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The NFL combine is all about running and throwing and catching and a bunch of other drills you see on television. But the real nitty gritty of the event goes down off the cameras, when personnel men, agents, media members and coaches all huddle up and gossip about free agents and draft prospects.
The quarterback draft class, in particular, is drawing fire takes from all over the place. Lamar Jackson should be a wide receiver, etc.
"He's still the No. 1 quarterback in this class. He was the best thrower of the day," Prisco explains. "I talked to guys away from the combine, guys that were in the meetings with him and they said he was very good in the meetings. He's the alpha male. He's the alpha male of the group. That's what you want -- you want your quarterback to walk in and own the day. And that's what he did, which is why I think he's the No. 1 quarterback in this class.
"Look, the completion percentage, they can look at that all they want. Matt Stafford's completion percentage was crap in college. Brett Favre had an awful completion percentage in college at Southern Miss because he played a lot of good teams that were better than the players around them. That happens. Look deeper into the dive of the completion percentage and you'll see passes doinking off guys who are going to be bartenders in a couple of years."
As Jason La Canfora noted: we love bartenders. We are not insulting bartenders. But you would prefer to have five-star players catching passes from your quarterback all things considered, at least for evaluation purposes. (Counterpoint: if he had a bunch of great players, he would get dinged for having too much talent around him.)
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It seems like, after the combine, we're lasering in on a single problem for Allen: accuracy.
"Accuracy, which I totally get," La Canfora said. "And I'm not going to tell you he's going to come in and be the most accurate quarterback in the league. And maybe that's a problem for him. But these faux intangible smirches on him are fake. People are trying to find reasons to ding this kid, but other than accuracy it's not there."
There's another reason Prisco loves Allen: he loves the game.
"Of all the guys who have ever come to the combine, and believe me I've been doing it a long time, who stood up at the podium and talked about the National Football League, he was more aware of what's going in the NFL than any of them," Prisco said. "Except for a guy named Peyton Manning."
Some of those seem like cliches, but Prisco's legit been doing this forever and knows good quarterbacking when he sees it. He's not always perfect, but no one is in this business.
In this episode we also break down what the Browns do from the perspective of having No. 1 and No. 4 overall, whether they should draft Saquon Barkley with the No. 1 pick, if the Giants are still interested in drafting a quarterback at No. 2 overall, what the Dolphins are doing in free agency and with the Jarvis Landry franchise tag, other winners and losers from the combine, the incredible Shaquem Griffin story from the combine and what the word at the combine was surrounding Kirk Cousins and free agency.
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