The former Oklahoma State Cowboys quarterback may be the third most polished quarterback behind Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, but he has one knock on him that he cannot shake away. That one cloud is hovering over Weeden’s draft stock is his age.
Many people say “Age ain’t nothin’ but a number”, but in this case drafting a 28 year old quarterback may be risky business. One point that favors Weeden is that the shelf life on a quarterback is longer than most positions in the NFL, but coming into the league at almost 30 draws several red flags. At Oklahoma State University Weeden put up godly numbers against a pretty high level of competition. Weeden matches all of the measurables across the board of an ideal quarterback, but at the end of the day he is an elder statesmen entering the draft.
Drafting Weeden in the first round may not be wise, but he could be a steal in the later rounds. With the rule changes to protect the quarterback the NFL the career expectancy of a NFL quarterback may be even longer.
A team will take a chance on Weeden, because his skill is too much to shy away from. If I am a GM I would not take a chance on him unless it is in the third round or lower. It may sound idiotic, but there are many reasons why I would stay away from him. Not all rookie quarterbacks are as fortunate as Cam Newton and Andy Dalton who looked the part as a NFL quarterback day one stepping on the football field.
For many quarterbacks it can take two to three years for them to develop. With Weeden coming from a spread offense he will have to operate under a traditional setting which can put a cog in his development. Sitting Weeden for two to three years would put him at age 31. Being 31 years of age is not old in real life, but in the game of football that’s when players begin to look over their shoulders. Yes, you have guys like Kurt Warner and Jeff Garcia who got on board late and had pretty good careers, but with these guys they were a low risk high reward, because they went undrafted and were picked up via free agency. It will be interesting on draft day to see where Weeden ends up. Some team may take him high, but others will be cautious. It’s too bad Weeden can’t pull a Danny Almonte if so he would have zero worries.
Like I said on FB, late 2nd early-3rd would be great. I would take him over Tannehill just not in the 1st because of his age. You a fool for using Danny Almonte lmao. He will have to hit the ground running because he doesn’t have much time to develop