(11-21-2021 01:58 PM)Purple Wrote: (11-21-2021 01:37 PM)fishingduke12 Wrote: I've never said he isnt a good QB at the FCS level. The title of this thread is Cole Johnson to the bigs. I dont think some people here understand how good a quarterback has to be to play in the league
Or, maybe it's you who doesn't understand. By any measure, Cole's numbers are gaudy. He is certainly being watched by scouts and coaches across the NFL. He will be given a good look.
I think fishingduke understands this a lot better than you give him credit for.
In college, there are lots of baseball players who slug .600 because of aluminum bats and one-pitch pitchers. Then they get to AA and all those homers turn into flyballs when they hit with wood bats.
Or, by compparison, guys who have incredible control but throw 86 mph and get everyone out in college and low-A, but get shelled in the majors. It's the same thing both with Ratke and with Johnson.
Cole's numbers are, in fact, gaudy. But a major part of the NFL game is simply throwing harder. There are going to be lots of passes that an NFL QB has to make where he's not just as accurate as Cole is, but has to throw the ball with an extra 10 mph because instead of facing the Villanova free safety, he's facing the Raiders' free safety, who could make the olympic track team of over 100 countries.
Did you happen to see Peyton Manning's last year in the NFL? That's a guy who everyone knows has a football IQ off the charts, and could pick apart every defense he faced with ease. However, in his last year, he couldn't push off correctly because of a bad knee, and lost a good 15 mph on his passes. As a result, guys who were open when he threw it weren't anymore by the time the ball got there, or he had to lob them so that defenders had tons of time to jump the route, and he was utterly helpless. His interception rate went through the roof.
That's what happens when you simply don't throw hard enough. In some cases gaudy college numbers translate, and in some they don't. By comparison, DiNucci was both a running threat with the size to take an NFL beating *and* had the raw arm strength to make NFL throws. (He just didn't learn the system, and probably should have been an NDFA and spent a year or two on a taxi squad) Unless CoJo learns some serious mechanical changes to add speed on the ball, he just doesn't have enough raw power to fit the windows.
The similarities with Ethan Ratke are striking. Literally all 32 NFL kickers (plus the ~15 who get cut every year) have the raw power such that if they hit the ball cleanly, it'll be good from 60 yards. (Just like every major-league hitter, if they know what pitch is coming and hit it cleanly, will hit a home run.) If Ratke hits it just right, it'll go about 52 yards. And he hits it just right a lot, which is great, but he simply doesn't have the raw power.
Another comparison - golf. If you hit a driver 250 yards, dead-center on the fairway every single time, and are an ice-cold short-game guy, you'll thrive until you get to the PGA where the distance on your drive will put you 4 strokes per round behind the leaders before you have a chance for a single putt.
Cole's great. And maybe he'll get a look in Canada.