Is Christian Ponder the top Quarterback in the 2011 NFL Draft?

Wes Bunting of the National Football Post is widely regarded as one of the top NFL Draft analysts on the web, so when he makes a bold change in his rankings like he did yesterday, the blogosphere takes notice. Bunting has now placed Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder atop his rankings at the position, and gives him the same overall grade as Blaine Gabbert of Missouri.

Ponder was one of the top quarterbacks from the Senior Bowl this past offseason, and showed off some more of his skills at the NFL Scouting Combine. As I said in my previous post, I put about five percent or less of stock into my post-season player evaluations, but clearly something with Ponder has struck a chord in Bunting.

The former Seminole star has pretty much every trait you look for in an NFL quarterback, but he was never really flashy from what I saw, and even though this is a relatively weak quarterback class, I don’t know that I’d put him at the top of his class, but that might wind up being how it turns out ten years from now.

Right now, I see Ponder as a 2nd round pick, but if the hype picks up, some team might sneak into the later part of the first round to get him. If I were an NFL GM, I would let the board play out. If Ponder was my top quarterback, I would take my chances with the team’s second round pick.

Now, a team like Miami does not have a second round pick. They could try and trade down to obtain more picks, or they could look to future assets. A team like Oakland that doesn’t have a first round pick and a middle of the road second round pick would likely have to make a package deal of picks from this season and next in order to nab the Florida State signal caller.

I think a lot of the problem with Ponder is that he had such high expectations coming into his senior season, and Florida State as a collective group did not seem to be on the same level of Ponder, and vice versa. To me, his senior season was a mixed bag, and it’s hard to evaluate a guy who can look great like he did against Florida and pretty bad against Oklahoma. Ponder also hurt his shoulder in the 2009 season, so you hope that will not turn out to be a recurring injury.

Overall, I wouldn’t rate him as my top overall quarterback at the moment, but a few years from now, I could see him being the guy that everyone talks about as the best from the group, being that there are so many boom or bust guys at the top end.