Education is important - more so than any President has made it in his agenda for the last 50 billion years. So to stand up for and properly support the educational cause, today we begin a series taking a look at some early sleepers at every position for this year's upcoming draft. Of course, all of this information will be rendered moot one month from now when combine numbers and Pro Days at various universities bring new candidates forward and set others behind.
Still, the real fun is in the guesswork before the draft day anyway. Once it's over, we all sigh and get depressed all summer hoping a few family vacations and the baseball season distract us enough before training camp. With that said, here's the first in the series of Early Sleepers, starting with some QBs.
THE NEED:
With each category, we will look at whether or not the Chiefs even have a need at the position we're analyzing and here you'll find as much back and forth as anywhere else. Some love Matt Cassel. Some want us to hit CTRL-ALT-DEL like I did on my old Commodore 64. Others say the jury is still out (me included). So some later round prospects might be just the thing to include on a list like this. And that's perfect for the "sleeper" category, since we will leave out players like Jimmy Claussen, Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy.
THE POSSIBILITIES:
Jarrett Brown - West Virginia
He's got the size, the strength and the athleticism to make scouts love his potential at the next level. The primary back-up to Pat White at WV, he came into his own this year with mostly pedestrian statistics but a prominent presence in the pocket. Yet it was his performance for the South squad in the recent Senior Bowl that had scouts loving the future of Brown. He's raw. He lacks the repetitions in a pro offense (remember WV's shotgun/option style). But the instincts are all there, the arm is strong, the decision making is impressive and there's real potential here.
More after the jump:
Armanti Edwards - Appalachian State UniversityThis guy's a total stud, so let me hurry up and beat any opponents to the punch. He's listed as only 6'0" and 184 lbs., which means he's really under six-feet. That's a legitimate issue in today's beefy/tally NFL. He's never faced top quality competition at the 1-AA school. Again, definitely an issue. Some experts like Todd McShay just don't like him at all, while others like Mel Kiper have him switching to wide receiver. I think any guy who's only second to Steve McNair in total offense in his career, upset Michigan in the famous season-opener in 2008 and absolutely trounced Joe Flacco's Delaware squad 49-21 deserves a closer look. Plus Drew Brees, Joe Theismann, Doug Flutie, Sonny Jurgensen and Y.A. Tittle were that short as well. He's got the composure, skill set, arm strength and decision-making skills to do something special. Then again, nobody agrees with me.
Matt Nichols - Eastern Washington
Consider him like Armanti Edwards without the size concerns. He put up 34 touchdowns last year, of course against horrible competition. Nobody really knows what they're getting with this kid, but he has the arm strength, the size and started to really impress scouts at the East-West Shrine game.
Bill Stull - Pittsburgh
Here's a guy who really displayed an ability to not only grasp, but run a pro-style offense efficiently against solid competition. The results weren't that spectacular in terms of statistics, but everyone agrees that his great work ethic, high football intelligence, and continual improvement through this past season holds good things in store in his future. Not the sexiest pick, but just might be the closest "sure thing" among the late round quarterbacks.