ESPN Insider is following a few college QB’s who are expected to be taken lower than your top prospects like Brady Quinn and Jamarcus Russell. Tyler Palko along with Chris Leak, Troy Smith, and Drew Stanton are among the QB’s being watched and closely examined each day at practice.
First, here are the basics with a few comments from the scouts.
Height | 6-1 — Palko is on the short side for an NFL QB. |
Weight | 210 — Good build with thickness and definition. |
Speed | 4.92 — Plays faster than his timed speed, but will not run away from defensive backs or linebackers at the next level. |
Intelligence | Son of a well respected high school coach, Palko is a film rat with an excellent understanding of the game. |
Toughness | Showed great toughness at Pitt behind suspect offensive lines. Took a pounding and played hurt. |
Strength/Flex | Good, but not great, flexibility. Can contort his body to make plays, avoid pass rushers and break out of arm tackles. |
Durability | Excellent. He is a tough guy and is built to take a pounding. |
Character | Great strength. The football junkie is tough, and well respected and liked by his teammates. Leader. |
Production | Up and down. Really struggled as a junior, but had fine sophomore and senior seasons. |
Here’s what some NFL scouts are seeing after a few days of practice:
Palko did not have a bad day on Monday, but it was rather evident that he’s the least talented of the three North quarterbacks at this year’s Senior Bowl.
Not as talented as Smith and Stanton. Not a huge surprise. I’m not sure how a guy like Smith projects at an NFL level though so I would give a second thought to him being placed under Palko based on NFL type talent.
Palko measured just shy of 6-foot-1 and weighed 217 pounds at this morning’s weigh-in, which is a little shorter and lighter than expected.
He shrunk an inch from what the Senior Bowl roster has as well as his bio on the Pitt athletic department website?
During practice, Palko displayed good timing and accuracy as a passer. However, he does not stack up with Drew Stanton or Troy Smith in terms of arm strength or mobility.
I was never under the impression that Palko wasn’t mobile. Watching him on the touchdown pass to Oderick Turner against Rutgers really sunk in as mobility. Sure he’s not going to beat Troy Smith in a foot race but look at a guy like Mike Vick. Sure he’s a good NFL player but I’d rather have a slow footed Peyton Manning that Vick in most situations.
When called upon to make a throw vertically or on a deep out, Palko noticeably dropped down and wound up even more than usual in his delivery.
NFL scouts don’t really like that kind of stuff.
I’ll be back in a day or two with more notes from his practices and well as how he does in the actual game. For the Senior Bowl website check here and for the Palko scouting report go here (Insider subs.).
That said, I believe we might see an even more productive offense without him (maybe not in scoring, but in making first downs and possession time), and I can’t base that on any hard knowledge other than I thought the expectations put on the offense based on Palko’s Soph. year influenced how the last two years went way too much. Too often it looked like Cavanaugh settled for little or no gain on first and second down thinking that Palko could save the possession on his third down passing. Run, Run, Pass…Punt. We saw it way too much last year, and didn’t have the rushing skill for that to work. Now it will be more of a ‘blank slate’ situation that might allow a more rounded offensive approach. Of course, there are pros and cons about that, and you can’t argue with how effective Palko was at putting up points as our QB last year, especially with two relatively new receivers. But when it counted in low scoring games we didn’t get it done with him at the helm.
He was great fun to watch, but in my heart I do believe we overestimated how good he was because he was ours, because he was a good soldier and all too often the only bright spot in a mediocre offense.
Basically, he did what we PITT fans know he can do, and the intangible aspects of his game came through. Some team will draft him, and he’ll stay on a roster for some years, and whether or not he gets to start will be determined by circumstances (injury, etc.) Personally, I don’t think he’ll ever be a solid starter in the Pros, and one reason is I agree that ’emsquared’ has some (few) valid points about Palko’s play. In the Pros coaching staffs are a lot less forgiving of reckless QB play, simply because the games are so much lower scoring than in college – risky plays that don’t get yardage and turnovers kill important drives, and in most games all second half drives at least are important. Take Favre out of the equation because his pure “tangible” talent over rides his mistakes, but less talented QBs that play that way pretty much ride the pine.
Look, one of the differences between how PITT and PSU fans view their programs is that PSU fans don’t look to one superstar to carry the team, and unfortunately we do. Case in point is our experience of having Tony Dorsett at RB and Dan Marino at QB during our most successful periods. We’ve been looking for that again, and it hurts us. If you read the posts to the PITT blogs since we got McCoy’s commitment, you’ll see numerous comparisons to Dorsett (or ones saying he’s better than) and over the past three years almost everything written about the PITT team has had Palko as the main subject. Well, maybe Palko got so much ink because he was a star on a not so talented offense, and the only bright spot to write about. None of the above diminishes my respect at what Palko did for the team and the program over his time here. He was put in a tough position with the coaching change and shift in offensive approach and handled it with grace and hard work. Not once did he play the Prima Donna and complain, and in this day and age that alone is remarkable. He was exciting to watch, and a true PITT star.
This relying one one star might change in the future, and I’m hoping that whoever plays QB for us next year does very well. But, I’ll trade a star QB or RB that makes great plays every once in a while for a balanced and effective offense that can move the ball in regular increments, control possession and the clock, and win games.
Crew might be different though.