Matthew Stafford’s decision making and accuracy aren’t much better than Freeman’s. Watch the gamefilm on Stafford and you’ll see a QB who progresses too slowly through his reads, doesn’t lead his receivers accurately, and relies on arm strength to make up for bad timing. He’s a good prospect because he has the athleticism and arm strength, but there’s no way he’s going to contribute in 2009/10.

Meanwhile, Sanchez is obviously a better QB right now when you look at the games. He’s only a fit in a West Coast offense, but he has enough arm strength for intermediate passes and accurately leads his WR’s deep. His awareness in the pocket is superior to Stafford’s and he throws well on the run while keeping his head up and continuing to read defenses. I still don’t consider him a top 5 prospect though because his offense masked his weaknesses at USC. He consistently took advantage of play action which led to checkdowns to HB/FB’s which are the real reason his completion percentage is so high. He’s accurate when his WR are wide open, but I rarely saw him complete a pass when he needed to throw through a narrow window (which Stafford can do).

I saw a ton of Matt Ryan’s games in 2007 and he simply had it all. Neither of these QB’s have the play making ability nor combination of arm strength and accuracy that Ryan had. They both should have returned to college, but probably decided to come out because of the depth of the 2010 QB class.

Correct, I’m not factoring in perceived off the field issues aside from conditioning and legal problems. Personally, I find most of these reports of kid’s character, work ethic, and attitude to be laughable. Smith is obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed and needs professional training, but he wouldn’t be this great of a player if he didn’t have work ethic. The bottom line is that when you watch his film next to someone like Oher, the on-field production and results aren’t even close. Andre Smith plays like a man and goes out to dominate the opposition while Oher plays like someone larger than the competition. These guys aren’t going to be that much larger than the NFL competition and playing patty-cake with long arms against elite DE/OLB will get your QB smacked.

Based on pure talent, I’d have Andre Smith #1 ahead of Curry. Conditioning concerns and general intelligence moved him down.

Watch these highlights and tell me which player you would rather have protecting your blindside.

A. Smith: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md-EZ6TOWyw
M. Oher: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjM8bL0X9P4&feature=related

I like Donald Brown a lot as a complimentary back and think Britt could end up being special.

I’ve moved Maclin down my list almost weekly though. The vast majority of his production at Missouri was on screens and quick slants and I can’t see him as anything more than a slot receiver at this point. He could be a great slot receiver, but some of the other WR’s in this class are potential #1 wide outs. He’s going to be an impact returner from day one though.

Value can be relative and as long as they are taking players that fall into the relative range of BPA, then I don’t see how we’ll consider the draft a failure.

This exercise is really about when a pick comes up like #43 and there’s a guy who most of us have rated as the 24th/25th best player available. Obviously, we would all be disappointed if that player was passed on in the 2nd round given the value.

If we see them take a player (I use Oher as an example) who isn’t in the top 10 on most people’s lists, then that’s a reach pick and it deserves criticism from those who don’t value Oher that high (most don’t).