Mike Mayock held a three-hour conference call yesterday, and NFL Network was kind enough to distribute all of the quotes from that call. This means I get to go through everything, rip out the relevant quotes for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and present them to you.
I decided to focus on the quarterbacks outside the top three. It's pretty clear at this point that Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles are well ahead of the pack, and that none of those quarterbacks is likely to fall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at no. 7. Even if they fall, there's no guarantee the Bucs will even be interested in any of them. Manziel seems like a poor fit with Jeff Tedford's offense, especially.
But the Bucs do need to add some competition for Mike Glennon, or at minimum upgrade the team's depth at the position. Right now that depth consists of quarterback Mike Kafka. While the Bucs could certainly sign someone like Matt Cassel in free agency, they could look to the draft to find a developmental prospect in case Glennon fails. Derek Carr is an especially likely target, given his personal links to Jeff Tedford.
Below you'll find all of Mayock's quotes on quarterbacks not named Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel or Blake Bortles. There's a lot of information here, so enjoy!
Overall
I think Derek Carr from Fresno is somebody that people are trying to learn more about, and there's some interesting wild‑cards this year, I think at request also.
I think AJ McCarron is solid but he's a second or third round quarterback. I think Carr will fit into the end of the first round. Jimmy Garoppolo has really helped himself at east west in the Senior Bowl and two kids got hurt later in the year, indiscernible ‑‑ from Georgia, I think depending on how their rehab goes could be third or fourth round guys that are developmental players.
And I mentioned earlier, Logan Thomas, two years ago when I saw him play Michigan in a Bowl game I thought he would be the first pick of the entire draft, two years later, and since then, he's got two or three good tapes and the rest are really bad tapes. But he's still 6‑5, big, beautiful body, can throw the ball and the other kind of wild‑card I would say is Tom Savage that nobody talks about from University of Pittsburgh. He's a big, strong kid that can throw also.
I think as you go down the list a little bit, there are guys like Stephen Morris and Tajh Boyd that are highly athletic and Logan Thomas to me is the wild‑card of this year's quarterback class. He's got tremendous talent and mobile skills but he might not go until late in the draft. I think you'll see reflected throughout the quarterback class, there's a whole group of mobile quarterbacks that still have good arms and can throw from the pocket.
Derek Carr
I think Carr would be an interesting guy at 26.
I do believe ‑‑ I didn't love his USC tape in the Bowl game at all but I do believe he's got the arm strength and athletic ability to be a starter in the NFL. I don't think he's a Pro Bowl‑type starter but he's a competent starter. You've got to ask yourself, at 26, are you getting significant improvement over what you think Brian Hoyer is, because if you're not, then you need to move on and get another positional player.
Jimmy Garoppolo
I like Garoppolo a lot. I was curious to watch him play at the East‑West game because I had seen some tape. The first tape I watched he ripped apart I want to say San Diego State, I think it was. I thought, wow, quick release, good feet, big, strong, good‑looking kid.
When I got to the East‑West game, I was anxious to watch him. What I saw on tape I saw that week and the following week at the Senior Bowl. So I thought he handled himself well and I thought he helped himself as much as any kid in the country did through the two‑week period of the East‑West Senior Bowl, went from a mid to late round question mark to a guy that could conceivably go in the second or third round. Teams are looking at potentially a starting quarterback.
Tajh Boyd
Tajh Boyd is better arm strength than people think, good mobility, won a lot of football games, has some inconsistency on tape but he's a playmaker and I like that. He's a guy I think you get mid to late in this draft and you can try to develop him, so I like him.
Connor Shaw
The South Carolina quarterback, [Connor] Shaw, I think given his history medically and off the field, etc. , I love his toughness on the field but I'm just not sure if his body type, if his training is going to warrant taking much of a beating but I think he'll get an opportunity.
Zach Mettenberger
Without the injury, I still don't think he's going to be a first or second round pick. I think what he is ‑‑ and what worries me a little bit on tape is I think he stares down some of his intended receivers, I think the ball comes out late sometimes. He's not a guy that I think can start day one in the NFL anyway.
So if you ask me how much it would impact him, the injury, I don't think quite as much as you might think on the surface, because I do believe he's got a lot of learning to do. I like his size, I like his ability and I like his arm strength. It's more just a matter of his footwork, being more consistent with the ball, his feet being lined up, getting the ball out and some of the reads he makes. I think he just doesn't get the ball out quickly enough and I think that's something that a young quarterback has got to develop.