Hula Bowl: LL1

[CajunEXPRESS]

I gotta tell ya BWK, we don’t read long, long posts, followed by long, long rebuttals. I know you believe we hang on your every word. I generally try to give you a fair shot, but———-life’s too short.

[RaginDave]

I'm breaking my word, but WTH, you threw out too much red meat this morning. Just by reading what you wrote, it would make sense to me if either one of these guys is correct, or close to go along with what you said, to have a ratio of players to seriously scout, not only for the purpose of drafting a guy, but also for the purpose of not drafting a guy I'm gonna miss on with a 1st round pick.

Look, Willis passes the "eye ball test." And if you only look at his highlight reel you could get enthralled with the guy. But he can't hold Lamar's jock strap coming out of Louisville. The simple fact is his numbers aren't that good & his receivers were running wide open most of the time against the competition they played for a lot of his career. When the competition stiffened up some at the end of the season this year, he went in the tank. Ole Miss stoned him. Then UL owned him, then Army disowned him. He makes way too many mistakes & misreads. IMO he will only become a major waste of someone's time & a waste of a high draft choice.

Coral is a project player at best. Pickett & Ridder are the only two that have any shot of playing in their rookie season & being effective to any degree IMO. I'm weary of UNC QBs period & Howell just reminds me of a distant cousin of Trubisky. Those guys might be right. But it's just a guarantee of more misery & wasted time for fans of more NFL teams. Personally I hope they're just pimping these guys. If there is any accuracy to what they are saying the league needs at least a 2-1 ratio of guys at the combine to help these teams make a better analysis of these people. To get to that number they need to call guys like Levi out & say come participate. Help us not screw this thing up.

Look I am just telling you what two of the top NFL Draft Analyst are saying. I know you know more than them, but both of these guys are almost identical on who and what they expect to happen and while I don't love Mel Kiper, he is usually correct. Willis has been pretty much on everyone's radar for 2 years. You are right in the fact that allot of people don't trust him and he struggled vs tougher competition, but what they love about him is that he is a guy who has something you can not coach and that is athleticism. Allot of what they are looking at with Willis is what he did when Liberty was better in 2020 than what he did with less talent in 2021. Liberty was 9-1 with Willis in 2020 and his numbers were astounding. Completed 65% of his passes with 20 TD's and 6 Int's. He also rushed for almost 1000 yards and 14 TD's rushing. He accounted for 34 TD's that year and 3194 yards, in cluding a 6.7 ypc average.

Here is what made him special that year vs Syracuse he was 16-20 182 1 TD and 0 INT's while rushing for 58 yards on 12 carries and another TD. VS Virginia Tech he was 20-30 217 3 TD's and no INT's while rushing for 108 yards on 19 carries vs NC State he was 13-32 fo 172 yards 2 TD's 3 INT's and rushed for 44 yards (worst game of that year). and vs Coastal he was 19-29 for 220 yards and rushed for 137 yards and 4 TD's in that game.

He struggled a little bit vs NC State and Coastal throwing the ball, but his running ability is special. Does he make mistakes, yes but you can't coach speed and talent or size. I think many draft analyst and scouts are giving him a pass on 2021 and here is the main reason why. In 2020 he was sacked 19 times in 10 games, that is a special number that is less than 2 a game, in 2021 he was sacked 51 times in 13 games or almost 4 per game. He had a game where he was sacked 5 times twice, another 7, another 9, 6 times twice as well as 4 times twice. Those number mean that his OL was terrible this year, even with that he had a great game vs ODU who played in a bowl game where he threw for 242 yards 4 TDs and 0 INT's as well as rushing for 77 yards in 2 TD's. He had a very good game vs Syracuse this year where he was 14-19 for 205 and 3 TD's and 0 INTs. UAB he played well, and in his bowl game vs EMU he was very good as well. The problem is he spent most of his time on his back in 2021 vs 2020. A QB does not just all of a sudden get sacked that much unless the OL is terrible. You can't blame that on him, he was running for his life in those games.

One of the better gauges of what people think is Pro Football Focus, they consider him the best QB in the nation as far as big time throws and 3rd in the nation on throws of 20+ yards. Deep Left his grade was 95.1, Deep Center his grade was 86.4 and Deep Right his grade was 95. Couple that with his incredible running ability that they grade in the top 10. His weaknesses are his intermediate throws and his struggles under pressure. I think teams feel that Willis is a guy that with the right OL in the NFL could succeed. PFF has a passing grade of 55.9 on throws between 10-19 yards. But when you really look at this it is really only his passing on intermediate throws to the right side. That is where his grade is 29.4, if they can improve his intermediate throws to the right and give him a better OL than he had last year Willis upside is so much better than allot of QB's in this draft. Again, many are comparing him to guys like Trey Lance and Lamar Jackson, not me, but plenty of NFL scouts.

[RaginDave]

Here is the last thing I will say on Willis. Again, I am not stating my opinion, I am stating what scouts and NFL Analyst are saying. They think he has 2 main weaknesses, the intermediate pass to the right and what happens when the play breaks down. That means his strengths are his deep ball (first), his athleticism (second) then his ability to throw the short and intermediate passes to the left and center.

