by Chase Stuart
on November 17, 2013
O'Brien teaches McGloin how to throw a football.
Two weeks ago,
Jeff Tuel became the Buffalo starting quarterback after
Thaddeus Lewis (who was replacing an injured
EJ Manuel) couldn’t play
against the Chiefs due a ribs injury. Today, former Penn State quarterback
Matt McGloin will start for the Raiders, as
Terrelle Pryor will miss the game against the Texans due to an injured knee.
This is a mind-boggling development for fans of college football. McGloin was a walk-on at Penn State who co-starred with four-star recruit Rob Bolden in one of the least-competent quarterback battles in recent memory. In 2010 and 2011, the duo seemingly alternated every other week, which was about how long it took for one of them to lose the job. Among the 90 quarterbacks who threw for at least 3,000 yards over that two-year period, McGloin ranked 87th in completion percentage. Then, Bill O’Brien arrived, and McGloin turned into a real quarterback, and led the Big 10 in both passing yards and passing touchdowns.
McGloin joins Tuel, Max Hall, and Matt Moore as the only undrafted free agent rookies to start a game at quarterback in the last ten years. The table below is a bit overinclusive: it includes all undrafted quarterbacks who started a game during the first season in which they played a game. That’s not quite the same thing as starting as a rookie, of course, but it’s the best I can do. Brock Berlin, for example, went undrafted in 2005, so he wouldn’t count, but he appears on the list below. To help you filter through the “sat around for a few years but didn’t get into a game/played in another league” issue, I’ve included an age column.
[continue reading…]
Tagged as:
Jeff Tuel,
Matt McGloin,
Undrafted Players
{ }
by Chase Stuart
on May 3, 2013
Can you believe I went undrafted?
Now that the NFL Draft is behind us, I thought I’d take a look at the best undrafted rookies to enter the NFL since 2002. At some positions (quarterback, tight end, pass rusher), picking the best players is very easy; at others (running back, wide receiver, safety) you’ll notice that there have been quite a few successful undrafted free agents. I think the most valuable part of this exercise is simply seeing where it’s reasonable and unreasonable to expect to find a successful player outside of the draft.
Below is my starting lineup, although I’ve selected 12 players on offense and 14 players on defense to accommodate different schemes.
Quarterback: Tony Romo (2003)
Honorable Mention: Shaun Hill (2005), Matt Moore (2007)
This one’s a no-brainer. Outside of Romo, no undrafted quarterback has done much as of late. As Scott Kacsmar noted yesterday, it’s not just undrafted quarterbacks struggling for playing time: all but five of the expected 2013 starting quarterbacks were top-40 picks.
Running Back: Arian Foster (2009)
Honorable Mention: Willie Parker (2004), Ryan Grant, Fred Jackson, Pierre Thomas (all 2007), BenJarvus Green-Ellis, Mike Tolbert, (both 2008), Danny Woodhead (2009), LeGarrette Blount (2010)
[continue reading…]
Tagged as:
Undrafted Players
{ }
