After all the rampant speculation and endless “mock drafts,” this years’ crop of rookie quarterbacks into the NFL brought quite a few surprises to both fans and sports writers as well, and probably to more than one of the brand new shinny quarterbacks waiting to enter the hallowed halls of professional football.
These guys are all excellent athletes. They are all playing the game for the love of the game and the competition involved. They have all had outstanding college careers and by now have handled their fair share of fame. However, when actually entering the NFL starts to look like a reality, their thoughts must surely turn to yet another aspect of playing professional football, the money. They can’t help but all be sitting there calculating their perceived value on the open market of the NFL. The numbers involved are just too high to be ignored these days.
The mock drafts all had Geno Smith of West Virginia going in the first round… but that did not happen. They even had Geno believing it, he later fired his agent.
To the surprise of most people, Florida State’s All-American Quarterback E.J. Manuel was the first quarterback taken in the 2013 NFL Draft and he went to the Buffalo Bills. The move drew much criticism from the analysts that did not see it coming but others saw it as a savvy move.
As one astute TV commentator said during the draft, Manuel is a big strong piece of clay just waiting to be molded into a first class NFL Quarterback. That must have been what the Bills were looking for when they met with all of the candidates.
Geno Smith ended up with the New York Jets and we wish him the best of luck.
Matt Barkley is in better shape down the road with the Eagles, Vick has not proven to be all that durable and Chip Kelly seems to be banking his future on the former USC star.
Landry Jones has landed on his feet with the Steelers behind Big Ben. He could hardly ask for a better tutor to introduce him to the NFL.
Ryann Nassib gets to understudy with Eli Manning and that’s great but, Eli has not missed a game in a long, long time.
Tyler Wilson goes to Oakland where he will have a real shot backing up veteran Matt Flynn next year.
Only time will tell how these new rookies are going to work out. The NFL has a long history of top draft picks that have crashed and burned in the big leagues.
