Saturday Six (on Friday): Q With Mocking the Draft. Would Landry Jones Be Better off Returning for another year?

Every other week I’ll be interviewing Dan Kadar of Mocking the Draft for his thoughts on the happenings around College Football. I’ll ask questions as it relates to the N.F.L. draft in a segment that I call Saturday Six (because there are six questions). But since I have a bunch of scouting reports being published tomorrow I thought I’d get this Q and A out there today.  After you read this, make sure to swing over to Mockingthedraft and check out what they got going on out there and then come back to NFLmocks throughout the day

Enjoy!

1). There are a lot of quarterbacks who could potentially grade out as first rounders that are draft elegible: Andrew Luck, Landry Jones, Matt Barkley, Robert Griffin, Ryan Tannehill, and Brock Osweiler…Only Tannehill is a senior. Which other quarterbacks do you think actually declare?

1. I don’t think any others would declare, and I’m not so sure that Osweiler and Jones should or that Griffin will. I say that about Osweiler and Jones because both still have a ways to go in regard to managing the pocket. With Griffin, you just never know what the NFL Draft Advisory Committee will tell him. People like us will like him, but if they grade him as a third-round player, why would he come out? The only other juniors you’d have to wonder about are Tyler Wilson of Arkansas (unlikely), Geno Smith of West Virginia (unlikely) and Sean Renfree of Duke (unlikeliest).

2). Stock Up. Stock Down. Who’s one player who’s stock has gone up the last two weeks and one who’s stock has gone down?

2. Southern California junior Nick Perry is finally starting to impress, so his stock is up some. He’s still a raw pass rusher, but he’s finally playing more aggressive and getting into the back field more often. Texas defensive tackle Kheeston Randall has had a puzzling season. He’s not getting off the line of scrimmage as fast as he did last year and he’s being overpowered. I thought going into this year he was possibly a top 64 pick, but he isn’t playing like it right now.

3). What are your thoughts on the PFT report from Albert Breer that Luck might pull a power play (like Eli Manning in 2004)?

3. If it were just about any other reporter, I wouldn’t put any stock into it. But since it’s someone like Breer, it’s hard to not take seriously. I don’t necessarily agree with his source, though, because Luck seems like such a laid back guy who isn’t driven by ego. I also think in today’s social media age, he’d become a LeBron James-level villain if he did that. By the time the draft comes around, it will be eight years since Manning did that, which is a huge amount of time. I don’t think a player in 2012 would be able to pull the same stunt without experiencing huge backlash.

4). Do you have any other names out there for our readers to follow who could be early 2nd day picks that don’t play at big schools, other than Trumaine Johnson the Montana CB?

Unfortunately I don’t get to keep up with a lot of non-FBS football and use January-April to catch up on those players. If you’re talking about non-BCS players, there are a few good players. Vinny Curry of Marshall and Bernard Pierce of Temple are the first two to come to mind. Curry has really developed into a first-round player this season and Pierce is really similar to James Starks of the Packers.

5) Who isa NFL rookie who has really stood out to you that wasn’t drafted early in 2011 as a player that is going to be good in this league for awhile?

I was a little surprised linebacker K.J. Wright lasted all the way to the fourth round before he was picked by Seattle. He’s really, really good in their scheme. His play is what made Aaron Curry expendable

6). Jason Pierre Paul has been a monster this year for the Giants as a draftnik and a Giants fan I really didn’t like the pick when it happened. His emergence has taught me to pay more attention to players reported work-ethics (character) and that it’s often ok to project someone’s skill sets and growth more than pure production. Are there any players out there who have taught you lessons about amaetur scouting?

There always a bunch of guys like that, it’s the nature of what we do. I really didn’t think Von Miller’s skill set would translate to the NFL. Wrong. He has six sacks already. I mentioned Curry before. I was certain he’d be a star, but he’s struggled. I thought Washington made poor with Brian Orakpo and Ryan Kerrigan. I didn’t think either had the athleticism to play linebacker. Wrong. I thought Darren McFadden would be better earlier in his career, but now he’s the player we thought he was coming out of Arkansas. So it really evens out as far as hits and misses go. The only lesson that it really shows is that you have to look closer and know what to look for in players. Nobody is ever going to be perfect at it, not even the professionals.

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