I'm really not feeling all of this hoopla over Matt Stafford or Mark Sanchez right now, and if you ask me I wouldn't take either one. Especially not for $30 million-plus guaranteed. You see, there's two kinds of draft hype:
1) On the field hype, where the draft gurus/GMs/etc get amped over what guys actually did on the field and the physical traits they displayed there (accuracy, explosiveness, hands, etc.).
2) Draft season hype, where people get all worked up over 40 times, interviews, wonderlic scores, and the like, but don't have any on field basis for their sudden increase or decrease in enthusiasm for certain players.
Now from my experience paying attention to all this stuff, the first brand of hype is usually more reliable than the second. The first brand is what gave us Peyton Manning, Donovan McNabb, LaDanian Tomlinson, Dwight Freeney, and many others. The second leads you to Matt Jones, Mike Mamula, Ryan Leaf, and Kyle Boller. Now of course you get exceptions to each rule every year but I just don't think you should increase a guy's grade because he ran a good 40 or exuded confidence in an interview if his game film suggests he's not all that. At the same time, downgrading a guy who clearly showed and proved on the field because he ran a bad 40 or hada bad interview isn't a good idea either. What's really crazy, if you remember, is that a lot of people were honestly believing at one point that Leaf was a better choice than Manning. Despite years of game film and his pedigree a lot of people fell for one year of Leaf highlights and his superior arm strength and would have made him their choice if they were picking first.
What i see with Stafford, and to a much greater degree Sanchez, is the latter form of hype taking hold. If you go back to the college football season, neither of these two was getting much buzz from the draft gurus. The talk was all about Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy; even Tim Tebow was driving some conversation. Stafford wasn't considered first round material back then, and Sanchez was assumed to be staying at USC. But then Bradford and McCoy decided to stay in school, leaving a void at the quarterback position for the draft guys to talk about. By season's end, there wasn't much difference. Then draft season started, and the needle for both moved. Next thing you know, Stafford is magically the number one pick in waiting. Then, without warning, Sanchez moves up and threatens to overtake Stafford on some teams draft board. All without either guy playing any actual games! How does this happen? Remember Alex Smith? The year he and Aaron Rodgers came out was not a big year for QB prospects, and neither man was touted as someone you just had to take. Yet on draft day, the main question going in was which guy would get picked number one overall. Crazy, I tell you!
Remember everyone, if your main reasons for wanting to pick a player don't invilte anything on the field, you're asking for trouble.
Sanchez>Stafford
no disrespect to you rob or r. littal but yall said the same thing abt matt ryan look how that turn out
Hey, I'm just going off of history. Beware the draft season hype machine. A few exceptions do not disprove the rule.
Actually, I'm pretty sure Stafford has always been projected as a first-rounder by real draft experts. Tim Tebow got talked up because he's Tim Tebow, and the only reason McCoy and Bradford were talked up so much was because they played in the Big 12. Guess what company has the Big 12 contract? Bradford and McCoy are both system guys. Stafford and Sanchez both played in pro-style offenses. I'm not sold on Sanchez because the guy doesn't have enough experience though.
Last year, everyone bashed the crap out of Matt Ryan as well. Including your Bona Fide Sports Expert Robert Littal. I'm pretty sure he ended up retracting his statements about Ryan later. Give these guys a chance, and I really think Stafford is the right type of guy to succeed in the pros.
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