Full disclosure: I’m still pulling for Fields and I don’t watch college football.
With that in mind, if we do move on from Fields, I wanted to get my head around how the basic stats of Williams & Maye compare to recent #1s overall.
Main Takeaway: Statistically speaking, vs prior #1 picks, Williams is middle of the pack and Maye is bottom in almost every main category.
Follow-up Questions for those of you who know and watch college football:
- Can someone explain why Caleb Williams is talked about as being “generational” or a can’t pass up?
- Can someone explain why there is so much love on Drake Maye? Honestly, his figures are extremely similar (maybe worse) than Trubisky. Given they went to the same school, that is quite concerning.
As many others have said, if it was as simple as drafting the guy with the best stats, then no one would ever miss on QBs. You would draft the guy with the best college stats, and create some threshold for not drafting guys below that stat line.
But it doesn’t work that way. I’m not going to pretend to be a talent evaluator or have watched every snap of Williams this year, but when I watch him, he’s just different.
Also, Williams’ stats from this year are fucking awesome considering it’s a “down” year for him. Speaking from my friend group text and what I see on Reddit, it’s just “cool” and in vogue to hate on Williams.
Same. I can’t even pretend to be a talent evaluator, especially QBs. It blows my mind how people say they don’t like Caleb anymore cause they look at some box scores these past several weeks. Like, just admit you don’t know what you’re talking about… it’s ok!
There’s reasons not to like him, but only citing box scores in reference to that is dumb.
They say that he doesnt win enough and them say qb wins are not a stat when Fields W/L record is brought up
(1) Fields did win in college. At that level, you expect the elite of the elite to dominate.
(2) it’s not Caleb or Fields, Fields + it’s what you can get for Caleb vs Caleb + what you can get for Fields.
Caleb had an amazing sophomore season. He was efficient while putting up really big numbers, with another year of development to get even better. That’s what got him on the radar as a generational prospect. That tag was put on him last year. Then he took a step back as a junior. Put another way, if he hadn’t dominated as a sophomore he wouldn’t be in the discussion for #1 pick this year, and certainly wouldn’t have this “generational” can’t miss tag on him. So now you have to decide which is the fools gold, and that’s where the fans are. He wasn’t bad this year by any stretch, but also didn’t live up to the hype. Matt Leinart was also a lock #1 prospect until he returned for a final year.
Much like Fields, having seen what he can do at the college level certainly impacts how you evaluate what he did this year. That’s not a bad thing, we did see how high the ceiling goes last year. That’s production on his game tape. But is that a realistic ceiling for him to hit in the NFL? His junior year being a downtick just has to create some pause when we’re discussing this. The things he put on tape this year feel a lot like what we’ve seen the last 3 years with Fields and that is concerning because of the value of the #1 overall pick. He holds the ball too long, and hangs on his reads trying to push the ball deep. Are we spending #1 on Fields v2?
This is just wrong.
This is nonsense. Mahomes had a losing record in college. Brady didn’t dominate college. There are plenty of QBs that were elite in the NFL, but did not dominate in college.
Williams has been a highly sought-after prospect since being 12 years old.
Outside of them holding onto the ball long, they aren’t comparable players. I can only imagine what stats Williams could put up if you dropped him on that OSU team. Williams had a very productive year playing with a terrible defense, and outside of him, a bad offense. The OL was bad. His receivers were bad. The game plan was basically, make a first read and if its not there, scramble around to buy time until someone might get open. Honestly, outside of both being black, I don’t think they are remotely similar players.
Agreed, dudes that post this stuff need to go watch videos of Williams making fucking ridiculous throws. I mean throws that I don’t think a lot of NFL qbs can make.
I can’t remember who USC was playing but it went to OT and on a two point conversion Williams extended the play with his feet and proceeded to fit a ball in between like three fucking defenders. He put it a window not much bigger than the ball itself. Hit the WR right in the hands and it was dropped. Probably because the WR was triple covered and never expected the ball to come to him.
Yep, what worries in his game is that he have a kind of hero syndrome, trying to make big plays every time when he just needs to be in pocket and make a simple play. He’ll have to adapt that to the NFL level, otherwise he won’t last long
Blake Bortles made ridiculous throws in college, how did he work out in the NFL?
His arm is absolutely electric, he has a quick release and throws very well off platform. Physically the only real knock on him is that he’s a little short (but he is well built/stout - he’s not a little guy like Bryce Young)
Didn’t people say that about Bryce Young last year? Can make all the throws, arm angles, yadda yadda?