I was wondering how these QBs can have HUGE college career/number and be such a bad NFL prospect.

I'm french and know/watch football for 5 years now... I'm not bleeding football it's obvious and I have no experience (never play, I watched like 150 games in my life...) so it may be obvious for you guys but not for me and I'd like to know why these guys can't be NFL star like they use to be in NCAA. I know about size (wtf RW3!) and arm strengh (hasselbeck!) but it can't be just that?

I wrote Wilson in my thread but I meant Kellen MOORE from Boise State!

Coxal wrote:I wrote Wilson in my thread but I meant Kellen MOORE from Boise State!

Good thing you clarified

I was totally gonna go nuts if he didn't mean Moore...

Systems sometimes do this. For Tebow? He wasn't worked on as a true blue QB at Florida because it wasn't asked of him, McCoy and Moore? well McCoy was a disappointment overall he just sucked and IMO he wasn't even that great at Texas. Moore did great, but he was playing Everest College every week but he has a noodle arm, hes short, and slow.

I think the general consensus is that the NFL is at such a different speed than even an elite college defense. In the NFL you rarely see a "gimmick" offense (i.e. Klein/Tebow) because NFL defenses speed and athleticism basically cancel out any advantage that might give you.

As far as great college passers (McCoy, Kellen Moore, etc.) most of the time it comes down to arm strength and fitting the ball into tight coverage. Kellen Moore is about as accurate of a QB as I've ever seen at the college level, but unfortunately his arm strength will probably keep him from having much success at the NFL level. Arm strength doesn't mean he can throw a 50 yard pass, most can do that. Arm strength in the NFL means having "zip" on passes, which are pivotal to completing short and intermediate routes.

All that said, there is no magical formula that is 100% accurate in guessing if an elite college QB will translate in the NFL. All I know is I'm glad our guy is working out so well

College teams are able to run systems that allow their QBs to put up huge numbers without needing to be fantastic prospects. Texas Tech and University of Houston have been doing it for awhile now, but neither program puts out decent NFL prospects. These offenses get shut down easily in the NFL because the speed of NFL caliber defenses is ridiculous compared to college, so their style of game doesn't translate to the NFL.

That is why guys like Barkley and Luck who ran 'NFL style offenses' look the part even if they don't put up as big of numbers as other college QBs.

But like MRH said, even those QBs who look the part in college don't always work out.

The posters above summed up the scheme reasons well. I would add that there is a talent discrepancy throughout college which allows certain, underwhelming players to succeed based on the scheme, or the talent around them, or having specific skill sets that would only work at college (Moore-brains, Tebow- running style, etc.). In the Pros, it's much harder be successful without the "full package" because the talent in the league is more even.

Welcome Coxal.

The reason that some great college QBs fail to have a similar impact in the NFL could be for several reasons:

College athletes are slower and defenses are worse, which adds up to being a much easier environment for QBs. This means that some QBs who aren't actually that good are made to look like superstars because of a weaker field of competition. It's the same reason why failed major league hitters often become megastars in Japan, because when the level of difficulty is toned down, a lot of their problems disappear and they look like world beaters.

Higher difficulty means new problems showing up, and lower difficulty means fewer problems. Some QBs have the traits required to withstand more added difficulty than others. This is why QBs with athleticism, accuracy, mental grasp of pro-style concepts, and arm-strength are prized so highly, because they will tend to be hurt by the jump far less than a QB who is deficient in those areas.

For Tebow, that deficiency was accuracy. For McCoy, that deficiency was basically everything save leadership. For Wilson (Russell Wilson?) that deficiency was height, but he's proven both in college and the pros that it was not a significant factor. For Kellen Moore, it was size, mobility, and arm strength, although I think Moore is actually a tad under-rated and it woudn't shock me if he's a backup in the NFL for a decade. He's a very smart QB with great accuracy, kind of like a smaller Chad Pennington.

Thanks for the answers guys and I also read a lot of scouting reports it's clearer now.

Btw, I read some people ranking Klein very low and others see him as a round 2 or 3... No one is on the same page for this guy

Anyway, as MRH said, you can't really know how well a QBs will perform at the next level. It also depends on the NFL team I guess. Our RW3 for example, i'm not an expert but i'm sure he would not be that good in an other team. He seems the good deal because of his work of course, but also because of PC, Bevell and the team overall. Not sure he would be as good as we know him if he played for the Jets or the Raiders.


ps : sorry for my english