Mike Mayock is one of the more respected NFL draft analysts in the business. Rotoworld does a great job following his rankings and they recently compiled his top-5 prospects at every position.
Quarterbacks
1. Blaine Gabbert, Missouri
2. Jake Locker, Washington
3. Cam Newton, Auburn
4. Ryan Mallett, Arkansas
5. Andy Dalton, TCUComments: Mayock says he’s not done with his quarterback evaluation, but he’s made some changes since January. He’s now got Dalton alone in the five spot after the Horned Frogs’ four-year starter previously shared the position with Ricky Stanzi, Colin Kaepernick, and Pat Devlin. Devlin’s stock appears to have plummeted since a poor showing at the East-West Shrine Game. Senior Bowl MVP Christian Ponder remains absent from the list.
Check out the rest of his positional rankings.
It’ll be interesting to see if Newton eventually moves past Locker (or even Gabbert, for that matter) the closer we get to the draft. Locker was unimpressive during Senior Bowl week and Newton’s personal media workout on Thursday was reportedly “phenomenal.”
Of course, the quarterback in this year’s class that intrigues me the most is Mallett. At 6’6” and 238 pounds, he certainly has the size to be a NFL quarterback. He also has great arm strength and he’s coming off a year in which he threw for 3,869 yards and 32 touchdowns.
The question regarding Mallett has always been whether or not he can perform in big games. He led Arkansas to an impressive 10-2 record this year but he lost to Alabama, Auburn and Ohio State (in the Sugar Bowl) – arguably the Razorbacks’ three biggest games. Granted, he did beat LSU at the end of the year and won in South Carolina, but those victories probably weren’t enough to shake doubts of whether or not he can play under pressure.
But again, the young man has all the physical tools to succeed. The fact that he ran a spread offense while in college wouldn’t scare me either because in Bobby Petrino’s “power spread,” the running game is emphasized just as much as the passing game. He could be a perfect fit for the Jaguars, who mostly stick with the run because of Maurice Jones-Drew, but who have an offensive coordinator in Dirk Koetter who prefers to throw. (See his work at Arizona State as proof of that.)
Maybe Mallett could take over for David Garrard in a year.
