NFL Draft Triple Take (QB), March 20, 2023

Matt Williamson, Dale Lolley and Mike Prisuta give you their takes on the top quarterback prospects in the 2023 NFL Draft in the episode of NFL Draft Triple Take

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of NFL Draft
Triple Take, brought to you by UPMC. I'm Mike Pursuita,
joined as always by Dale Lally and Matt Williamson. We're
here to talk quarterbacks today. We've got the names on
the board as we get ready for the NFL Draft
at the end of April. And Matt, I guess after
last year, we're not only looking at the top of
the class. Eventually we're gonna get around the mister irrelevant, right,

(00:29):
good point. It was a big deal last year. Obviously
a little bit of an anomaly of course, but interesting
class here. They all have some questions and Dale, the
class usually gets more interesting when we get into pro
days and things of that nature. But I'm with Matt.
I like a lot of these guys. Yeah, I like him.
I don't know that I love them, but his Matt
just said, there's some question marks about all of them.

(00:52):
You know, for example, hen then Hooker's coming off of
an ac L injury. He might be perhaps two or
three on this list, you know, if he were completely healthy,
but he's not. You could go on down the list
with these guys and find something that you're like yeah,
I like him, but there's this and so you know,
I think that's kind of the thing with this class.
Doesn't mean th that like four of them won't go

(01:12):
into top ten this year, No, it does not. Let's
get to it and see how we've got him stacked
as we speak, Dale, why don't you lead us off?
I will do that. And as I just mentioned, I
have to put Hendon Hooker from Tennessee down here at
number five because of an ACL injury transfer from Virginia Tech.
The last two seasons have been outstanding for him, over
forty touchdown passes both season less than ten interceptions bost seasons,

(01:36):
so he's done some good things there. At number four,
I've got the Penn State transfer to from Kentucky or
now at Kentucky will levi us Again, there's there's some
question marks there is his tape from two years ago
was much better than this past season, but they had
a lot of graduations and things of that nature. Kentucky,

(01:57):
it's Kentucky football. There's not you know, a pipeline there,
so you're dealing with that. At number three, I got
the combine hero Anthony Richardson lit it up obviously, you
know you're looking at him. He's thrown about three hundred
and eighty passes in his college career completed fifty four
percent of them, So there's some still some question marks
are probably needs a year to sit and learn a

(02:19):
little bit. Then I've got CJ. Stroud at two from
Ohio State. I think he's the outlier in the Ohio
State quarterbacks. I know they've never had one that's really
come in and hit at the NFL level. I think
he might be the guy that could do that. And
then at number one, I have Bryce Young from Alabama. Yeah,
he's five ten, but man, he's accurate with the football,

(02:41):
does a lot of good things, can run with it
a little bit. That's not the main part of his game,
but he can do that, and he's a playmaker at
the quarterback position. You know, it's an interesting list that
you've got there, and we of course have already run
the post that I should say the printed version of this,
but I am calling audible when I get to my five.

(03:02):
That is your right to be wrong. My list is
changing and I've got the same guys you've got, But
you know what, I got the Greek guy of quarterbacks
at number two. Now. The physical package to me is
beyond impressive, and I think, you know, ideal world he
sits for a year and takes a red shirt at

(03:22):
the NFL level, But if you can't work it out
that way, let him run around and make plays with
his legs while he figures out what to do with
his arm. It's impressive. My number one guy is CJ.
Stroud of the Ohio State University. Like looking a big
ten guy, well, you know, like a lot of people,
I was a little concerned I didn't see him color
outside the lines very often, and then it occurred to

(03:43):
me that that was because he really didn't have to
do it very often. I know how State lost in
Michigan the last two years, but pretty much rolled through
everybody else. When I saw in the Georgia game, showed
me that he can do what you need to do
at the NFL level if he has to. He just
didn't have to very often. Bryce young to me as
everything but the ideal size, and if I've got bigger options,

(04:05):
that's where I would go. Will levis same kind of
deal with Richardson. I think he needs some polish, but
he can be an effective runner. Went healthy and Hendon Hooker.
You know another concern I have about him. They didn't
just play a spread offense at Tennessee. They played a
spread offense. I mean they were sidelined to sideline. I
don't know he's gonna be doing that stuff on Sundays,

(04:26):
but he did it pretty well hunhealthy on Saturdays. Yeah,
and my list is actually the same as Dale's. But
there's a lot of questions of all these guys. I
also have Stroud too, I have Young at one. There's
a lot of momentum. As you mentioned though about Stroud,
I mean that Georgia game was phenomenal for him. I

(04:48):
mean that was a different style of play, just showed
that he's capable. Yeah, he didn't see him in you know,
when he was playing Michigan State. He didn't see him
to have to break the pocket and keep his eyes
down field and throw on the run and be accurate
on the comebacks, or wait for the guy to clear
in the end zone, or tuck it and go with
his legs. At one run against Georgia that he finished
off by putting his shoulder down and running through a

(05:09):
couple of guys. It's really got my attention, no doubt,
and it's not his fault, but he's throwing to first
round picks left and right, and you know, probably five
of them actually, once all said and done in terms
of receivers there, which is remarkable. Phenomenal offensive lines next
year right, exactly right, as he keeps saying in Ohio
coming next year. Not wrong. But his accuracy is remarkable.

