Brady Quinn: Not an NFL GM

C.J. Stroud's draft stock is not impacted by analysts, it doesn't mean we should ignore what they say: Seaside Joe 1511

There is a chance that when the Seattle Seahawks are on the clock next Thursday that Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud will be available, so I thought it was important to address this week’s controversy surrounding comments made by Brady Quinn. I encourage everyone who might leave a comment on this post to read through entirely by doing so because this article is NOT about what Quinn said.

It’s about what Quinn heard. The Internet has a clever way of confusing that distinction when these situations arise so that we aren’t focusing on what’s important. In this case, what’s important isn’t what you’re hearing about Stroud—because you, me, and even Brady Quinn—are not making any draft decisions. It’s about whether or not this is foretelling what will happen on Thursday.

Just as it foretold where Justin Fields was drafted two years ago.

Leading up to the 2021 NFL Draft, we were in a similar situation with the quarterback class as we are today. Now that Bryce Young has settled into the number one spot for most people, we can compare a group having a “clear guy on top” and then a debate between three or four other prospects who each carry their own special bag of positives and negatives. And like now, there was an Ohio State quarterback vying for the number two spot.

And like now, which we will get into in a minute, a former NFL quarterback shared “things I’m hearing” about that Buckeyes prospect in the month before the draft: On March 31, 2021, Dan Orlovsky went on The Pat McAfee Show and said that he’s heard Justin Fields is a “last guy in, first guy out type of quarterback” and “there are some questions about his work ethic”.

It was in the next 24 hours that Orlovsky realized that if you want to be a “draft insider” then you better be prepared for the blowback when you run the risk of turning the Internet into John Wick against you.

Since that day, Orlovsky’s opinion on Fields has…well, let’s just say that it’s “adjusted”.

Nevermind that it’s not important if you get drafted first or 10th or 75th or last…how you play once you get to the next level is what matters and it can even be beneficial sometimes to “slide”…the Internet doesn’t like it when they perceive that you’re intentionally or perhaps ignorantly doing something to hurt a “Player I Like”’s draft stock.

Because somehow the Internet thinks that the Internet is making draft decisions, rather than the Internet maybe only being a reflection of what’s happening in the real world, at best.

Orlovsky was so terrified of being cast as a villain in the Justin Fields draft saga that he ran in the complete opposite direction as fast as he could. Almost like…Justin Fields.

That’s not what Brady Quinn is doing. He’s running straight at the people who have told him to keep his mouth shut about Stroud, including most notably Ryan Clark.

To catch you up on how this started, though this is not necessarily new information, this week the NFL on CBS podcast with Will Brinson, Katie Mox, and Quinn discussed why there are rumors that not only will the Houston Texans pass on C.J. Stroud, he could be available outside of the top-5. Unlike Dov Kleiman, I will share the whole clip and you can choose to watch it or read my short summary:

Short summary of the concerns: Three reasons that Stroud might not get drafted as early as people have expected (I think using the word “falling” is misleading) according to Quinn are that his numbers under pressure pale in comparison to a clean pocket, he’s surrounded by elite college football talent, and that he’s heard concerns related to “interviews” and an incident in which he “ghosted” a scheduled appearance at the Manning Passing Academy.

Now here’s the important part that everyone else is leaving out of the story: Brady Quinn also hedged against all three of those concerns—because they aren’t his concerns—by adding that he has proven he can handle pressure as showcased in the game against Georgia, that he can’t control the talent around him, and that as far as he’s concerned Stroud has a high character.

“Any time I’ve been around the kid he’s been an upstanding young man who has grown and matured into a leader that I think NFL teams are looking for.”

Stroud is Quinn’s number two quarterback and it sounds like he would definitely be considering him with the number two pick if he ran the Texans. Which is the most important piece of context at all:

HE IS NOT AN NFL GM! ORLOVSKY IS NOT AN NFL GM!

C.J. Stroud: Falling?

No analyst is giving you information that will directly impact the NFL Draft because no analyst is currently working for an NFL team. More importantly—the hardest part for the Internet to understand—even if an analyst has influence and power over what the Internet thinks (which I have my doubts about anyway), that doesn’t matter. Because THE INTERNET doesn’t work for an NFL team.

And for my tastes, Quinn and Orlovsky don’t even need to hedge against those concerns. If Quinn said, “Not only is this what I’m hearing…I agree with it and I wouldn’t draft Stroud!” that would be fine with me too. Because who cares? It’s not his decision to make. This should be the easiest thing in the world to understand when you consume NFL Draft content before the NFL Draft.

If he wants to share his opinion that C.J. Stroud is awesome and should number one. Fine! If he wants to share his opinion that Stroud is overrated and shouldn’t go in the first round. Fine! Everybody has their right to an opinion. But we need to stop getting distracted by all the fingers pointing at the analyst (as Dan Patrick did in a Friday morning interview with his only intention being to get to the bottom of why Quinn said what he said instead of asking him about what he said) and start listening to what the analyst is hearing because it doesn’t matter if it’s true or a lie or a “smoke screen”.

It only matters if this is what TEAMS believe.

Brady Quinn is not a team. Twitter is not a team. Ryan Clark and Dan Patrick aren’t teams. You know who are teams? Teams!

Teams like the Texans, Seahawks, Lions, Raiders, Falcons, and Titans. You know who else is a team? The Indianapolis Colts. You know who worships Peyton Manning? These people:

This guy:

You know who will be next in line for C.J. Stroud if the Houston Texans decide not to draft him? As usual, the Arizona Cardinals do not count, so then it would be this team:

You know what it smells like to me when some team or team(s) are trying to get out information to Brady Quinn or anyone who will share it that “Stroud spurned the Mannings and they are football royalty”? It’s the scent of trying to get fans of the team with the number four pick prepared and perhaps even hopeful for Will Levis instead.

I don’t want to get distracted by pointing the finger at Quinn when we are hand-delivered a golden opportunity to criticize Jim Irsay instead!

I mean, seriously, who of Ryan Clark or Jalen Ramsey or Stroud agent David Mulugehta’s other clients who complained about the report actually gives a shit about ghosting Peyton and ELI Manning? If I had heard that Bryce Young ghosted the Mannings because they are “football royalty”, I’d be saying, “Awesome. Great. I heard he also ghosted Cam Newton, he TP’d the house of the McNair family that owns the Texans, and he thinks the state of Arizona is a wasteland where no human being should live.”

Anything to get him to fall to the Seahawks!

Getting mad at Quinn is simply a distraction from the bigger point at play here, which is that someone might be trying to prepare NFL fans for what’s to happen on Thursday night…which has absolutely nothing to do with what any analyst has to say before then.

Going back to 2021, the Internet spent months talking about Justin Fields as the first or second overall pick, then maybe the second or third overall pick once it was settled that Trevor Lawrence had always been destined to go first, but where did he go instead? Not only did Fields go 11th, meaning that at least a half-dozen teams who could have picked a quarterback decided not to take him; there is also the list of teams that opted not to trade up for him, as the Chicago Bears did from pick 20.

Nobody could blame Dan Orlovksy for that.

Shore Things: Will Anderson meets Seahawks, teams "don't covet" C.J. Stroud

Don’t get distracted by arguing that Fields was drafted too low or too high, don’t miss the point by only focusing on whether or not the reports of a questionable work ethic were true or false. It’s imperative that we look at what actually happened, which is that Fields was in fact drafted lower than the expectation.

And not one single team that passed on him that year—the Jets, 49ers, Falcons, Lions, Panthers, Broncos, and Giants being the most notable—sat in the war room that night and said, “Damn, I REALLY want to pick Justin Fields but I can’t because of what Dan Orlovsky told Pat McAfee.”

That didn’t happen.

Now, if there are comments about Quinn’s skills as an analyst or a football player, I’m going to assume that person may have only done a skim. That’s fine, we all skim. I skim. But I don’t skim and comment. This is not about Brady Quinn. The Seahawks do not have to decide if they want to draft Brady Quinn on Thursday.

They might, however, get the opportunity to draft C.J. Stroud. If they have that chance and don’t take him, it won’t have ANYTHING to do with what an analyst said. It ALSO won’t have ANYTHING to do with skipping the Manning Passing Academy event. That’s stupid. We don’t have to fall for these distractions.

If Pete Carroll and John Schneider have the chance to take Stroud but pick someone else then CLEARLY it’s because he skipped a lunch date with Geno Smith.

Duh.

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