I recently completed my 2013 NFL Draft Preview on quarterbacks and while I am confident I covered the top prospects in this year's draft, there are two others I am intrigued with and will be curious to see where they end up. It's not often you get a diamond in the rough late in the draft at the QB position, but nobody thought much of Tom Brady coming out of college and he was a 6th round pick. So while unlikely to find a great QB later in the draft, it's also not impossible. Even in a weak QB prospect draft like this season.

 

The two quarterbacks I'm going to look at here are polar opposites. I am basically going to choose one that is in the mold of a traditional drop back QB, and the other in the new mold of the read option type of QB's we're going to see more of with the recent success of those types of QB's.

 

First up is the traditional drop back guy: Duke's Sean Renfree.

 

Renfree checks in with the requisite size at 6'3", 219 lbs. While he doesn't have a rocket for an arm, he has more than enough arm strength to make all the throws a QB makes at the NFL level. He's lauded for his accuracy, high football IQ, and his work ethic. He's a tough kid with strong leadership qualities. Renfree's college coach was David Cutliffe, who also coached both Peyton Manning at Tennessee and Eli Manning at Ole Miss, so it's safe to assume Cutliffe knows something about quarterbacks. It was a bad break for Renfree when he tore a pectoral muscle late in Duke's bowl game as this has prevented Renfree from taking part in the scouting combine or any of the pre-draft workouts. This is likely going to cause him to fall down to the 7th round, and there could be a chance he doesn't get drafted at all. But he'll be somewhere come training camp, and I'll be curious to see how he performs in preseason. After all, there has to be a reason to watch preseason games, and evaluating players, especially quarterbacks, is the best reason of all.

 

The other QB I wanted to say a few things about is in the new style of read-option type QB's, and that is Arizona's Matt Scott.

 

Scott is 6'2", 213 lbs, and is a great athlete who is that dual threat both rushing and passing the football. He is as good when moved out of the pocket as he is when standing in it. He has plenty of arm strength and his ability to avoid the rush and make plays with his legs will serve him well in the right situation in the pros. What he lacks is a lot of experience (only 17 college starts), and is too quick to take off and run when his first read isn't open instead of going thru his progressions. He'll force passes into tight windows, sometimes with negative results. A strong finish to his college career and solid workout performances since then have some saying that Scott could be taken as early as late in the second round. Guys don't usually shoot up from being 6th or 7th round picks to that high, but it's becoming clearer that Scott is likely to come off the board somewhere in rounds 3 or 4. How he does in the pros is unknown. If he goes to a team that runs a traditional offense,Scott will fail. If he goes to a team that is running a read-option offense, Scott could surprise.

 

There are no sure things in this year's QB draft class, but these are two more names to keep an eye. You just never know when the unexpected guy surprises you.then Scott could surprise if given an opportunity.