(05:31):
He threw the football extremely well at the combine. I
have young one because I do think he has a
great head for the game. He's a remarkable playmaker. It's
but the size really worries me. I mean, he's tentatively
one for me. And it's not because his inability to
see the field or see amongst the trees. It's just
the durability worries me. I mean, seventeen games in the

(05:52):
league plus preseason plus hopefully postseason, it's hard to get
hold up over year after year. That's what really worries
me about him, not his style play at all. And
Hooker's the last guy I want to talk about because
I think he's being slept on a little bit because
he is injured. He hasn't done anything lately, he's overaged,
he's played in a strange offense as you mentioned. But

(06:13):
if he lands in like Detroit or Seattle, where there's
an established quarterback shirt kind of red shirt for the year,
and then take it over, he has a chance to
be as good as any one of these guys. Everyone
talks about the Big four, but I think hookers in
their neighborhood two years down the road in that neighborhood.
So Richardson's obviously extremely impressive physically. What I don't have

(06:34):
the benefit or we don't have the benefit of doing,
is sitting down with him and knowing what he knows,
what he needs to learn. But boy, he has the
ceiling up here, you know. Getting back to Young, I'm
with Matt Dale. It's not necessarily the height. It's a
buck ninety four. Oh yeah, it's definitely. I do think
that Kyler Murray, even though he weighed two o seven

(06:56):
at the combine, probably weighs closer than that now. But
we've also seeing Kyler Murray not finished the last two seasons, right,
you know. I do think though that Bryce Young. You
never see him anybody get a clean hit on him.
He is very good at the kind of sidestepping the
big hits. Can he do that at the NFL? Level
that remains to be seen, but I think he has

(07:16):
outside of that size the size issues, maybe a few
less of the red flags than some of these other
guys have. The last thing I want to talk about
is Richardson again, because he is the Greek out of quarterbacks,
and Daniel Jeremiah from the NFL Network and NFL dot Com,
the draft greu that he is. He has called Richardson
the lottery ticket or words to that effect that, hey,

(07:38):
the upside for him is higher than all these guys,
but you don't know if he's going to hit it.
But he's got perhaps the largest or highest ceiling. Would
you buy that? And if you're picking a QB, would
you roll the dice in search of that? Well, I
think when you're looking in the QB market, you do
want to swing for the fences. If you strike out

(07:58):
here and there, it's worth it if you hit a
couple of home run and Richardson's the epitome of that.
When I was scouting, it was entrenched in me that
quarterbacks don't get more accurate in the NFL. That doesn't happen.
Times have changed, you know, Dak Presscott, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts.
There's a long list of these guys, and I think
a lot of it's because of these independent quarterback coaches

(08:18):
that they take in the off season and all the
different things they do, you know, that they do with
their mechanics. And assuming he is a smart, eager young man,
which everyone says he is, is going to take to
all that outside coaching, well he could be easily number one.
To your point on that, Matt, I think a lot
of that has involved the guys who are runners, and
when you're in the pocket, you're you're running out of

(08:40):
the pocket a lot of time. You don't take the
time to set your feet correctly, and I think that
leads to some of the inaccuracies with the throwing. But again,
I look at him, He's a guy that's starwing three
hundred and eighty passes, you know, I look at him
very much like Trey Lance. When he was coming out
of school. Everybody said, all the Trey Lance is upside
of the upside. We'd thrown three hundred and fifty or
so passes over his college career. So the Alabama and

(09:03):
not you know, or Florida or you know, I mean, so,
I mean, you could turn on Taper Richardson and say wow,
that was a great play, and then the next three
throws are like wow, what was that? You know, that's
just who he is at this point in his career.
Can he be better? Sure? But to Matt's point about
you know, taking the swing at him, it might depend
on how safe your coach is. He is he you know,

(09:27):
is he safe in his job? How safe is your GM?
You know, do they have to win this year? Because
if they got to win this year, Anthony Richardson is
probably not the guy for them. Well, that's all I
happened as side as I did because to my knowledge,
I'm pretty safe here. I mean, you got nothing to
lose back here doing this next year. I'm even more
certain we'll be back here much sooner than that. As

(09:47):
we go through the positions here from a video standpoint,
to take an advantage of our new toy here and
moving the names around. So I want to remind everybody
these are going to be coming, So keep finding us,
however and wherever you found us until the next time.
For Matt Williamson and Dale Lally on Mike Pursuita, this
has been the NFL Draft triple Take brought to you

(10:08):
by up MC