The Adam Jones Show's NFL Draft List: Quarterbacks
BOSTON (CBS) – Each week night leading up to the 2015 NFL Draft, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Adam Jones and Rich Keefe break down the needs of the New England Patriots.
On Tuesday night, Jones and Keefe focused on tight end prospects and then got into the quarterbacks.
With Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady under contract and Jimmy Garoppolo seemingly the next heir apparent, the quarterback position is by no means a need for the Patriots. However, they would be remiss if they didn't at least touch on the QB class in their comprehensive NFL Draft coverage.
READ: The Adam Jones Show NFL Draft List
Hypothetically speaking, if quarterback was actually a need for New England, Jones and Keefe looked at all the prospects and broke them down into two groups:
Group 1: Off The Board – These players are the best of the best, prospects who the Patriots have no chance at picking 32nd overall.
Group 2: The Targets – These are the prospects who could be available for the Patriots, if they in fact wanted a quarterback (hypothetically speaking).
Off The Board
QB Jameis Winston - Florida State; QB Marcus Mariota - Oregon
Jones: Stop me if you've heard these names before: Jameis Winston, 6-foot-4 231 pounds out of Florida State, and Marcus Mariota, 6-foot-4 and 222 pounds out of Oregon. They are the last two Heisman Trophy winners and they actually played each other this year in the semifinal matchup. They are the expected No. 1 and No. 2 picks. It sounds like by all accounts Tampa Bay will take Winston at No.1, and who knows who the Titans will take at No. 2.
Keefe: To me, this is just my personal opinion, the concerns with Jameis Winston are all off the field with almost none on it. And with Marcus Mariota the concerns are all on the field and zero off it. For Mariota, that's a tough system to go right from Oregon and playing all shotgun and easy reads right to the NFL. With Winston it's is the guy going to be mature? He's kind of like a Ben Roethlisberger in that he can make all the throws, he's not fast but he's elusive. But do you trust this guy to be your franchise leader?
The Targets
QB Bryce Petty - Baylor
Keefe: I think he'll be the next guy off the board after Winston and Mariota. He's a guy that's not super fast; he ran a 4.87 40-yard dash, so he's mobile enough. I also have concerns, like Mariota, about the system he ran. If you're a competent quarterback you can pick up big numbers at Baylor.
QB Brett Hundley - UCLA
Jones: A lot of people thought he could have been a first round pick heading into this year, but he had a disastrous season at UCLA. He probably should have come out a year ago as a redshirt sophomore. There's a lot of athleticism there.
QB Garrett Grayson - Colorado State
Jones: Lot of injuries in his past, including multiple shoulder injuries, but I think the more you read about him the more similar he sounds to Jimmy Garoppolo.
Keefe: He's intriguing to me, like a lot of these Mountain West quarterbacks. They bill him as a dual-threat quarterback, but I'm really not sure he's that. He ran a good 40-yard dash time -- I think he had the fourth fastest among QBs -- and he put up good numbers, but I'm not sure he's gotten any better. He looked the best as a redshirt freshman and was about the same for three years. He never took that big step forward.
QB Sean Mannion - Oregon State
Keefe: He is the least mobile out of this whole group; he's 6-foot-6, so I wonder if he's too much like Mike Glennon. That scares me. The way the NFL is heading now you have to be able to move a little bit. You wonder if there's going to be another Peyton Manning or Tom Brady type going forward, or if you have to move more. He's the most accurate passer out of this whole group, and maybe even this whole class. He was insanely productive at Oregon State. They protected him, he broke a bunch of Derek Anderson's records and even some Pac-12 records. That being said I wouldn't take him until the fourth or fifth round.
Listen below!
Earlier in the program, Providence Journal Patriots beat writer Mark Daniels called in to discuss this weekend's draft, as well as the outcome of the Darrelle Revis tampering case, DeflateGate and more.
Listen below: