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Former Eagle Ron Jaworkski is the latest pundit to take a crack at ranking the extremely controversial 2013 quarterback class. The controversy really isn't about how good it is, no one seems to think it's a great class, but there's a lot of debate on which guys rise above the rest.
| Rank | Player | School |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Geno Smith | West Virgina |
| 2 | Ryan Nassib | Syracuse |
| 3 | EJ Manuel | Florida State |
| 4 | Landry Jones | Oklahoma |
| 5 | Mike Glennon | NC State |
| 6 | Matt Barkley | USC |
| 7 | Tyler Wilson | Arkansas |
| 8 | Tyler Bray | Tennessee |
It's become increasingly clear that Geno Smith is the consensus top QB in the class. Jaws says that despite some accuracy issues on deep passes, Smith "checks a lot of boxes" on the list of things you look for in a franchise QB. Jaws projects him as a solid starter at the NFL level.
A surprise comes at #2 where he has Ryan Nassib. It should be very interesting to see what happens with him on draft day. Jaws is the second experienced football guy who watches a lot of film to really like Nassib. The first being Russ Lande. If those guys see something in Nassib, it's certainly possible that at least one team see it as well and could surprise by taking him higher than expected.
He's got E.J. Manuel at #3, which is relatively typical.
Likely the biggest shock here is to see Landry Jones at #4. He's a guy that was projected as a first round pick when he first took over for Sam Bradford, but has faded since. By the way, he's a pretty good cautionary tale to those who say a team should just wait until next year to get a QB because that class is supposedly going to be better.
Here's what Jaws said about it.
This might surprise some people, but when I watch Jones, I really like his mechanics. Some guys are just pretty passers. Take former NFL star Warren Moon. He looked good in the pocket and threw a really nice ball. Jones is similarly a fluid passer. He makes all the throws and shows good balance in the pocket. If there's a blemish, I think it's that he missed far too many open receivers.
Speaking of cautionary tales, he's got Matt Barkley ranked down at #6. He was another guy that was at one point projected to be a top 5 pick. Not so anymore.