Re: Ranking the Sunbelt Quarterbacks
I would not say top 3, but easily top 5, with the possibility of #3. Again, remember Grayson McCall is probably going to be drafted and Carter Bradley will get a chance in a training camp if not drafted. The problem for most "pundants/experts" is 3 things:Originally Posted by fanof71
#1--Ben had a small sample size in 2022, so most guys don't know what he is truly capable of.
#2--And more importantly, Ben is coming off a major injury that keeps most players out a minimum of a year and he is coming back in about 7-8 months. There are a lot of questions about that.
#3--Finally #3 and one that is pretty important, Ben will be playing with a very young and inexperienced receiving corps. I think had Fleming and Rogers returned to the Cajuns, most people would be much higher on Ben. Ben loses Michael Jefferson who we think without the crash would probably have been drafted to the NFL, John Stephens Jr is in the NFL on a UDFA contract, Errol Rogers JR is playing for Liberty this year, Dontae Fleming is playing for Tulane this year, Lance LeGendre could be playing for no one this year, Chris Smith got a look at an NFL camp, Johnny Lumpkin is in an NFL camp.
That works out to 154 catches which is 60% of the Cajuns caught passes gone. Also, that works out to 1914 yards, which is about 66% of the yardage gone and 19 TD's which is 70% of the TD's from last year gone.
I truly believe that these young receiving corps is going to be good, but many that is allot of production off of a team that was not a great offensive team gone.
I actually left out one other and that is Jamal Bell who only had 2 catches for 39 yards last year, but even changes those numbers more.
The expectation is that Neal Johnson will have a very good year and that Jacob Bernard and Peter Leblanc as well as Pearse Migl are going to be solid veteran presences on this team. All have been productive at some point and will need to step up this year. I also think a year in the system for Dre'lyn Washington and he could be more productive as a pass catcher than even Chris Smith, who was a good one. But what I am excited about are these names.
Robert Williams, Charles Robertson, AJ Jayroe, Jaydon Johnson and Harvey Broussard and even Ty Stamey at TE. I think another guy who could end up his career being very productive as a WR (and it won't be this year, for a number of reason--1 he is learning to be a WR after coming in as a QB and 2 he is a PWO who is earning his workload as a Fresh) is Landon Baptiste, the QB from Southside High School in Youngsville. He is 6'3, but only 163 lbs. This kid is a special athlete, he played basketball and ran track at Southside as well as football. When he got to Southside, the expectation was not for him to be the QB, but his athleticism was off the charts. He is also extremely smart, with a 3.7 GPA at Southside as well as scoring a 28 on the ACT as a Junior. He reminds me (and this is going back in the way back machine) of Wayde Butler, another guy who came to UL as a QB and turned into a pretty good WR, getting a tryout in the NFL and playing in the CFL. Landon is taller than Wayde was, but a little smaller in weight. I think he is a guy who could get some looks on some Flanker screen passes as well, jet sweeps and even potentially because of his QB history some double passes, where he catches it behind the line of scrimmage and throws it deep to a streaking WR down the field.
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