NFL | Hit and Miss - Luck and RGIII To Continue The Trend? - ImaGamer_OS's Blog

ImaGamer_OS's Blog

NFL | Hit and Miss - Luck and RGIII To Continue The Trend?

Posted on August 28, 2012 at 06:00 AM.

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NFL | Hit and Miss - Luck and RGIII To Continue The Trend?

Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III (RGIII) - who will be HIT and who will be MISS when history casts an eye over this year's draft?

When Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III went 1-2 in the 2012 NFL Draft, it marked only the fifth time since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 that two quarterbacks were taken with the first two picks. Outside perhaps the 1971 draft which saw Jim Plunkett snapped up by the Patriots and Archie Manning taken by the Saints, there is a potentially worrying trend when looking at the three other examples. They are:

1993 � Drew Bledsoe (Patriots) and Rick Mirer (Seahawks)
1998 � Peyton Manning (Colts) and Ryan Leaf (Chargers)
1999 � Tim Couch (Browns) and Donovan McNabb (Eagles)

For those who missed it, the trend here can be summed up simply as: Hit and Miss, or as in the case of 1999 � Miss, Hit and Miss. Should Indianapolis and Washington fans be concerned?

I am on record as stating the both Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III are the class of the field when looking at the rookie quarterbacks and they both should leave them all for dead. With that said, if I was going to bet on who was going to be the labelled as the �hit� here, it is clearly Andrew Luck who if we were building the prototype QB, he would be the blue print.

Andrew Luck possesses size, an off the charts football IQ, an accurate arm albeit not as "live" as others and has great mobility. At the line of scrimmage Luck has demonstrated an ability to read defenses quickly, check out of plays and attack the defense's vulnerable spots. Luck is rated as the best QB prospect since John Elway came out of college - coincidentally, Elway is also a product out of Stanford University.

Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III has come a long way since his humble beginnings at Baylor University. RGIII is an athlete, arguably the quickest quarterback in the NFL right now and has demonstrated a high IQ on and off the field. I like his arm, he has more zip than Luck though could show more touch on the short to medium ranged passes. The biggest concern for mine is that he played primarily in a spread offense. Ultimately he is behind Luck in being ready to take the next step though his upside and undoubted talent should get him by.

The hype around Robert Griffin pre-draft reminded me of the Vince Young hype machine that we went through in 2006. I was for a while there concerned my Indianapolis Colts were going to get swept up in the fanfare and I breathed a sigh of relief ultimately when we went with Luck. I don�t intend on offending RGIII or his fans here, though I am as certain as I�ve ever been in my twenty five years of following the game that Andrew Luck is as sure-a-thing as there has been since Peyton Manning came in to the NFL. RGIII does have an element of risk in his drafting by Coach Shanahan, much like Vince Young six years back when Jeff Fisher took the Texan Longhorn.

S, I ask the question of my readers, will the 2012 number one and two picks continue the hit and miss trend we have seen or will we see a change in fortunes where both numbers one and two go on to have very good to great NFL careers?