This week is the NFL draft, which is about the closest thing we’ll get to football for potentially 17 months or something, until they figure who gets more money than I’ll ever get to cry about. Until that shit show is all figured out, however, us smelly peasants are instead allowed to get excited about trivial things like “potential” and “athleticism.” Yes, it’s NFL draft time, and it’s way past due that PJD pays some damn attention and rounds up what’s being said around the interwebs for you. Today, we look at a particular take on one of the most hotly contested draft potential draft picks for the Vikings in Jake Locker …
Some guy Yahoo! Sports reported on recently had this to say:
Player “Rogue” ex-scout Dave Razzano recently reiterated his strong opinion that Washington’s Jake Locker is the best quarterback in the draft and a Brett Favre clone.
“He’s not [inaccurate] — he throws a great ball!” insists Razzano. “It’s a low-percentage offense. There’s never anybody open underneath, and he’s got no protection. You can see it if you look closely enough. People are stupid … If you look at their college stats, Favre and Locker are practically identical. Tell me this guy doesn’t move like Favre, scramble like Favre, throw like Favre … The guy’s a winner.” Razzano was fired by the Rams after a heated argument with then-GM Charley Armey because he refused to back off his stance that Alex Smith was a backup-caliber QB.
There are plenty of things wrong with this, so let’s just start from the top.
1. As the article acknowledges, this Dave Razzano (Aye, maybea weez-a eat-a a meetballa, eh?) had Aaron Rodgers graded as a mid-round draft pick. He’s looked pretty stellar in the NFL. To be fair, everyone else in the NFL thought Rodgers was some damn hippy from California, so I won’t really hold that “miss” to Razzano, except that I will by saying take this Jake Locker infatuation with a grain of salt.
2. Best quarterback in the draft? Oh wow, you value a guy that played in a semi-pro set in Washington over a two players from gimmicky offenses and a coke head from Arkansas. No stretch here.
3. Brett Favre clone? Why the fuck would anyone want a Brett Favre clone? The guy won ONE Super Bowl. You might as well desire a Trent Dilfer clone, a Doug Williams clone, or a Brad Johnson clone for that matter. OR! Or you could just hire me for a 20th of the price and I’ll be a drama queen and take pictures of my meat stick for a small price too. Don’t bother spending all that money on a high draft pick, Brett Favre clone.
4. Locker’s career passing percentage is 53%. That’s not throwing a great ball, that’s throwing a mediocre ball. He played a quasi-NFL caliber defense in Nebraska twice his senior season when he should have been balling, and both times went something like 4 for 72, despite winning one of those games. That’s …. pretty fucking inaccurate.
5. The only “saving grace” for Locker is that, yeah, his college stats DO look pretty identical to Favre’s. The difference here is that Favre was a raging alcoholic at 19, played in the CUSA conference against shitty teams consistently and actually managed to beat Alabama and a ranked FSU during his career. Locker managed to win a single bowl game while playing disappointingly in the Pac-10. …. I’m not sure how poorly that speaks on him, actually, but you can look at having comparable stats to Favre as a positive, I guess.
6. He was surprisingly right on Alex Smith, although I’d probably take him on the team right now.
7. Locker and Favre’s girlfriend/wife do kind of look alike too, so I’ll him that.
OK, in all honesty, if someone were to tell me I could get Brett Favre for the prime of his career, with Purple Jesus in the backfield, and you take your chances on that player winning you a Super Bowl, I’d probably take it. But there’s obviously no guarantee Locker is a Favre clone. He looks pretty close on paper but for some reason I still can’t buy into it. Also, we all saw what Locker (and Favre) look like behind a shitty offensive line … are we really going to go into the season with that same mistake? TEAM OFFENSIVE LINEMAN!
Thoughts?
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