Content available exclusively for subscribers
The Jets are going to work out Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson. What can be glean from this news?
Well it’s pretty apparent the Jets are going to draft a quarterback. If they don’t add one in the first round, it will likely will happen shortly thereafter.
Grayson could go as high as the second round, but more likely in the third or fourth.
And while experts surmise that Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota are head-and-shoulders above all other quarterbacks in this draft, it’s hard to discern that.
With all due respect to the draftniks who surmise this, there is no way they can say this with any certainty.
Just like they couldn’t accurately predict, as many did, that Robert Griffin III was a much better prospect than Russell Wilson and Nick Foles in the 2012 draft. Wilson and Foles went in the third round.
How’d that prediction work out?
Not only were draftniks wrong, but many teams were as well.
So while this isn’t a mainstream opinion, there is no way I can sit here today and say that Winston and Mariota are going to turn into better NFL quarterback than Grayson, Bryce Petty and so forth.
People can say I’m crazy for saying that, but nobody knows – nobody has a crystal ball.
We will know in two, three, four years.
The transition from college QB to NFL QB is huge, even for a player like Winston, who came out of more of a pro-style offense than Mariota.
So the Jets working out Grayson and Petty makes a lot sense.
“We’re all competing to be the (No.) 1 guy,” Grayson said.
Grayson’s an interesting prospect, a player who helped turn around the fortunes of Colorado State, a program that had been struggling.
He has a lot of moxie.
“I’m a guy that (will) come in right away, work his butt off, is never going to give up,” Grayson said. “As cliché as it sounds – first guy in last guy to leave.”
That last sentence is so important at the quarterback position in the NFL. The team’s quarterback needs to be the hardest working player on the team – 12, 13 hour days the norm during the season.
Grayson does have experience in a pro-style offense during his college career.
“We were pro style, we became a little bit more spread my senior year,” Grayson said. “But we were basically as much pro style as you could get my sophomore, junior years and as I said, transitioned to a little more spread my senior year.’’
Grayson thinks that time in a pro-offense gives him an advantage that guys who were just in spreads (like Mariota and Petty).
“I think, (the time in a pro offense) gives me a leg up in this draft,” Grayson said. “Seeing the guys that play in the spread, all the verbiage they’re going to have to learn to get used to, protections, everything, I’m used to it. It’s something that definitely benefits me.’’
April 14, 2015
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.