NFL Quarterback Draft Prospect: Tony Pike
Seemingly, all of the numerous NFL draft websites and experts have agreed that former University of Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike is one of the top quarterbacks in the draft, a fact which I find both amazing and disheartening. Possessing the knowledge that there are those who actually think Pike is a viable quarterback draft prospect is amazing because nothing could be further from the truth and it is disheartening because it once again demonstrates how little most people have learned about judging which college quarterbacks will be good pros. This is not to say that Tony Pike is the worst quarterback who is available to be drafted (that award goes to Jevan Snead), but Pike is definitely not worth a draft pick.
In the Dan LeFevour post, I mentioned offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn, whom LeFevour played for his freshman year before Quinn brought his no-huddle spread offense to the University of Cincinnati. Quinn's offense is designed to elevate a quarterback's numbers so one would think that at the University of Cincinnati, Pike put up such spectacular numbers that there is no way one could avoid thinking such a fantastic college quarterback would make a great pro. Erroneous. What Pike ended up doing during his time is incredibly underwhelming. In nineteen games where Pike played a significant amount of the game, he only completed 62.5% of his passes and 7.6 yards per pass attempt. Even for a college quarterback playing in a pro-style system in this day and age, a completion percentage of 62.5% is not one that translates well to the NFL; for a spread offense quarterback, 62.5% screams that here is a quarterback who could not even master an offense that begs players to put up gaudy numbers so there is little chance he will succeed in any one that an NFL team runs.
Not only do Pike's numbers look poor by themselves, they are made even worse by the play of his back-up Zach Collaros during the four games Pike missed due to injury. In those four games, Collaros completed 78.3% of his passes and 11.6 yards per pass attempt. Although it would be a Sisyphean task for a quarterback to maintain such astounding statistics for an entire season, Collaros's numbers are much more in line with what one would expect from a truly elite spread offense quarterback and raise a very important question. How can any NFL team expect for Tony Pike to be the top quarterback on its squad or in the league if he was not even the better quarterback on his own college football team? Although Brian Kelly allowed Pike to resume his starting job after he regained his health, Collaros is the one who should have started for the Bearcats for the rest of the season.
Moreover, Pike was a very inconsistent quarterback while at Cincinnati. His completion percentage standard deviation of .124 is the highest of the five quarterback prospects I have examined so far, which demonstrates just how untrustworthy a quarterback he really is. His inconsistency is yet another reason for NFL teams to take a pass on him.
Tony Pike is one of the more undeserving quarterback prospects of a draft pick this year. No team should covet him enough to waste a draft pick on a player it can use on someone who may actually end up helping the team in the long run. No matter what many draft experts and pundits would like to believe, everything about Tony Pike indicates he will never succeed in the NFL.
In the Dan LeFevour post, I mentioned offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn, whom LeFevour played for his freshman year before Quinn brought his no-huddle spread offense to the University of Cincinnati. Quinn's offense is designed to elevate a quarterback's numbers so one would think that at the University of Cincinnati, Pike put up such spectacular numbers that there is no way one could avoid thinking such a fantastic college quarterback would make a great pro. Erroneous. What Pike ended up doing during his time is incredibly underwhelming. In nineteen games where Pike played a significant amount of the game, he only completed 62.5% of his passes and 7.6 yards per pass attempt. Even for a college quarterback playing in a pro-style system in this day and age, a completion percentage of 62.5% is not one that translates well to the NFL; for a spread offense quarterback, 62.5% screams that here is a quarterback who could not even master an offense that begs players to put up gaudy numbers so there is little chance he will succeed in any one that an NFL team runs.
Not only do Pike's numbers look poor by themselves, they are made even worse by the play of his back-up Zach Collaros during the four games Pike missed due to injury. In those four games, Collaros completed 78.3% of his passes and 11.6 yards per pass attempt. Although it would be a Sisyphean task for a quarterback to maintain such astounding statistics for an entire season, Collaros's numbers are much more in line with what one would expect from a truly elite spread offense quarterback and raise a very important question. How can any NFL team expect for Tony Pike to be the top quarterback on its squad or in the league if he was not even the better quarterback on his own college football team? Although Brian Kelly allowed Pike to resume his starting job after he regained his health, Collaros is the one who should have started for the Bearcats for the rest of the season.
Moreover, Pike was a very inconsistent quarterback while at Cincinnati. His completion percentage standard deviation of .124 is the highest of the five quarterback prospects I have examined so far, which demonstrates just how untrustworthy a quarterback he really is. His inconsistency is yet another reason for NFL teams to take a pass on him.
Tony Pike is one of the more undeserving quarterback prospects of a draft pick this year. No team should covet him enough to waste a draft pick on a player it can use on someone who may actually end up helping the team in the long run. No matter what many draft experts and pundits would like to believe, everything about Tony Pike indicates he will never succeed in the NFL.
Labels: NFL
posted by David at
12:16 AM
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