Quarterbacks are always among the most high-profile prospects at the NFL Scouting Combine.
QBs have also traditionally been difficult to evaluate, a subject that was broached by a few of the NFC head coaches that took the podium on Wednesday in Indianapolis.Bruce Arians of the Arizona Cardinals on why QBs are usually so tough to gauge: "When you're dealing with these guys and evaluating the two muscles, you can't evaluate the brain and the heart. They're the two you play with.
"You try to get to know them as well as you can. You go back and try to get into a huddle with them as many times as you can and see. You can evaluate how much they know but you can't evaluate how they process it in 30 seconds or less. That's how you play the game.
"So much of it is still a crapshoot. If you could analyze those two things, you could make millions of dollars."**
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Jay Gruden of the Washington Redskins on the importance of perspective in the evaluation process:** "You have to look at the system they're in first of all. You can't critique them negatively because of the system they're in. It's not their fault they're not in an NFL system.
"We want to watch them in the pocket, mostly, want to test their arm strength, how they move the football team, how they handle key situations and third downs, red zone, pressure in the pocket, what do they do? Decisions with the football, all that stuff in quarterback play is relevant when it comes to scouting young quarterbacks. But to envision them in your system, that's hard to do because you can't see them make all the throws, all the reads, all the tough decisions quarterbacks have to make throughout their college quarterback career."Dirk Koetter of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on whether mobile quarterbacks are being viewed differently: "I'm not sure. What Russell Wilson and Cam (Newton) have done getting to the Super Bowl, the way the spread offense has changed college football so much; I don't know, that's a hard question. I think the guys that can get you in the end zone is the bottom line.
"Mobility comes in all shapes and sizes. Ben Roethlisberger is one of the toughest guys to sack in the NFL but I don't think people would put him necessarily in that category. That's why I said it goes back to guys that can get it done. I think Jameis (Winston) is a good example of a guy that maybe people don't think of as a mobile quarterback, but in some of the plays he makes his mobility does show up."
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