One game makes all the difference

So, I'm reading up on the NFL Mock drafts, even though my team doesn't have any picks in the first day, just for kicks. It's funny to see how things change and get shuffled even though the season is over, the combine is past, and the evaluations are done. In my scope today, is McShay, with his newest Mock Draft version. I understand the picks, nothing especially exciting there, but I'm more focused on an after (before?) thought paragraph about quarterbacks leading up to the draft board.

Also, while I still have Ryan as the only quarterback in the first round, there's speculation that one or more teams might trade back into the bottom of the round to secure their favorite from the next-best trio of Chad Henne, Brian Brohm and Joe Flacco. Of the three, Henne seems to be moving up the draft boards the fastest. The more time coaches spend with the four-year starer from Michigan, the more they fall in love with his confidence and overall intangibles.

Couple of interesting things. Ryan being the best quarterback this year is just shameful. I don't know who saw him play this past season and thought, "Oh yeah, this is the guy," but that's a different conversation. The crop is obviously not too deep or good this year. Brian Brohm, thought to be a possible overall #1 picks last year slides nearly out of Round 1 for all intents and purposes. Chad Henne, Chad Henne has been rising on draft boards in recent backroom talks for "confidence and overall intangibles." Honestly, I can't write that, or read that, without almost bursting into laughter.

My question to the coaches and the scouts is, did they watch football in the last four years. Where and when is this statuesque pole thrower exuding confidence and bursting with intangibles? Is it the four consecutive losses to Ohio State, including a confident 3 points? Or maybe it was the three bowl losses in a row including one to Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl? Oh, I got it, it was the last game he played; the glowing win over secondary-deficient Florida. What a difference a game makes.

Is it his extremely long wind up that they find so appealing? Maybe his immobility? Or his special quality of making just the wrong play at exactly the right time? Oh yeah, it's his intangibles, like what, exactly? By all accounts, this is the same guy that should have been Wally Pipp'ed by someone who could be thought to be mentally retarded.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's most likely a duck, no matter how much confidence or intangibles it possesses. Sometimes these scouts out-think themselves. For their sake, all they really need to do is look at YouTube.



McShay Mock Draft [ESPN.com]