Dolphins Working Out QB Ryan Mallett
MIAMI (CBS4) - The Miami Dolphins made a trek last month to Fayetteville, Arkansas to watch several players workout. Wednesday, the Dolphins are set to get a personal workout from one of the Arkansas players, quarterback Ryan Mallett.
If the Dolphins are indeed interested in Mallett, it's easy to see why when you look at his stats. He stands nearly 6'7" and has a rifle attached as his right arm. He threw for 8,388 yards in three years in college, with more than 7,000 of them coming in the last two years.
In 2009 and 2010, Mallett threw for 3,627 yards and 3,869 yards respectively. He also threw 62 touchdowns to just 19 interceptions while playing for former NFL coach Bobby Petrino at Arkansas.
But, several pundits have questioned Mallett's desire and other issues have swirled around the quarterback known as "Big Tex."
"He has an excuse for everything and I'm always leery of guys who have an excuse for everything," Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com told CBS4 and 790 The Ticket's Jorge Sedano.
Florio was taken aback when Sedano revealed that Mallett would be on his program on Friday. The profootballtalk.com guru said that Mallett's people had told him he was doing no media. Florio said that it's a major red flag when players avoid facing the media scrutiny before the draft.
"When you take a guy who was a good college football player and you throw him into the NFL, where he is facing the best of the best of the best college football has to offer, it is a different experience," Florio told Sedano, "Do you step up when youu're hit in the mouth the first time or do you shrink away?"
That said, Florio didn't discount Mallett's ability or the possibility that he could turn into a top notch NFL quarterback, saying that if Mallett fell to the bottom of the second round it might be good for him, like it did Tom Brady when he dropped to the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the NFL Draft.
Then again, the Dolphins interest in Mallett could be a smokescreen to lure a team interested in him to trade up to get the Arkansas quarterback. One thing that is fairly reliable as the NFL Draft approaches, no one outside the front office truly knows anything.
