With the first pick in the 2012 BGN Community Mock Draft, Imp selects...
Andrew Luck: QB, Stanford
Well, duh.
Andrew Luck had been given a tower of awards and praise upon praise over the last two years; how he hadn't suffocated from all of it is some kind of a miracle. In 2010, Luck was named Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year, First Team All Pac-10, Second Team Pac-10 All Academic Team, and Second Team All-American. In 2011, he was named those once again and won the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Player of the Year, and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm of the Year. Not to mention the high praise the guy gets. Over as CBS Sports, Clark Judge called him the "best QB prospect since John Elway," and Rob Rang said "he's the best quarterback AND elite prospect... I've scouted, including every Senior Bowl since 2001."
So what great skills did Luck showed to receive such rewards? One of the skills was his accuracy. Luck set the Pac-12 record for completion percentage for a season in 2011 (71.3%). His best was on short and intermediate throws, which allowed for great and consistent efficiency. My best comparison would be with Tom Brady: think about how Brady consistently made short to intermediate throws for efficient gains over the last few years. Luck's other great skill is his intelligence. Greg Cosell described it best:
More after the jump...
"He had a lot of freedom at the line of scrimmage to call plays and make adjustments based on defensive fronts and coverages. That's an essential attribute as he transitions to the NFL, one that has dramatically increased in importance in the last number of years with the complexity and sophistication of defenses. There's no question Luck is well ahead of the learning curve in that area."
One thing Luck was criticized for was staying in Stanford for the 2011 season. The reaction on BGN boiled down to "Wait, what? Really? Is he for real? How insanely stupid!" There were potentially risks, most obviously an injury to hurt his stock. I loved the decision, however. He stayed for an extra year to finish out his college degree. He showed true commitment; he started something and damn it he was going to finish it. It was a great attitude to have and will help give Luck a work ethic akin to Peyton Manning. (Plus the injury thing was overblown - Sam Bradford did a similar thing, got injured, and went number one overall anyway.)
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Luck#Records
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/fullnflmockdraft-ClarkJudge
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/story/14372683/rewind-lucks-stock-rises-even-higher-ingrams-sags
http://nflfilms.nfl.com/2012/03/23/cosell-talks-its-not-always-luck/
Next on the clock will be Luxury_Used_Vehicles_By_Braman with the Washington Redskins.