MU's Gabbert Goes Pro/Year of the QB-- NFL Draft Thread 11

Hatred? Anyone who gets emotional over discussions on an Internet message board should probably get a life.

Anyway:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/writers/dr_z/04/20/zimmerman.draftmemories/index.html

"SI.com: Any good picks you remember being wrong about?

Dr. Z: Dan Marino. I relied very heavily on NFL superscouts in those days, particularly when it involved the QB position. The reviews on Marino were mixed, but the guy I talked to most often (No, I won't name him ... why flog a retired scout?) was the most negative. So in my ESPN analysis I used his opinion as my own and mentioned that "Marino's techniques are wrong ... he pushes the ball."

The result was that Marino didn't talk to me for five years or so, and every time I saw Don Shula he went bonkers. "A pusher, huh? A pusher! What do you think of my pusher now? Big quarterback expert, huh?" and on and on. I mean, this lasted for years."

 

I've seen more "prototypical" NFL qbs fail miserably than I can count - they had the size, the arm, the mobility - but they didn't win.
Elway and Manning might be two of the few examples of that kind of guy panning out.
Montana, Marino, Brady, Warner, Brees, Tarkenton, and Favre were all passed on in favor of better prospects at some point in their careers.

 

Some of the guys who played in the USFL before coming to the NFL were "prototype" guys. Steve Young and Jim Kelly just to name two.

Aikman was a prototype guy.

But, you make a very good point, for every Aikman and Elway there are a Tim Couch, Heath Shuler, Rick Mirer...

 

Luck can afford to stay out a year.

 

Luck doesn't need the money. I still think the only way he stays is if Harbaugh stays. If that happens, I hope the Niners hire an interim coach and go 0-16.

 

1981 380-226-2876-37-23
1982 378-221-2432-17-23

Hey, if the teams said they were scared off by a terrible 1982 (thanks, Foge), thought he was going to the USFL, had some drug info on him or anything like that, I would understand.

But to say that his throwing motion or form was poor, well Shula had good reason to grill them for that.

 

I thought the story on Marino was that he tested positive for steroids/coke when he was at Pitt.

 

Mallett reminds me of Kerry Collins: tall, huge arm, happy feet.

 

That's what I always understood as well (coke not roids, though). To give the excuse that it was his mechanics throwing the football is pure horseshit.

 

Lots of people succeed with mechanics you would not teach.

 

Exactly. Brett Favre is the classic example of this.

 

yeah, i did many, many pieces in my day on the 'class of '83' qb bonanza -- marino was the SIXTH of six first-round qbs; SIXTH!! -- and it was all about the anal-retentive scouts/gm's seeking reasons for dan's poor senior season. and the rumors he was a cokehead partying animal was the primary excuse.

obviously, elway, marino and kelly should've been the first three qb's taken. incredibly, after elway went first, todd freakin' blackledge was the second (k.c., 7th overall), then kelly (14th to the bills), tony eason (15th to the pats), ken o'brien (24th to the jets), then finally marino 27th to the fish... insane how the division-rival bills, patriots and jets gift-wrapped marino for shula.

almost 28 years later it's still impossible to comprehend...

oh, and i don't recall anyone taking issue with dan's mechanics. if any scout filed a report questioning his mechanics, that scout should never have been sent to check out a qb again. ... maybe some teams (the jets among them) claimed marino's knee was too risky as an excuse. but it was primarily the coke/character issue, which grew more intense as he fell. un-freakin'-believable.