Gil Brandt Has Finally Gone Too Far
Every year draft pundits select one Big Ten quarterback to inexplicably hype up as a draft prospect. Mitch Leidner, Brian Lewerke, Clayton Thorson, Nate Stanley: if you're tall and remind a draft analyst of either the quarterbacks of his boyhood or a horse with arms bolted on there's a fair chance someone is going to wildly overrate you going into your senior year. Sometimes the analysts can even be right, as they were with Jets second-round pick Christian Hackenberg, and still be spiritually wrong.
After profanity-laced AAF washout, Christian Hackenberg may be out of options
Analysts who had Christian Hackenberg high in their rankings agree with the Jets. This is technically correct. It doesn't count.
In the three media-open OTAs, Hackenberg hit reporters with passes twice.
Hackenberg goes on the list. So does Tanner Lee despite going in the sixth round. Some of the deranged analysts work for the Jets and Jaguars, is all.
This is fine. We point and laugh, and then go about our days. It's our fun little tradition. Unfortunately, we're now beyond the gentle mocking stage.
[After THE JUMP: the take to end takes]
We've entered the stage where it's clear pod people have badly miscalculated which group of influencers to possess:
I've taken an early look at the top SENIOR prospects for the 2021 NFL draft. I only have two quarterbacks among my top 50 (remember, this is seniors only):
— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) May 4, 2020
Sam Ehlinger, Texas
Hunter Johnson, Northwestern
We bear Gil Brandt no ill will for reporting that David Cutcliffe had turned down Michigan during their most recent coaching search. Coaching searches are bonkers, and if he was a bit too credulous when an agent he knows told him a thing, ah well. It happens. To forgive is divine.
There is no forgiving Hunter Johnson, Top 50 NFL Draft Senior. HUNTER JOHNSON! There was a period last year where Northwestern games were must-watch television because of the dead certainty they would never score a touchdown. Hunter Johnson completed FORTY-SIX percent of his passes for FOUR YARDS AN ATTEMPT.
[hands clench and unclench helplessly]
[author gestures at screen]
I mean…
You're so desperate for sports you're watching Korean baseball and you still didn't click play on the above because of that video's aura. You don't remember Stanford 10, Northwestern 7, but I do! I DO. Hunter Johnson airmailed six different throws within five yards of the line of scrimmage. He has cracked 100 yards passing once in his career. He rushed for 1.3 yards an attempt last year.
Mitch Leidner as a first rounder is funny. Hunter Johnson as an NFL prospect is certain evidence that aliens have landed on Earth, gotten things all mixed up, replaced most NFL draft analysts with brain-dead shells piloted remotely, discovered we are not worth conquering, and are now killing time until they can catch a ride home by trolling us. Fact. Do not dispute it.
You're so desperate for sports you're watching Korean baseball and you still didn't click play on the above because of that video's aura.
I feel personally attacked by this wholly accurate sentence.
Lol, same
Tip of the hat to Brian. I looked at the video, said to myself "....hmmmm, no". Well done.
Sounds about white.
Gil Brandt is 87 years old and hasn't been right on anything in like 20 years. I trust what is in the Gil Thorp comic strip more than him. And hell, he's 25 years older than that comic.
Ponczak is Taco Pants. Taco Pants is Ponczak.
I blame both Gil AND his arch-enemy Martin Q Moon. Their non-stop feuding has wreaked havoc upon Milford High Athletics for years with no end in sight. Enough already!!
You are 100% right that he hasn't been right about anything in 20 years. Then I clicked on his twitter.
His top RB list includes Chris Evans
His WR list includes: Tarik Black, Texas and Nico Collins
I still wouldn't trust him with my TV remote, but calling out Evans and Black means at least he is paying attention.
I also don't forgive him for the David Cutcliffe report and the media garbage that followed for 24 hours.
Closing paragraph may be one of the funniest things I have read in a long time. I am also fairly certain those Aliens have taken over my children due to their inability to do ANYTHING I ASK THEM THE FIRST TIME I ASK THEM TO DO IT!!!!
Unfortunately this is completely standard behavior. I wish it was aliens because then I could bury them in a hole in the back yard.
its a training issue and its the parents responsibility. and its their fault if first-time obedience isn't standard normal.
You're not wrong. But don't try to tell these fluffers that.
Although you may have been negged because it was supposed to be a lighthearted post.
I'd agree with you in the long term. I do not agree with you in the short term.
Hey now, the KBO is fun
That Bo Ryan Tag though!!!
