Stole my thunder but, yes indeed. AP is one of the greatest ever if he can keep it helthy out there.. I like D-Mac but not that much.

That was the big knock on Mendenhall. He always looks to bounce the play outside and doesn’t run between the tackles very well. He would have been a perfect change of pace for the Cowboys. But since I hate the Cowboys, I’m ecstatic that they made the dumb pick and went with the Arkansas kid instead, thereby placating their dumbass owner.

So two QBs that went to D2 schools that got drafted in the first round have made it… in the past 30 years. Not exactly a trend. Sure, not many have been picked that high and failed either… because they weren’t picked. There is a reason you usually don’t pick D2 QBs in the first round, and it’s the same reason they are D2 QBs… they aren’t as good. I don’t care if Flacco went to Pitt first, he still wasn’t good enough to play for them. If I go to Rucker Park and try to shoot hoops with those guys, and they stick me on the bleachers, but then, I go to a second rate park and do well… does that all of a sudden make me a good player because I outclassed lower competition?

McNair is an exception… but not for me, for you. If Flacco was such a great player we would have been hearing about him all year. We did with McNair. How many records did McNair break in college football? We saw highlights of him every Saturday night his senior year because he was that good. There was a movement to try to get Alcorn State into a Bowl Game that year because he would bring money in, but the NCAA denied it because you must beat six D1 schools to earn a Bowl Game berth. McNair wasn’t a Combine QB… he was good, real good, in college. He wasn’t some no name kid who all of a sudden got hyped after throwing some passes in Indianapolis in front of coaches with no pads and no real defense.

Flacco may turn out to be a decent NFL QB, but I would bet against it. If I am Baltimore I take someone else with that pick and then take a player like Henne or Brohm (both of whom were actually good enough to play D1 football, and didn’t have to drop down a level to get playing time) later in the draft. And saying Flacco was closer to a D1 National Championship than Henne was is just ridiculous. Was Flacco ever 3 points away from an undefeated D1 season and a BCS Championship Game Berth? No… because he only threw 4 passes in D1. Baltimore did this same thing with Kyle Boller a few years ago (although, to be fair, you actually heard Boller’s name during the college season)... he came into the combines and threw 60 yards from his knees. Scouts were impressed, hype was given, Boller was drafted…. but at least Boller played real competition in college. The way I see it, if a player has to get his hype during the combines, and not while actually playing football, that says a lot about the player.

It may have seemed I was dogging on D2 players in my original post, but that came out wrong. I have no problem with D2 players, there are lots of good ones. But the thing is, you hear about the good ones during the season. We never heard shit about Flacco until AFTER his senior year. It’s not like he went into his senior year with a lot of hype (understandable after his 2700 yard and 18-10 TD-INT ratio his junior year). He became a first round pick in the combines. He wasn’t tearing it up and drawing rave reviews all season long. And there is a reason for that, his stats, while impressive, aren’t anything special from a Shotgun QB (and if you don’t believe me, take a look at Colt Brennan’s numbers… those are special). Brennan has the performance, but not the “tools”. Flacco has the “tools” but not the performance. I don’t think either are worth a 1st round pick in the NFL Draft. And Baltimore should know better after they screwed up by taking a Combine Tools QB just a few years ago.