Marcus Mariota's NFL draft stock is about to take off
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Since the college football season ended, Florida State's Jameis Winston has moved ahead of Oregon's Marcus Mariota as the consensus No. 1 quarterback in the NFL's draft.
Winston blew teams away at the combine, and SI's Peter King reported that 80% of NFL people thought Winston would be drafted first overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As Winston has surged, Mariota has experienced the inevitable backlash faced by top prospects at this time of year. After examining his game tape, many scouts and draft commentators slapped him with the "not pro-ready" tag.
But the NFL draft cycle is long, and we are already seeing signs that the narrative around Mariota is starting to turn.
In his Monday column, King said Mariota's stock was about to blow up and that he could not see him getting too far past the No. 2 pick:
I believe Mariota is going to get very attractive as the scouting process progresses in the next two months. If he’s not the number one pick, and if Tennessee is being honest in affirming often how much they like Zach Mettenberger and passes on Mariota, then the jockeying will begin to get him.
After the combine, longtime NFL executive and current NFL Network commentator Gil Brandt said Mariota was a better long-term prospect than Winston. While it feels as if Winston has all the momentum, some smart draft experts are still #TeamMariota.
The knock on Mariota is that he did not have to make many NFL-level reads and throws in college because he played in an up-tempo offense that was fundamentally different from the one in which he will play professionally. The mini backlash we have seen over the past few weeks is the result of people who watch his game tape and conclude he doesn't have much experiencing running a pro-style offense.
The nitpicking over Mariota's film hit some absurd levels. According to NFL Network's Albert Breer, scouts even knocked him for not playing as well when he tore his MCL in 2013:
By now there are no more nits to pick when it comes to Mariota's game film. The worst is over.
For the next two months Mariota can only improve his prospects in the eyes of scouts. He had a great NFL combine by all accounts. The next big pre-draft event is his Pro Day — in which he is well positioned to excel because of all his physical tools.
Mariota has the reputation as one of the most clean-cut guys in the draft, to the point in which people were wondering whether his biggest problem was that he was "too nice." If that reputation it to be believed, he will look even better when teams do their background research on him.
Another thing working in Mariota's favor is that a bunch of NFL teams need quarterbacks, and this is one of the thinnest quarterback drafts in years. There is a huge gap between Winston/Mariota and everyone else. If you want a quarterback in the draft this year, you better get one of those two guys. With the Buccaneers, Titans, Redskins, and Jets all drafting in the top six, it is hard to see Mariota staying on the board very long.
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