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I don’t know where this started, but it’s a foolish narrative as far as I’m concerned.
I keep reading that Mike Maccagnan likes tall quarterbacks with big arms.
First off, I’m not sure where this came from. I’ve never heard him say anything like this.
Secondly, the first two quarterbacks he picked fall into this category, and clearly the team isn’t enamored of either, and seems prepared to move on from both with Josh McCown, Teddy Bridgewater and a QB likely with the third pick of the draft.
So why would be get caught up in a prototype, especially one that didn’t work out for him with his first two QB picks?
The reason I’m getting into his is because the Jets met with Baker Mayfield yesterday.
Some people have theorized that you can’t pick a QB who is 6-foot 5/8 with the third pick of the draft. I think that is ridiculous.
If you were to redraft the 2012 Selection Meetings, Russell Wilson, all 5-foot-10 and five-eighths of an inch of him, he would be a Top Five pick. He went in the third round.
In the 2001 draft, the San Diego Chargers picked Purdue QB Drew Brees in the second round. The reason he slipped was his height (6-0). In a re-draft, he’s a Top Five pick.
Last year, Case Keenum had a excellent season for the Minnesota Vikings, leading them to the NFC Championship game. He threw 22 TD’s and 7 picks. He recently signed a 2-year, $36 million contract with the Denver Broncos with $25 million guaranteed. I looked back at his official height from the 2012 combine. It was 72.63 inches, In other words, 6-foot 6/8, just a modicum taller than Mayfield.
So he’s basically the same size as Mayfield.
My point is simple. If the Jets think Mayfield has the goods to be their franchise QB, they can’t get caught up in stereotypes, or how it would look to pick a “short” QB that high in the draft.
Because honestly, when it comes to NFL quarterbacks, they don’t throw over offensive linemen, they throw into throwing lanes.
And being 6-5, or 6-6, doesn’t help you read defenses better.
Or even 6-7, like Denver’s Paxton Lynch. The Broncos picked him in the first-round of the 2016 draft out of Memphis. It hasn’t worked out great so far. If it had, they wouldn’t have signed Keenum.
What’s the problem? I asked long-time Denver sportscaster Troy Renck, and he said, “When he looks across the line it’s a fog.”
In other words, he struggles reading defenses, a huge problem for so many quarterbacks, young and old, short and tall. Height doesn’t necessary help you see the field better.
Height doesn’t help you read complicated NFL defenses.
The Jets’ new offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates knows that. Not just because he is a long-time QB guru, but because he was 5-11 QB, first at Tennessee, and then at Rice. Now he didn’t play a ton, but he knows, not just as a long-time QB coach, but as a guy who played the position, the height thing can be overrated.
Hey, in a perfect world, you’d love a guy like Peyton Manning (6-5) or Tom Brady (6-4), who are tall and can read defenses on a high level.
But those kind of guys don’t grow on trees.
Forget the “prototype” stuff.
Can the guy do it or not?
April 10, 2018
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