Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

This week's Sports Illustrated has a little sidebar that shows what attributes the scouts use when grading QBs, and what importance they attach to them. I thought it would be interesting to grade Omar (with my own observations) in these categories. They are listed in importance (according to the scouts SI talked to).


1. Arm Strength I know, I know, I don't think it's the most important aspect either. But they had a scout that asked a good question, when was the last time a QB was a star that DIDN'T have a strong arm? I would say that neither Brady nor Brees had strong arms on draft day, but they strengthened them immensely before they became stars.

Omar: 7
I'm giving Omar a 7 in this department. He's got a pretty strong arm in terms of zip on the ball, but I don't think he throws the deep ball particularly well. It's not really a part of our offense, so it's tough to say, but most of his long down-field passes required great catches by the WRs after the ball fluttered a little. FWIW, I probably would've put Big Ben in this category to. I only put freakish arms in the 8+ range (Vick, Favre, Cutler, etc).

2. Football IQ This, to me, is #1. I want a guy that knows the game and knows what to do with the ball in all situations. I'm talking pre-snap and post snap whether things are going good or bad.

Omar: 4
This is the one that Omar REALLY gets knocked down in my grading scale for. I don't like the audible system, and I think it shows that the coaching staff doesn't trust the QB to make his own reads. Perhaps that's egotism on their part, but I'm thinking that they were never really sold on his football IQ. Omar also struggled when plays broke down. He was good when the play went his way (or if the staff audibled), but when his first guys were covered he struggled to make things develop with his feet or finding the checkdowns. This was especially evident when Pope was hurt...he was always the security blanket when Omar didn't like what he saw in '04...not true in '05.

3. Accuracy For me this is #2, again ahead of arm strength. I want a guy that can put the ball on the MONEY. I'm not talking about just completing passes, but also hitting guys in stride for good YAC.

Omar: 9
Omar was the most accurate college passer I saw last year, and the most accurate I've watched since Rivers. The ball not only found his WRs hands with great consistency, but he constantly was hitting guys dead in stride. Accuracy is one trait you are born with and it rarely changes...I think this is his most marketable skill and definitely helps him project as a potential starter. The difference here is where I think Omar becomes a better prospect than J5. In fact, it may be the ONLY one of these categories that Omar has J5 beaten in.

4. Mobility I love a mobile QB. Personally I like the guys that can take off and give you yards on the ground, but the ability to move around in the pocket is even more important in the grand scheme.

Omar: 7
Even though Omar doesn't run much, I'm giving him a high mobility grade. I took points off his football IQ for his indecisiveness in running, so I won't do it here. We all know the kid CAN run when he chooses to. He does do a good job moving around in the pocket when there are bodies near by as well.

5. Leadership This is the one of these categories that is likely not the most important, but being stellar here can trump a lot of other deficiencies. Especially a guy that can put his team on his shoulders and will them to victory...I'm a big fan of QBs with that intangible ability.

Omar: 3
This is the only category in which I think Omar is below average. He didn't show the ability to carry the team late in games. Nor did we ever really pull off a major upset in his tenure. Heck we even struggled to win some games that we should've won. I really think Omar is a quiet personality, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not what I want in a QB. You hate to ding a player for personality, something they really have no control over, but in reality leadership ability is something you're born with and I just don't see it from Omar.

6. Toughness You want a guy that can take the pops and bounce back up. You need a guy who will play through pain as an example and a leader to the rest of the guys.

Omar: 6
I really don't have much basis for this. I don't think Omar was touched more than 10-15 times his SO year, and he came back in about average time from his injury this past season. So I'll give him a 6, which is about average, IMO.

7. Résumé Obviously you want guys that had success on the college level. Did you win? Did you put up big numbers? Did you make your teammates better? What was the competition like?

Omar: 8
Omar had one of the greatest seasons a college QB has ever had, statistically. He put up just insane numbers and ran the offense as well as can be imagined. He played equally well against tougher competition like OU & Wisconsin as he did against the dregs of the college football world. The only thing that keeps this from being a perfect score is because his résumé also shows that he played in our spread option offense from the shotgun all day. That makes a big difference in projectability so he loses 2 points for that.

8. Maturity This is probably just the Ryan Leaf category. Do your teammates respect you and can you be counted on in crunch time?

Omar: 9
Don't really know what to say here. Omar seems pretty mature and seems to have good focus & direction. The only reason this isn't a perfect score is because some scouts are going to question why he left early. Was he just chasing a paycheck, and will he let up when he gets it? I think this is a pretty wierd category as probably 95% of the guys will get a top score, and a few others will get very low scores. You're either mature, or you're not...

9. Pedigree Apparently a lot of scouts like QBs who had parents with football pedigrees. Were they players, coaches, etc?

Omar: ??
I really don't know his geneology. Does Omar have former NFL players in his family? I have no clue, really, so I'll give him an incomplete. I don't recall hearing about any, but I could be just mistaken.

