Slimm's 2018 Quarterbacks (Underclassman) | Page 3 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Slimm's 2018 Quarterbacks (Underclassman)

Tanner Lee is at least a 4th round grade on talent alone. All I could find were 1 cut where he was overmatched against Temple and a highlight, but enough to see his outstanding arm talent.

Can't wait to watch him play after 1+ years of Mike Riley coaching with some actual talent around him.
 
I really like Stidham. Assuming injuries are not a persistent problem, which doesn't seem to be the case at this point, he has the combination of arm talent (strength, release, and accuracy) and feel for the position that moves the needle. 4/5-star recruit out of high school with a 6/1 TD/INT ratio, completed 69% of his passes, and averaged 11.6 YPA as a Freshman. While those stats are inflated because of the Big 12 competition, he was a Freshman, and he shows outstanding touch and accuracy downfield, can squeeze the ball into tight windows, and he generally moves well within the pocket. Every once in a while, he'd freeze up, but I'm not going to knock a Freshman too hard for that.

The sample size is very small at the college level, but he was great at Stephenville, and he projects as someone with the poise and maturity to handle the position. Without a huge year, he almost certainly returns for 2018, but I think a big year is likely.
 
Leaning towards Rosen > Allen. Think he's more accurate and processes better. Didn't like him all that much at 1st view.

1. Darnold
2a. Rosen
2b. Allen
 
Allen and the pokes were a lot of fun to watch last year. At times he makes throws that make you say wow, but he also makes throws that make you scratch your head. At times I think he's receivers bailed him out of some questionable throws. Brian Hill was relied on heavily last year as well. I had hoped Miami would have drafted him in the later rounds but Atlanta took him in the 5th round I believe. Either way I will be watching Allen closely. He is compared to Rothlisberger a lot by the commentators here in Wyoming.
 
No real difference for me at the top between Josh Allen and Sam Darnold but I've come to appreciate Clayton Thorson quite a bit, think when all is said and done he could push for 1st round status, or at least be considered in group with like a Luke Falk, Riley Ferguson, and perhaps Baker Mayfield.
 
Well that one was an easy decision for me personally, after evaluating all my information. I came away with the conclusion that Kuechly was more likely to be a great player. My gut wasn't sold on Ryan Tannehill being a great quarterback.

If I don't feel good about a kid's mechanics, mental processing, character, poise, and overall gut feeling at the quarterback position...I don't issue a 1st round grade. I have to believe that a guy has what it takes to be a franchise caliber quarterback, or I can't take him in the 1st round. Whether it's the 8th pick, 15th pick, or 30th pick. I'll instead select a player I feel can be a great player at another position in the 1st round.

What other reason could you justify using a 1st round pick on a QB if you're not sold he's franchise caliber? It makes no sense to me otherwise. You can get something other than franchise caliber at the QB position elsewhere. I don't come away sold on quarterbacks to that extent very often. Because they don't come around very often.

I'll say this though, where Tannehill has impressed me is with his resiliency. He's put in the work to become a much better player than he was.

What's interesting is that he began to make most of those improvements after the first quarter of the season last year....directly after I commented in this forum regarding how he needed to be more prepared to deal with pressure and to just play the game. Let his natural ability do some of the work instead of relying on every play to be executed exactly as it's drawn up.

Adam Gase is trying to get him to take that a step further now. He'll have to in order to ever have a truly great season. Tannehill's work ethic, dedication, toughness, and ability to remain so coachable are why he has a chance to be successful as an NFL quarterback.

The guy that makes me think a lot of Ryan Tannehill that could potentially be in this draft (likely not though) is Nick Fitzgerald. He's raw, raw, raw, but he also has the best quarterback developer in college coaching him in Dan Mullen. I've heard some great things about him in fall camp so far. He has taken to his leadership role this year. This kid can really run and is really athletic, but there is a lot of untapped potential as a passer.
 
Well shoot. Here y'all are talking about Tanner Lee for a month. Thought he was a senior.

Junior in terms of eligibility. He has 2 years to play 2.

He was granted a waiver by the NCAA after sitting out last year due to NCAA transfer rules, having already burned his redshirt at Tulane.
 
Do you guys see Lamar being a 1st rounder?

It wouldn't surprise me to see Miami draft him, even tho I don't like him
 
Do you guys see Lamar being a 1st rounder?

It wouldn't surprise me to see Miami draft him, even tho I don't like him

I can definitely see him being a 1st round pick. But I couldn't see myself drafting him in the 1st round.

Anyone can be a 1st rounder if Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder, E.J. Manuel, Manziel, Robert Griffin, and Tebow can. But it obviously doesn't mean they should be. All it takes is one team to like you enough.

We haven't seen how much Lamar Jackson has developed as a passer from last season yet, but I know he had a ways to go in my opinion to become a 1st rounder.

What I like about him is that he's such a ridiculous athlete. Just insane acceleration and quickness. I view him as an athlete capable of actually playing a different position and having a chance to be successful at it. But I'm not sure it would be at quarterback at the next level.

Like I said, need to see where he's at in terms of reading coverages and if his mechanics have improved since last year to gauge where he's at in his development.
 
