Who Will Be The Next Superstar?

In the single wing offense, the quarterback was a blocking back.

In the offense of today, the quarterback is everything – the alpha, the omega and every letter in between.

They’re expensive, often brittle, generally in need of great development as they exit college and no sure thing. They are penny stocks that cost millions of dollars. And, as they also say in the finance world, past performance is no indicator of the future.
Bear that in mind as the NFL’s scouting combine, the gigantic job fair for college players, gets underway on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

There are plenty of good players, but seriously … You aren’t winning without a quarterback. You generally must draft that quarterback, as the good ones (and certainly not the great ones) hardly ever see free agency in their prime. So the draft is everything. And that creates an overvalued situation where a player who should not be at the top of the draft becomes the coveted jewel.

Everybody seems to love USC’s Sam Darnold. Except the people who’ve seen how often he turns the ball over. And that, according to NFL Network’s Mike Mayock, goes back to his high school days.

There’s UCLA’s Josh Rosen. And Wyoming’s Josh Allen. Louisville’s Lamar Jackson, the Heisman Trophy winner a year ago. Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield, who also won the Heisman Trophy and is, in your Friendly Neighborhood Blog’s mind, the best of the lot. Toss Washington State’s Luke Falk in there as well.

Will any of these guys be successful professionals? You know the NFL draft. The worst teams draft highest and the worst teams are the worst teams because they have no quarterback. Topping the charts (again and again and again): The Cleveland Browns.

We’ll hear about certain players impressing in interviews, or doing a great job throwing against air on the field. Then the intrigue of the draft will follow.

We won’t know who was right or wrong for years.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman