Quarterback

Boise State

6-0 197

Draft board overall prospect rank: #191

Draft board overall quarterback rank: #9

Overall rating: 54 (6^th round)

40 time: 4.94

Games watched: Boise State/Toledo, Boise State/Fresno State, Boise State/Arizona State

Positives

·         Incredibly smart

·         High football IQ

·         Excellent decision maker

·         Great short to intermediate accuracy

·         Excellent timing

·         Quick release

·         Winner (50-3 career record with 3 losses by 5 points)

·         4 year starter

·         4 years of great production (completion percentages between 64.3%-74.3%, YPAs between 8.2-10.0, TDs between 25-43, INTs between 3-10)

·         Has always been mature beyond his years

·         Good pocket presence

·         Gets ball out quick and avoids sacks

·         High character leader

·         Great field vision

·         Always keeps his eyes downfield

·         Hard worker who loves the game

·         All the intangibles

Negatives

·         Short (barely 6 foot)

·         Small frame 6-0 197

·         Minimal arm strength

·         Struggles with throws outside the numbers

·         Deep throws tend to hang

·         Poor deep accuracy

·         Low release point

·         Combination of low release point and lack of height lead to a lot of passes deflected at the line, only will get worse in NFL

·         Level of competition wasn’t great

·         Not mobile

·         Doesn’t throw particularly well on the run

·         Poor athlete

·         Not a lot of under center experience

·         No Pro Style experience

·         System quarterback?

·         Doesn’t pass the eyeball test

NFL Comparison: Shorter Colt McCoy

Kellen Moore is the winningest quarterback in college football history with a 50-3 career. That record could stand for a long time and may never be broken. However, this is not a definite precursor for NFL success. The top 4 winningest quarterbacks in college football history: Kellen Moore, Colt McCoy, David Greene, Andy Dalton. Only Dalton has 40+ wins in college and went on to become a legitimate NFL starter. This isn’t to say that quarterbacks with a lot of wins are automatically going to fail in the NFL. This would be ridiculous. However, it’s not a definite predictor of NFL success.

Moore has got a lot of things working against him. First of all, he’s barely 6 foot tall. There are only 2 NFL starting quarterbacks who have had any sort of success at shorter than 6-2: Michael Vick and Drew Brees. Moore doesn’t have Vick’s speed and athleticism and Brees has a much stronger arm. Neither of those two quarterbacks have Moore’s weird delivery point. It’s Philip Rivers esque. That works fine if you’re Rivers and 6 foot 5, but Moore isn’t. A lot of his passes are going to be knocked down at the line of scrimmage. That happened quite a bit in college, but it’ll happen more in the NFL, especially with all of the tall long armed defensive ends like Jason Pierre Paul and the like.

Moore has a lot of trouble driving the ball deep. His deep balls don’t have a lot of zip or velocity and float too much. He has trouble throwing into windows farther than 10-15 yards out and he doesn’t have the ability to consistent drive the ball outside the numbers. NFL teams will just stack the middle against him and dare him to beat them deep. His arm will get stronger in the NFL as he gets into a strength training program, but because of his small frame, I question how much muscle he can add and how much stronger his arm can get.

It’s a shame because he’s one of the smartest most accurate college quarterbacks I can remember. He’s an excellent leader with all the intangibles. He’s got an infectious demeanor and work ethic and love for the game. He’s a winner (albeit in a weak conference) with incredibly short accuracy and football intelligence. He’s a poised leader with a quick delivery and great pocket presence.

However, all of the same things can be said about Colt McCoy, who Moore surpassed in career wins this season. McCoy won 44 games in a tougher conference in the Big 12. He was just as smart and accurate and poised as Moore and even taller (6-2). However, he fell to the late 3^rd round and in 2 years as a starter, he has failed to impress. The Browns are once again searching for a quarterback 2 years later. Moore will probably be a 5^th or 6^th round pick, but will have a similar career. He’s not going to be a good starter in the NFL, but you can do a lot worse in your backup quarterback.