Combine catchup: quarterback

Notes from NFL Combine coverage of February 27th:

- Mike Mayock apologized at one point during today's coverage on behalf of everyone who got far too carried away about Bruce Campbell's workout yesterday. Good on Mayock, but it turns out he apologized for his network too soon. Quarterback coverage was an atrocious Tim Tebow-fest, breathless coverage of a quarterback who didn't even come to the Combine to throw. I could give a crap how fast a QB runs 40 yards, and I could give two craps about their vertical leap. NFL Net, naturally, couldn't shut up about Tebow's 38.5” mark in that event. How much vertical leaping do quarterbacks do, anyway? I'd rather see the RBs running their 40s the second time, a drill that's much more important to that position. No, NFL Net showed almost none of that.... so they could interview Tebow.

The only number about the openly-religious Tebow that I found remotely interesting was his time in the 3-cone drill. 6.66. Figured he'd reject the mark and rerun it, but no.

- There were some awful QBs throwing some of the WR drills. Armanti Edwards of Appalachian State's out routes looked like they were being thrown by Rick Ankiel. Max Hall of BYU similarly stunk at it. Sean Canfield of Oregon State wasn't a whole lot better.

- Given that NONE of the big names, and even some of the just-middling names, like Dan LeFevour, opted not to throw at all, the QB drills were much more of an undercard than a main event. The QB who stood out the most was one I've previously thought should be avoided like the plague: interception machine Jevan Snead of Ole Miss. He has nice size, looks like he can make all the throws and looked pretty darn strong in the deep-throw drills. Of course, the drills are all run without defenders on the field. In this format, though, I think Snead was the QB who helped himself the most.
- Tony Pike looked good on the shorter throws but came up pretty short with his deep passes, and consistently.
- Other QBs who stood out with good throwing: John Skelton of Fordham, Thaddeus Lewis of Duke.
- For inaccurate throwing: Zac Robinson of Oklahoma State, Riley Skinner of Wake Forest.

For a team potentially looking to take a quarterback with the first overall pick, this year's Combine was essentially useless. No Bradford, no Jimmy Clausen. The two things that stood out to me were Snead's performance and NFL Network's fawning coverage of Tim Tebow before he's set foot in an NFL camp.

Tim Tebow is an eminently likeable person and worthy role model, NFL Net. Don't overexpose him the way everyone's done with Favre and make everyone sick of him before he even takes his first snap.