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Draft evaluations and the QB

I would love to get some feedback from the learned TST crowd (well ok the rest of you can comment as well) on evaluating a QB in preparation for the draft. I ask because certainly fans, but even the so called ‘experts’, seem to have a knee jerk reaction every time a QB does anything post season’s end.

Here are some headlines since the national championship game:

Derek Carr shined as top draft prospect among Senior Bowl QBs

NFL Combine Report: Logan Thomas Scores Top Measurables Of All QBs

Blake Bortles Combine: UCF QB Proved He Deserves to Be Top NFL Draft Selection

Teddy Bridgewater puts positive spin on subpar pro day

NFL draft: Johnny Manziel puts glitz in outstanding pro day effort

Now most of these guys and certainly the top prospects have been on the radar of NFL teams for over a year. They have tons of film on every snap these QBs take. Yet anytime something happens the ‘experts’ reevaluate, the mock drafts get updated and fans of their favorite guy go crazy. I would even extend that to bowl games.

When I think back to the 2007 draft I don’t recall as the regular season ended Jamarcus Russell even being talked about as a first round pick by most, much less the #1 overall pick. Then a great bowl game and a great pro day and boom, #1 pick, $61 million contact because everyone was sure he was going to make it BIG in the NFL (pun intended)!

So here is what I am curious about. Do most NFL teams really get swayed by a staged event in a controlled environment without a defender in their face when evaluating a QB? You hear people say they ‘go back to the tape’ yet mocks certainly and drafts often are changed by such events. I just don’t get it.

The combine and pro days are interesting and even entertaining to debate. But do they really change the mind of an NFL FO if they didn’t see it on the field?