mallett buying into that. I don't see him dismissing it or assuming it's the coaches trying to manipulate him or anything like that. I could see him thinking OK this is Chad Henne, we've been here before, he's established, he may have had a bad year in 2010 but he showed them some things in 2009 that got them excited and he was the guy that led the team when I joined on at Michigan, I gotta beat this guy.