NFL Draft: Quarterbacks That Will Get a Coach and GM Fired Part 1

I want you to understand something before I start just crapping all over these two guys. I have no investment in their failure. It’s just the opposite. I’d love nothing more than to be wrong and have both of them be worth first round picks, be consistent All-Pros and take their respective teams to the Super Bowl as long as those teams aren’t the New England Patriots or San Francisco 49ers.

I’ve written it before and I’m sure I will again through this process; There are 32 NFL Franchises in the league. There are not 32 NFL Franchise quarterbacks on planet earth. So this is not me hating or suggesting these guys shouldn’t be drafted. Far from it.

The problem I see happening is expectations, as potential (and probably sure) first round picks will be too high and these young men (as far as I can see in my analysis) will not reach them.

Consider Blaine Gabbert. The Gabster has had a solid career as a backup. He’s got a losing record as a starter, as you’d expect, but his talent level and coachability have kept him in the league now 10 seasons after he just recently re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to back up some guy named…checking notes… Todd Blakely. Sometimes it’s hard to read my own writing.

If Gabbert had been a third or fourth round pick, this would be a great career. Coming into this season he’d pocketed $20 million dollars losing games and toting clipboards and Microsoft Surface tablets. No one would have any issue with Gabbert at all.

But he wasn’t a fourth round pick. He was a first rounder, specifically taken at No. 10 overall in 2011. And because of that, in spite of keeping a job in the NFL for a decade, he’s considered hot garbage. He’s the name every Colin Kaepernick advocate tosses around when he signs and Kaepernick is out of a job in spite of the fact that Gabbert beat Kaepernick out for the starting 49ers QB job not once, but twice under two different head coaching regimes.

If these guys were evaluated properly, based on their actual performances and game film, they’d be second/third and fifth round picks. They won’t be. By all accounts both these guys will be selected in the first round and I feel like that’s going to be a disaster for both, and cost some coaches and general managers their jobs.

1. JUSTIN HERBERT, OREGON

2019: 66.8 completion percentage, 3,471 yards, 32 touchdowns, six interceptions, 50 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, 6-6, 237 pounds

Where he’ll probably be picked: No. 6 overall, Los Angeles Chargers

Where he should be picked: Mid second round, by the Chargers

So what don’t I like about Herbert? Again, he’s fine if you select him in the right spot and maybe there’s a chance he’ll turn into something. What you can’t do is take this dude No. 6 overall right after Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa and expect him to be in the same league as those two guys when he wasn’t, not even for a game or single play, last year in college football.

We continue our look at Herbert in Part 2.

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