Mike Mayock: Brett Hundley, Bryce Petty show difficulty in evaluating spread quarterbacks
Posted by Josh Alper on February 17, 2015, 10:58 AM EST
Alamo Bowl: Kansas State v. UCLA
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Everyone expects Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota to come off the board quickly come draft day, but it’s not clear who the third quarterback might be.
Brett Hundley of UCLA and Bryce Petty of Baylor are two contenders for that spot, but Mike Mayock of NFL Network didn’t have much good to say about either one of them during his conference call on Monday. He said both players are indecisive if their first read isn’t available and said Hundley’s pocket awareness is a problem, but said both look like second-round talents.
However, Mayock cushioned that assessment by saying that the biggest difficulty with both players is evaluating how they’ll make the leap from playing in spread systems to the professional game.
“When you watch them within the framework of their offense, they’ve got a long way to go to become pocket quarterbacks. They don’t throw with anticipation. If the first look isn’t there, both of them are hesitant and indecisive which leads to stacks and other problems,” Mayock said. “You want to say you’re going to need at least a redshirt year as a second or third round draft pick, but what they need is live snaps, not seven-on-seven snaps in practice.”
The difficulty in evaluating quarterbacks coming out of these systems was something former Buccaneers General Manager Mark Dominik discussed on Monday’s edition of PFT Live and it will likely continue to be an issue as long as those offenses remain in heavy use at the college level.
