Matty's Big Board Prospect Countdown: 21!

Hey folks, the Super Bowl is behind us and it's time to focus on the next big event and that is the all powerful and mighty draft, which has the ability to take a team from the bottom of the barrel and turn them into a playoff caliber team (ex. Dolphins and Falcons). What I plan on doing is twice a week until draft weekend, I'll be counting down my top 25 prospects, discuss their strengths, weaknesses, overall impact in the NFL and potential landing spot. So, without further delay, I bring you the player who ranked number 21...

21. Matthew Stafford, QB Georgia Bulldogs

2008 Season Stats:
235/383, 3459 yards and 25 TDs, 10 INTs

Career Stats:
564/987, 7731 yards and 51 TDs, 31 INTs

Personal Stats:
6'3", 228 lbs. JR

Strengths:

Matt Stafford's biggest strength going for him has got to be his arm strength. The boy can launch the football and it seems as though arm strength is becoming a very good barometer for potential franchise quarterbacks as previous draftees Jamarcus Russell, Joe Flacco and so forth have had cannons. Stafford is also an incredibly tough quarterback, he played behind a subpar Georgia offensive line and was able to take a licking and keep on ticking. He also has fairly decent pocket presence and mobility, he can anticipate the rush and get on the move to get the ball down field. I feel Matt Stafford has a high ceiling and with some coaching in the right system with the talent around him, he'll be a definite NFL caliber quarterback.

Weaknesses:

As a quarterback, Stafford has quite a few weaknesses that could potentially be fixed with the right scheme and coaches, but they are definitely red flags for coaches. First of all, he has very poor accuracy and because of his arm strength he tends to either under or over throw his targets leading to costly interceptions as is evidence from his 31 in 3 years. He also makes poor decisions and locks onto his targets more often then he should and because of this he tends to take more hits than he should and gets himself into trouble in opposing secondaries, he also hasn't proved to be any sort of consistent clutch player who can get his team to the big game. He also doesn't have the stats to justify him being a top 10 QB.

Overall:

The way Matt Stafford projects as a NFL quarterback is pretty good, I feel he would be better served to wait a year before starting his career behind center to get used to the speed of the game, making the right reads and learning to harness the power of his cannon arm. I think he has the potential to be a great signal caller in the NFL and I feel he will be able to lead an established team to the playoffs and is possibly a franchise piece for a rebuilding team.



Projected NFL Destination:

With the 20th selection, the Detroit Lions select...










There you have it folks, be sure to tune in later this week for Prospect #20!