Do you guys see Lamar being a 1st rounder?

It wouldn't surprise me to see Miami draft him, even tho I don't like him

It would surprise me greatly to see Adam Gase draft Lamar Jackson.

Gase is a...traditionalist...at the quarterback position. He gets that from Mike Martz, who I would say is probably Gase's primary mentor when it comes to calling offense. I'd say his second biggest mentor was Josh McDaniels.

It's true that Adam Gase once helped Tim Tebow play decently well and even win a playoff game. But Gase never would've chosen Tebow.

Lamar Jackson can throw the ball, don't get me wrong. He's got some accuracy. But very little of what he does throwing into those big windows translates to what Adam Gase wants to run. Lamar would have to get an offense customized for him, and the concern I would personally have about doing that is the fact Lamar has the frame of a wide receiver. I don't think he can take the punishment. I didn't think Robert Griffin could, either.

Cam Newton was special because of how huge and strong he was, you had to figure an NFL coach with an open mind could actually customize an offense to his strengths, and Newton could run it without getting crushed like an empty Coke can, because he's just that big and strong.
 
I'll just mention Chase Litton real quick. I'm glad he's on Slimm's list.

As I've been saying since he was a high school junior playing at Wharton just down the road from me, he's an NFL talent. Tall, nice arm, good stroke, won the "Golden Gun" award at the Atlanta southeast regional Elite 11 competition or something like that. He has body movement skills, standout basketball player, etc. I believe he led his Team Tampa 7-on-7 team to an IMG National Championship title. I mean, pretty damn good.

But it became clear as he went through the recruiting process (and also got caught boosting stuff from peoples' trunks at a country club, despite what seems to be a pretty well-to-do background) that he had a lot of maturing he needed to do. Grades have been an issue, like I said he even got into legal trouble, he made enemies among recruiters, there was some sort of bad blood that ended up developing between he and the USF coaches and even some of his fellow recruits, etc.

He ended up at Marshall. His true freshman year started off magically, as he ended up taking the reins from Michael Birdsong (who had transferred from JMU specifically to be handed a starting job on an FCS team), and then had this ridiculous game against Norfolk State. But then the defenses got better, they started to catch onto his habits, he seemed mediocre the rest of the year albeit good for a true freshman which is what he was. He led his team to 10 wins and a bowl game. That's good.

And last year again he plays against the likes of a Morgan State, throws SIX touchdowns in that game (in only 16 attempts). He follows it up with this incredible first QUARTER against Akron where he goes 6 of 11 for 113 yards and 3 TDs. And he basically only played the first half against Morgan State, so at one point you were looking at a kid that had played 3 quarters of football and gone 19 of 27 for 422 yards, 9 TDs and 0 INTs.

The problem is it went STEEPLY down hill from there. He goes 212 of 344 for 2190 yards, 15 TDs, 9 INTs the rest of the way. That's like an 84 passer rating at a program that generally has very good passing, throwing to some NFL caliber players like Deon-Tay McManus and especially Michael Clark who is doing well on the Packers. Ryan Yurachek is an NFL prospect at tight end.

The image you had was of a kid that fell in love with his own magical ride and got lazy. His decision-making certainly seemed to fit that narrative. He kept trying to force the big play, didn't seem mentally prepared.

It came off like a typical sophomore slump, even though I didn't necessarily think he had the kind of freshman year that for example guys like Andrew Luck and Sam Darnold have had. But that 2015 was an impressive run as he came to camp basically the fourth string guy, then beat guys one by one until he became the backup to the planned starter Birdsong, and then when Birdsong took a minor injury, Litton took the job from him and never let go, rattled off 7 straight wins, beat UConn in the bowl game, finished 9-2, etc. So I guess 2016 could be viewed like a sophomore letdown year.

This year he's supposedly up to 230 lbs and from pictures, he kind of looks beefy like he really has put on the weight. Doc Holliday tends to be a straight shooter, he tends to be pretty sparing with his praise IMO and in fact some of the frustration with Litton in the past revolved around the fact you could kind of tell Holliday was so-so on Chase's total ethic and maturity level. It wasn't the way Holliday used to gush about Rakeem Cato. But this year Holliday has said that Litton's approach has been kind of night and day. Litton attended a Manning Camp as a counselor along with guys like Kenny Hill, Lamar Jackson, Sam Darnold, Tanner Lee, etc.

Will continue to watch and monitor. I'm not going to inflate his NFL prospects based on my having followed him for a while. He's got all the ingredients but it still hasn't turned into a cake.
 
Let's say for arguments sake, What would you do if you were the Dolphins GM and you landed the #1 pick in 2018? For me, it be hard to pass up talents like those 2 QBs. I'd take the QB and try to trade Tannehill.

I think you take one of the quarterbacks. Tannehill is solid and still could move his game up a notch, but he is coming off a big injury and is viewed by many as maybe a tad above average.

I get this sneaky suspicion that Miami will take a quarterback pretty early in this draft. Most likely a developmental guy, but someone with upside who can challenge Tannehill and serve as a reliable backup.
 
Back
Top Bottom