The fact is that Willis is not going to be picked in the top 10 picks, he will probably be picked in the middle to late first round, meaning he is going to go to a team that is already middle of the road or good. If that is the case, they probably have a pretty good Offensive Line and if that is the case than one of his weaknesses will be covered up by the fact that he will be playing on a team with a good OL. So if all that is said and the only weakness that most scouts and analyst see is his problem throwing the ball intermediate routes to the right, that is something they can work on.

Basically most people think he has fewer problems than some of the guys that will be picked around him. And brings the ability to run more than any of them, including Pickett who is really good. If that is the case, many teams will take a flyer on a kid like that, because his upside could be similar (not the same as) Lamar Jackson. While if you look at a Sam Howell or Desmond Ridder they see many more flaws, with not the ability to do the things that Willis can do. You can't teach a guy to be a strong armed QB if he is not, you can't teach him to run a 4.5 if he can't, you can't teach him to elude pressure if he is not athletic. But you can teach a guy with all of those attributes how to throw a 14 yard pass to the right if that is his only weakness.

Ridder is a ? to me and many others. Ridder has a lot of the issues that Josh Allen did coming into the league. He is not very accurate and his WR covered allot of his mistakes. Now today look at Josh Allen he might be one of the top 5 QB's in the league, but many people had the same issues with him that they have with Ridder. But it is harder to teach a QB how to be accurate then it is to teach him how to be a 100 yard rusher from the QB position.

[Chop]

Sam Howell to me is going to be the best QB in this draft .

His oline was terrible and had a bad junior season but he was a one man show besides his WR.

There will be at least 4 QBs drafted in the 1st round but probably none in the top 10

[Chop]

I would love for the saints to draft Willis and put him in the Taysom role .

That would be awesome but not sure a projected 1st round pick would be willing to do that .

I’m a big Winston believer and think he is the saints best option by far in 2022

[RaginDave]

Sam Howell to me is going to be the best QB in this draft .

His oline was terrible and had a bad junior season but he was a one man show besides his WR.

There will be at least 4 QBs drafted in the 1st round but probably none in the top 10

I agree with this statement. Again, I think 4 of the 5 guys I named will be in the 1st round and I think the other will be early to mid 2nd round. I also think that between rounds 4-7 you will have a number of other guys drafted, not one of those guys will be Levi Lewis.

[Chop]

Speaking of Lewis :
He would be another candidate to play the Taysom Hill role .

Perfect UDFA project for Payton

[RaginDave]

I would love for the saints to draft Willis and put him in the Taysom role .

That would be awesome but not sure a projected 1st round pick would be willing to do that .

I’m a big Winston believer and think he is the saints best option by far in 2022

Many of the NFL draft analyst think the Saints will take a QB in the 1st round, but so far I have seen very few with Willis being the guy. McShay thinks the Saints will taking Desmond Ridder and Kiper has the Saints taking either Pickett or Corral. Many others think the Saints will take Jameson Williams, WR Alabama.

[Chop]

Many of the NFL draft analyst think the Saints will take a QB in the 1st round, but so far I have seen very few with Willis being the guy. McShay thinks the Saints will taking Desmond Ridder and Kiper has the Saints taking either Pickett or Corral. Many others think the Saints will take Jameson Williams, WR Alabama.

Yeah I don’t think the saints will be taking QB 1st round unless JW gets an offer from another team he can’t refuse .


They almost have to go, OL, WR, or TE.

With armstead probably gone and Ruiz sucking so bad , and Peat not being able to stay on the field . They pretty much have no choice

[Scott Malkinson]

Yeah I don’t think the saints will be taking QB 1st round unless JW gets an offer from another team he can’t refuse .


They almost have to go, OL, WR, or TE.

With armstead probably gone and Ruiz sucking so bad , and Peat not being able to stay on the field . They pretty much have no choice

Going to be a lot of QB's in FA and with such a weak QB draft class I can see that. Saints getting a WR is a must in the first 2 rounds.

[RaginDave]

Speaking of Lewis :
He would be another candidate to play the Taysom Hill role .

Perfect UDFA project for Payton

Yeah but nearly as physical of a guy as Hill.

[Chop]

Yeah but nearly as physical of a guy as Hill.

And probably a better passer

[Duggie35]

He does not have a civil engineering degree. He got out of engineering his freshman year. His degree is in General Studies.

Are you sure about that? My son-in-law told me that Levi has done some internship work during this past year at the local engineering firm where he works. I wonder why he would be doing that if he was no longer pursuing a degree in engineering.

[BeauCajun]

Are you sure about that? My son-in-law told me that Levi has done some internship work during this past year at the local engineering firm where he works. I wonder why he would be doing that if he was no longer pursuing a degree in engineering.

Positive. His major was on the press release for the bowl weekend graduation. You can intern at an engineering firm without being an engineering major. Especially a firm that supports UL.

[VObserver]

The last NFL start by a QB as short as Levi was by Eddie LeBaron [then with the Dallas Cowboys] in the first game of the 1963 season. It isn't impossible for Levi to get into the league as a QB, but there are nearly 60 years of history for him to overcome.