They say that size matters.
Bigger is better.
It’s true in most – not all, mind you, but most – aspects of life.
And it’s true – again, mostly, but not always (Brock Osweiler) — when it comes to the size of quarterbacks at all levels of football, especially in the NFL, where the defenders getting after them are as big as freight trains, and hit like ’em, too. So a quarterback has to have some size to absorb those collisions and still be able to get back up and partake in the next play.
Nowhere in the league is that truer than in the AFC North, which is home to some of the game’s biggest quarterbacks in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger, a 6-foot-5, 241-pounder who is headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday with two Super Bowl rings and another trip to the championship game, the Baltimore Ravens’ Ben Flacco, who, at 6-6 and 245, has earned his way into the Hall of the Pretty Good with a Super Bowl ring, and the Cincinnati Bengals’ 6-2, 216-pounder, Andy Dalton, who is in the Hall of the Good – that is, if only regular-season games are counted.
Is it just a coincidence that the two biggest quarterbacks have the two biggest resumes?
We think not.
Nobody knows that better than Browns head coach Hue Jackson, a quarterback guru who has coached a long time in the AFC North, and has coached Dalton.
His two best quarterbacks right now in Cleveland are Cody Kessler, who, at 6-1 and 215, lacks size and a big arm, and Osweiler, a 6-7, 243-pounder who has good size but not a good track record, despite what you may hear in some quarters.
So what’s a coach to do? Take one in the 2017 NFL Draft in about 23 days?
Perhaps, depending upon what that – “take one” — means. The Browns are expected to “take one,” but where? And where will determine how much of a viable candidate, at least on paper, that player is to be the team’s franchise quarterback.
With the No. 1 overall pick, No. 12 overall and five selections in the top 65, the Browns have a lot to say – a whole lot, really – about where they draft that guy.
For those people – and that includes all of you – wondering who that man might be, the top-rated quarterbacks in the draft size up like this:
*Mitch Trubisky – 6-2, 222.
*Deshaun Watson – 6-2, 221.
*DeShone Kizer – 6-4, 233.
*Patrick Mahomes – 6-2, 225.
*Davis Webb – 6-5, 229.
Any takers?
And just to put it out there, New England Patriots backup Jimmy Garoppolo, the veteran the Browns are thought to covet more than any quarterback – pro or draft-eligible — out there, is 6-foot-2 and 225 pounds.
