Mel Kiper Changes His Tune: Jimmy Clausen
Posted by Matt Terl on February 17, 2010 – 3:12 pm
When last we checked in with ESPN’s Mel Kiper, the well-coiffed draft guru was predicting that the Redskins would select Sam Bradford, quarterback out of Oklahoma, with the fourth overall pick in the upcoming draft. With version 2.0 of his draft now on the record, Kiper’s in the same QB-tastic church, just at a slightly different pew:
Kiper now predicts the Redskins will select Jimmy Clausen, QB out of Notre Dame.
John Keim of the Washington Examiner has Kiper’s reasoning FOR Clausen:
“Jimmy is as competitive as it gets,” Kiper said. “His accuracy is outstanding; his arm strength is good. … To me, there are no questions about his competitiveness and leadership.”
And his argument AGAINST Bradford:
“The issues I have with Sam is that we haven’t seen him in an NFL setting, where there’s pressure and you have to throw into small windows,” Kiper said. “Bradford and Clausen are right there; you just have to decide which one you want.”
It certainly seems to me that we haven’t actually seen Clausen in an NFL setting either, but maybe I’m taking Kiper’s points too literally. Wes Bunting of the National Football Post, meanwhile, doesn’t even have Clausen in his Top 30 draftable players, and ESPN’s OTHER well-coiffed draft guru, Todd McShay, doesn’t have Clausen going in the first round of his latest mock. (McShay, for the record, has the Redskins selecting offensive tackle Anthony Davis out of Rutgers.)
So saying opinions are divided on this guy would be an understatement. And Clausen won’t be throwing at the Scouting Combine next week, so don’t expect more clarity at that point.
I’m not going to claim to have exhaustively scouted Clausen, but — even if I were looking for a quarterback — I feel like the fourth overall pick should be used on as close to a sure thing as you can find. A guy who some people don’t even project as a first-rounder doesn’t seem to fit that bill.
Tags: NFL Draft, nfl draft 2010, NflDraft, NflDraft2010, offseason speculation, OffseasonSpeculation
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