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Mike Mayock has gone from being one of the most-respected draft analysts to just-another-guy over the past few years. It's a little odd, because he used to be all about the film and basing his rankings on what he saw, but he's now turned more to being a traditional analyst: trying to project how NFL teams view players based in part on his knowledge of all of those NFL insiders.
Which is not a bad thing. It just leads to some odd statements at times. Like the ones below.
Mayock: "I have Jameis Winston number one. The reason is in his offense, I can see everything you want out of a quarterback."
— NFL Media PR (@InsideNFLMedia) February 13, 2015
Mayock on Winston: "I don’t like all of the interceptions he throws; he reminds me a little bit of a Jay Cutler coming out of Vanderbilt."
— NFL Media PR (@InsideNFLMedia) February 13, 2015
That's an odd comparison. Jay Cutler's biggest asset is his massively strong arm, but he's actually pretty rubbish at throwing with anticipation -- which is Jameis Winston's biggest asset. While there are some similarity in the ways in which both players tend to be overaggressive and miss underneath players in coverage, you could argue Winston is actually better at this now than gunslinger Cutler ever was.
I'm also not sure this means anything for Lovie Smith, who worked with Jay Cutler for years. Given the lack of success the Bears had with Cutler at the helm, I doubt Smith will be particularly inclined to get a quarterback like him again. But then, Winston really isn't like Cutler, either.