Looking back at Michigan's class of 2017 quarterback targets, it's an abysmal class. Of the first 10 guys Michigan offered (those are the only guys I looked at), the top performer is Wisconsin's Jack Coan and #2 is probably Davis Mills of Stanford.
Everybody else except Dylan McCaffrey has transferred or switched positions, including everyone's favorite guy: Tate Martell.
Tate Martell, damn, I nearly forgot about him. Is he one of the biggest QB busts in history? Or just the most memorable due to my bias and hate for OSU?
Not even close. I can think of a few much bigger busts just off the top of my head, starting with Hunter Johnson.
Even if Martell doesn't do anything with the rest of his career, a high 4-star QB busting isn't even that unusual. Happens almost every year.
But the thing with Martell is that he was Gatorade player of the year and one of the best players in the country for Bishop Gorman, but then ended up being so bad, that he was forced to switch positions on a Miami team that was already devoid of QB talent
Biggest? Try shortest...
Was really looking forward to OSU having to play that cracker. Then Justin Fields fell into their lap. Fuck.
This is an excellent point. I gripe (rightly, I think) about some development issues when DPJ gets passed by a dozen WRs that he was recruited ahead of. But there are also a lot of misses that are just misses in tough classes. There are a couple of QB recruits from that class that have turned out pretty well (Tua, for example), but even then one of those guys is Jake Fromm, and we've seen what a mess that has turned out to be. Most of the QBs from that class haven't really made an impact yet; sometimes the options just don't turn out to be that great.
Maizen has gotten to Gil Brandt. See, Hunter Johnson was a highly rated recruit and started out at Clemson. So, it's only a matter of time until he performs well. Only bad coaching could screw him up.
from the header pic i just assumed this was about unstoppable throw god trevor simien, or brett basanez...or maybe kyle orton had spent a year in evanston and i'd forgotten. whoever - it was obviously going to be some mediocre white guy statue of a big ten qb, we'd point and laugh, etc.
that it's hunter g.d. johnson is really, really bad sign. somebody check on gil brandt. quickly.
I thought Clayton Thorson was the unstoppable throw god. I get them confused.
All NW QBs are unstoppable throw gods ..... well, except for Hunter
At least Trevor Simian has a Super Bowl ring to his name. And Clayton Thorson was legit, in the ideal game manager mold (ie Andy Dalton). If he played for a team not named Northwestern, he'd be a bigger deal.
Hunter Johnson.....is proof that Northwestern isn't a magical QB development club.
In a makeout session with Gerry Dinardo last season, Urban Meyer also thought very highly of Johnson. Because Gerry was so smitten, he said later said Johnson would be the best quarterback Fitzgerald ever had at Northwestern.
That Hunter Johnson tape was weird. He looks terrible like 80% of the time, but then that other 20% of the time, he make a pretty nice run or a couple nice passes. Every once in while he'll show a flash of being a 5* but then the rest of the time he looks unplayable
All it takes is one NFL team to want that 20%, and think highly enough of themselves that they can make the 20% into 100%.
Yeah, at times he looked awful but that NW team didn't have a single playmaker and it showed. Johnson missed some easy throws but at no point did any of his receivers get any separation from the coverage. I wouldn't draft the guy early but you can see how a version of Johnson with better talent around him looks like a second-day selection and a viable backup.
It was actually 17-7 because HUNTER JOHNSON sprinted away from the line of scrimmage toward the goal line before Reesing it into the endzone with a half minute to play on first and ten...
I lost a NW $ cover on that Yakety Sax play. I know !! that's what I deserve for taking NW with real money in the first place.
I'll venture to say that both McCaffrey and Milton will get drafted.
I got a 'bo ryan is pretty much alien hitler' notification for this?
Most people knew Hackenberg sucked. Most people know Johnson sucks. Therefore he’ll get drafted in the second round and make a couple million dollars over 3 years before being kicked out of the NFL, having never seen the field ...
Bill O'Brien was handed the keys to an NFL franchise based entirely on making Hackenberg look draftable. Anybody who watched him airmail throw after throw on a 5 yard swing pass knew he was atrocious. I mean, who gets sacked on a 2 man rush? Hackenberg, that's who.
Let’s face it. Projecting exactly how an 18 year old kid becomes an NFL high round draft pick is a crap shoot. There are so many flame-outs from college before sniffing a solid NFL career it is crazy. Too many negative variables that impacts expectations. It is a crap shoot.
I clicked on it because...reasons *shrug*
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