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Fascinating prospect . . .
This is absolutely remarkable reporting. For a reporter to find out how a meeting went with a draft prospect is as good as it gets. This is very, very rare. Usually teams don’t reveal this kind of stuff.
“A little green-and-white birdie told me that Jets were impressed with Mayfield when they met with the Heisman Trophy winner on Thursday morning in Mobile, Ala,” wrote Manish Mehta of the Daily News.
I tip my hat to the Daily News reporter for getting this kind of info. This is reporting on the highest level.
And if somebody from the Jets did talk to him about that meeting, they should be fired or suspended.
It could have come from an agent, maybe Todd’s agent, so the Jets obviously can’t do anything about that. But would an agent qualify as a “green-and-white birdie?” The answer to that is “no.” If a writer describes an agent as a Jets source, they are misrepresenting the source. I’m not saying the writer did this, but if any writer does that, they are misleading the public.
What was my take on Mayfield at the Senior Bowl?
My take is that if he’s there at six, the Jets should take him.
But I say this with one caveat: The team’s security chief Robert “Bobby” Mastroddi would need to check off on the pick.
In other words, he needs to be thoroughly vetted from a character-standpoint.
On February 25, 2017, Mayfield was arrested in Arkansas and charged with public intoxication, disorderly conduct, fleeing and resisting arrest.
Mastroddi needs to determine if the player is a character risk and if he has a drinking problem. Somebody, who attended a award’s event that Mayfield was at, said he saw the player drinking at that event. Look, I’m not saying there is a drinking issue here, but Bobby needs to look into it.
A guy like Mastroddi, who worked for the NYPD for 20 years, and was former NY Governor George Pataki’s security chief in NYC, has the resources to find out a lot more about this guy than your average Joe.
If Mastroddi checks off on the player, I would take him at six.
I came away from Mobile awfully impressed with this quarterback – his accuracy and decision-making in practice were excellent, and keep in mind he was playing with receivers and tight ends he never played with before, which presents a major accuracy challenge. So to be this accurate in practices, shows you what rare accuracy this guy has. Remember, in both his junior and senior seasons at Oklahoma, he competed 71 percent of his passes. That is superb, and keep in mind Oklahoma plays a very hard schedule. He wasn’t playing against crème puffs.
I saw Mayfield manipulating safeties with his eyes and head movements, something you don’t see a lot from young quarterbacks.
The Jets had two young quarterbacks on their roster the last two years with accuracy issues, so they need to learn from this teachable moment – it’s almost impossible to fix accuracy. Usually, it’s something you have or you don’t.
So whatever quarterback the Jets pick in this draft, he better be an accurate cat.
And Mayfield is that.
I know that there are no two players truly alike, but at a little over 6-0, with great accuracy and good decision-making ability, watching Mayfield all week on the practice field, certainly conjured up images of Drew Brees.
But once again, if Mastroddi red-flags this player, the Jets should stay away.
January 29, 2017
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