When Sage Rosenfels is the most successful NFL quarterback to come from the Big 12 Conference in the past 15 years, one may begin to wonder why teams would use a draft pick, and especially a high one, on a quarterback from the Big 12. Yet most draft "experts" have not one, but two, Big 12 quarterbacks in their top 4 at that position, with Sam Bradford projected by many to be the first quarterback taken in the 2010 NFL Draft. This is the same Sam Bradford that padded his stats against weak Big 12 defenses for the past couple of years; that is, when he doesn't have his arm in a sling.
Do any of these names sound familier? Michael Bishop. Majoy Applewhite. Chris Simms. Josh Heupel. Eric Crouch. Seneca Wallace. Jason White. Vince Young. Josh Freeman. Brad Smith. Chase Daniel. Graham Harrell. Todd Reesing. These are the guys that were the best Big 12 quarterbacks from the past 15 years. Only 4 of them are current NFL quarterbacks: Simms, Wallace, Freeman, and Young.
Simms wasn't even the best QB on his college team yet rode daddy's coattails to the NFL where he has done nothing but acquire a career 69.1 QB rating and rupture his spleen.
Wallace has been in the league for 7 years as a mostly unheard-from back-up QB, and he's not a guy that is ever going to be the starting QB going into training camp.
Freeman is one of two Big 12 QBs that are starting QBs in the NFL, yet his sub-60 QB rating doesn't exactly make one think that he'll be a starting QB for much longer.
Young will probably turn out to be the best of these four, yet we still haven't seen a consistent and impressive season out of him. And for where Young was drafted (3rd overall), he has surely been a disappointment up until this point.
The Big 12 Conference hasn't really proven itself to be the springboard for great NFL quarterbacks like the Big 10 (4 2009 starting NFL QBs), PAC 10 (4), ACC (4), and SEC (6). Tread lightly with those draft picks GMs.
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This is a good, thought-provoking post. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFantastic research. Kudos sir. Weak defenses breed 'great' college quarterbacks. I've never been impressed with Sam Bradford. Colt McCoy was a great college quarterback and I think he would have been great regardless of what conference he played in but nonetheless I don't think his style translates in the NFL.
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