On Monday, Mitch Trubisky, the junior quarterback for the North Carolina Tar Heels, announced he's forgoing his senior season and will enter the NFL draft.
One thing is for certain —- he's going to lead to months of chatter about whether he's going to go No. 1, whether he's a high draft choice or whether he's about to be over-drafted..
Mel Kiper has him as the No. 1 rated quarterback in the country, an assessment that matches several mock drafts. CBS Sports has him going No. 1 to Cleveland, and both SB Nation and Bleacher Report have him going to San Francisco at No. 2. If he somehow gets past those two teams, Chicago at No. 3 desperately needs of a signal caller. It's hard to find a mock draft that has him falling below the New York Jets at No. 6 (they apparently love the kid), but the mocks and the scouts don't think he'll last that long. "'...I think that kid is going to get over-drafted," one scout told the New York Daily News.
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Scouts seem to like Trubisky because of his size (6'3, 220 pounds), accuracy and mobility. They drool over the three consecutive games this season —- against James Madison (meh), Pittsburgh (eh) and Florida State (impressive!) —- in which he threw for more than 400 yards in each contest. For the season, he threw for 3,748 yards, 30 touchdowns, and completed 68.2 percent of his passes.
But others point out that there are several things not to like.
He's only been a starter for one year. He couldn't beat out Marquise Williams, a nice college quarterback who was an undrafted free agent and isn't in the NFL. He was bad against Georgia, worse against Va. Tech (13-33, 58 yards!), and had an uneven Sun Bowl performance against Stanford. The Tar Heels' spread offense relied on talented wide receivers and limited reads (one or two), and we all know pro offenses are more complicated than that.
The draft combine will be Feb. 28-March 6 in Indianapolis, and the NFL draft April 27-29 in Philadelphia. That means there's plenty of time to dissect his every move to see whether he cements his position as a top pick, drops in the draft, or is overshadowed by Clemson's Deshaun Watson, Notre Dame's DeShone Kizer, or some other quarterback we're not even talking about yet.