10. Hand Size Like pedigree I think these bottom coule are just real nitpicky things, but I can see where you're going here. Culpepper's biggest knock was handsize and look how he fumbles the ball. Hand size comes into play more than we think.

Omar: 9
I haven't measured, so I cannot give a 10, but just from looking at picks the ball looks miniscule when in his grip. I'm not sure that he doesn't have some of the biggest hands around for QBs.



In all Omar grades out pretty well in most categories, but in my estimation I can see why he's rated lower than what some may want to believe. Football IQ is very important to nearly everyone, and we just haven't seen that much evidence that he's above average there. Leadership is another one of the top 5 attributes, and again he's not shown what you want to see in that. However, the physical categories I think he grades out very well in nearly all of them, and that still makes him a reasonable pick in the 3rd/4th round. It should be noted that where his stock is going to fluctuate from team to team, IMO, is the résumé category. I give him an 8, because I think what he did on the field was pretty remarkable for the most part. Still, I think there are teams that will discount almost all of what he did statistically because of the combo of system & competition faced. Having both of those as knocks could hurt the grade in a lot of scouts' eyes.

Another thing that I noted was that mechanics was not mentioned in the grading scale. I really don't think that most talent evaluators care too much about mechanics. If you get the ball out quickly & accurately, with adequate zip, then they don't care how you throw it. Only if it resulted in batted passes, inaccuracy, or arm troubles would it really be an issue, IMO.

Well feel free to add your own evals, I just thought I'd throw it out there. FWIW, Omar graded out as an average of 6.9 (I basically threw pedigree out the window). That seems pretty good to me, but should be noted that the average is a little less at 6.0 for what are deemed the top 5 most important categories. Of course this is just my opinion...

hammb:

As always, solid stuff. I'd question, though, whether most scouts would give Omar an 8 on Résumé. Yes, his numbers were PS2-incredible. But the ol' competition thing comes up.

So, did he win? Yes. But he didn't win against "top shelf" competition. He also, as you pointed out, never engineered the big upset.

Did he make his teammates look better? Well, yeah, I suppose. But Sanders, Sharon & Company looked pretty good with J5 at the controls, too. Tough to make a comparison on that basis.

I think you're both (hammb and 87) visiting the shortcomings of the team on the individual. Granted, we didn't pull off a big upset under Omar, but he did everything you could ask your QB to do in the Wisconsin game and he was our best player in the Oklahoma game. If the defense comes up with any kind of an effort against Wisonsin, we win that one handily.

There weren't too many games that I can recall where #4 wasn't clearly our best player.

SO far as Omar's deep throws go, this is where the sidearm motion bites him in the ass. He gets the ball downfield ok, but sometimes it kind of dips on him and goes into a bit of a nosedive. I think it's a result of the funky spin a side arm motion can put on the ball.

To say Omar was not a winer against teams in the big game is not right.
why..its for the very reason many scouts want to over look him...mid major...
take the game in norman..if we had had a carbon copy of O line and D line size, speed and skill man for man...or even been marginaly closer BG wins this game, same holds true for WI, and OSU, why? becasue of Omar.

Draft day will be draft day, Omar will get picked, pay his dues and play eventually and i would venture to bet his team will greatfull to have him running thier O

As for not calling his own audiables..look at the pros, most of those guys get those calls from the side, and in many cases they are part of the worked up game plan..
ie we send you this play, and show this, or look like thier going to stunt this, audible to this or that, or take a T and lets figure it out.

i bet the qB who does not pay out in big dividends is one who was one of the most exciting in College ball...V young, he will do well but will never make to the top.

hammb, I agree with a lot of what you said. This is a post I made on the Rocket board a couple days ago and though it is much less in-depth than your's, I think we share a common thought.

This is only a guess, and mine at that, but I have a feeling that he must not have performed well at the combine in the mental activities.

I think he has a lot of potential from a physical standpoint, but I've noticed that he lacks a couple of things that are key to the QB position. He seems to lack leadership skills and the ability to make his own audibles. This may have been identified at the combine. A lot of people put Gradkowski down because of his physical skills, but he has all of the intangibles that you could want in your QB. He's smart on the field and knows when to make the right audibles. Similarly, the other ten guys seem to respect him as a leader. Simply put, in a two minute drill, he's the kind of guy you want commanding your team. I'm not trying to make this a Gradkowksi vs. Jacobs argument, but just pointing out the key attributes in a QB and examples. Basically, I think a great QB is made up of three components: the physical abilities, leadership, and intelligence on the field. It seems that Jacobs has #1 but is somewhat deficient in the latter two. Gradkowski is proficient in the latter two, but people question the #1. In contrast, Roethlisberger seems to have all three.

FWIW, I think that #2 and #3 can be coached into a player and I look for Jacobs to have a good impact in the NFL in a couple years...much better than Harris.