My stipulations with Ponder would be "good accuracy" rather than "tremendous accuracy"...and I would point out that his decision-making was too simple and questionable at times. I like his athleticism, I like his leadership, his ability to make all the throws from any footing or platform, obviously his toughness, and he's smart as they come.
BUT, Bill Belichick and Chan Gailey have both explained that the most important traits in a QB are his inherent accuracy and his decision-making. I wouldn't say Ponder is "weak" in either category, but he's not superlative either. I like him as a 1st round guy, think he'll continue to ascend especially once his health problems settle down. He'll benefit from NFL coaching, getting into a more complicated NFL offense.
I'd draft Newton, Mallett and Gabbert over him though.
Incidentally Jon Gruden plans to do his Quarterback School segments again, they'll air April 21st. He's doing them with Ryan Mallett, Cam Newton, Blaine Gabbert, Jake Locker and Andy Dalton. No plans to do one with Christian Ponder or Colin Kaepernick.
Last year the segment he did with Jimmy Clausen really turned me off. It's not like it's something that is significant to a guy's draft grade or anything, I already didn't like how Jimmy came off in several other venues, but in the segment I thought he drew negatives. And then PFT started harping about it, and supposedly they've heard from teams that said it soured them on Jimmy Clausen as well. This will obviously be a big test for Ryan Mallett. I would say that I actually expect him to pass with flying colors but it seems like the media are really dead set on interpreting everything he does negatively. I mean, if I never knew anything of what the media thought about Ryan Mallett's Q&A segment at the Combine, never heard from them but I just watched it on video and had to write about it, I'd have written a glowing report about how Ryan Mallett was tested hard by the media and came out of smooth and smiley like a winter date at Rockefeller Center. And yet the press wrote things like "disastrous" and "off putting", "defensive", "stormed off", "cut the interview off early", etc. It was a farse.
