Mariota or Winston?

Who DOES get drafted first?
Who SHOULD get drafted first?
Who WILL make the better pro QB?

Any and all #HotTakes welcome.

 

Neither excites me. I think Mariota could succeed in the right system, but I don't think that system is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers unless Lovie makes a big hire at OC, which I know he's trying to.

Winston has too much baggage to be taken first, unless he just tears it up at his pro day, and I don't think that would be enough.

I laughed out loud when I saw Mariota compared to Kaepernick on the CBS draft site.

 

Mariota hasn't thrown many interceptions, which is a point in his favor. Winston has the more conventional quarterback physique and maybe a stronger arm. Will either be the next Rodgers or Luck? I dunno. Are they better than what half a dozen teams trotted out under center this season? Almost surely yes. But nowadays, if you're not as good as Tom Brady, the consensus of outside opinion is that you stink.

 

For young QB's the baseline is Andrew Luck. Neither are close.

 

I don't know that I would hold every young QB up to Luck, because they would all fail pretty miserably. I don't think either Mariota or Winston are seen as pocket passers. Both have NFL size, but if they can't be pocket passers, at best they're going to be Russell Wilson, but probably not because it's a big assumption to think either would be as coachable as Wilson. If I was a team and I saw a Kaepernick comparison, I would stay the fuck away with a top 5 pick.

 

Why isn't Winston considered a pocket passer?

 

Winston is completely a pocket passer and is known as such. In fact that's the big difference between them and why most teams rank him higher.

I think he'll go number one. There will be protests, but it's going to be from a group of people not inclined to like or watch football a whole lot anyway, and as we saw with FSU the sycophants outweigh the moralists anyway.

 

Mariota is more of a passer than people think. Saw a Stat the other day that he ran less in his career than Manziel did in his short stint at A&M. His biggest problem is that he'll have to learn a pro-style offense, and that is the type of projection most teams get wrong.

On a related note, it doesn't get much worse for a young QB than going to a team coached by Lovie Smith or Ken Whisenhunt.

 

Yup. Manziel rushed 201 times as a freshman and 144 as a sophomore. Mariota had 106 rushing attempts two years ago, 96 last year, 125 this year. Winston rushed 88 times last year, 57 this year.

 

The bigger issue is that I don't believe Mariota has ever taken a snap under center even one time. As RG3 showed, that footwork can be a bitch. However, Mariota doesn't seem like he's going to half-ass it and want to own the place the way RG3 does.

 

That's interesting. I had been hearing for months that Lovie was in love with the idea of drafting Winston, but lately it seems like everyone is talking about Mariota. I'll be curious how much the "knucklehead factor" plays in with teams steering clear of Winston.

 

"Winston's off-the-field issues will result in him being drafted in the 5th round. If that." -- Someone here, eventually