The college football regular season is over. The bowls and the national title game are all that’s left. With the exceptions of the two teams that win their way into the national title game, college teams have just one game left before their draft-entering players enter the NFL Combine and prepare for their professional careers. At this point, what are the four best quarterbacks on the draft board? Conventional selections exist, but this list might not be entirely conventional.
Deshaun Watson, Clemson Tigers
There are plenty of people who will tell you that Watson is undersized for an NFL quarterback, but that worry seems overplayed. Watson is a baller. More precisely, he’s shown that he can play very well against elite college defenses and tough teams in high-pressure situations. He overcame Florida State each of the past two seasons. He did the same against Louisville. He owned the stage in each of the past two ACC Championship Games, in 2015 and 2016. He makes every throw in the book. He’s faster than most quarterbacks. He has great pocket presence and is not bothered by rollouts or other designed plays which change his view of a defense. He has made more mistakes this year than he did last year, but he almost always makes more than enough big plays to compensate for his errors.
Mitch Trubisky, North Carolina Tar Heels
This is a pick which might not excite a lot of people, but Trubisky was a very accurate quarterback for North Carolina this past season. He converted late-game fourth downs and led multiple fourth-quarter comebacks for his team. It’s true that North Carolina suffered some bad losses this season, but the Tar Heels dropped passes and played terrible defense in those games. The one horrible game Trubisky had was in Hurricane Matthew, when he couldn’t handle the ball in a blowout loss to Virginia Tech. Otherwise, he remained solid even when his team lost. He might not be a great quarterback, but he could be a very steady one in the NFL, a player who minimizes mistakes.
DeShone Kizer, Notre Dame Fighting Irish
The ceiling for Kizer is high. He was brilliant last season in leading Notre Dame to a 10-2 regular season record. He is fast like Watson but with a bigger frame. His physical skills and overall versatility are not in question. What’s going to linger for some is that Kizer watched this 2016 season unravel at Notre Dame. He was normally very good, but he bottomed out on a few occasions in the middle of the season before regaining a measure of precision later on. That period of nothingness, when Kizer hugely struggled, is something that’s hard to ignore from a draft perspective. Still, he’s deservedly on this short list.
Josh Dobbs, Tennessee Volunteers
This is the upset, the wild card selection. Many will take Davis Webb of Cal or Pat Mahomes of Texas Tech, maybe even Brad Kaaya of Miami. However, Webb fattened up his numbers against defenses such as Oregon’s and Oregon State’s. Mahomes and Kaaya were vulnerable to injuries this past season and could therefore be seen as greater draft risks. Dobbs doesn’t have an injury problem, and he faced tough SEC West defenses from Alabama and Texas A&M. He is quick and shifty on his feet. His passing needs more work, but draft experts might see his natural skills and realize that if he gets good coaching, he could quickly ripen into a terrific quarterback.
Davis Webb, California Golden Bears
Cal produced the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft and they should have another high draft pick in the 2017 Draft as well. Webb is coming off a season where he completed 62% of his passes for 4295 yards and 37 touchdowns (had 12 interceptions). He has a decent arm with good pocket presence, and he has proven to have good field vision. Playing in Sonny Dykes vertical offense, he has shown the ability to make some good throws down the field.
The challenge is that he’s following the footsteps of Jared Goff and Goff has mightily struggled. Worse yet, Goff was highly thought of as a prospect whereas Webb is not viewed in the same regard. He’ll have to prove himself a better decision maker to be a quality starting quarterback in the NFL.
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