To Draft or Not To Draft

Much has been said about the potential bumper crop of college QB's expected to be available in next year's NFL draft.  As many as six quarterbacks have been rated as potential first-rounders in 2012:

• Andrew Luck, Stanford
• Matt Barkley, USC
• Landry Jones, Oklahoma
• Ryan Tanneyhill, Texas A&M
• Ryan Lindley, San Diego State
• Nick Foles, Arizona

Certainly the stock of some of these guys will fall, and others not on this list will rise, but the bottom line is that 2012 could offer a remarkable bounty of opportunities for teams looking for their next franchise QB.  What makes this list so impressive is the fact that 3 of these 6 play in legitimate NFL-style offenses (Luck, Barkley and Tanneyhill) so the dreaded learning curve associated with all the spread offense signal-callers is mitigated. 

This fact has led most observers of the Seahawks to speculate, and in some cases guarantee, that the
Hawks next quarterback will come from this group, and it's entirely possible that they're right, but what if we could get a franchise QB to build around, who was ready to start right away, and wouldn't cost us a single draft pick? 

In my August 15th post I made the case for Matt Flynn, and I still think he's the favorite, but upon reviewing details of the new CBA a little closer, I've discovered there may be options... four of them, in fact.

In addition to Flynn, I've identified 3 other QB's who will qualify as unrestricted free agents at the end of this season:

• Chase Daniel, New Orleans
• Brian Hoyer, New England
• Josh Johnson, Tampa Bay

What makes these four guys so interesting is they're all 25 or younger, have all earned backup status on their respective teams, and are all stuck behind elite QB's (Rodgers, Brady, Brees) or in Johnson's case a soon-to-be-elite QB (Freeman.) 

The new CBA forbids a team from using a franchise and transition tag in the same season, so the availability of these guys is going to come down to whether or not the Packers, Saints, Pats and Bucs end up using their franchise tags on other players.  Any of them who do will immediately lose the opportunity to transition their backup QB. 

Chances are slim that all four of these players will be available, but if the right one is, it would make a ton of sense for the Hawks to go in that direction.  As I've said before, the ideal situation would be to find a long-term starting QB without having to surrender a first round pick that could be used to pick up an elite player at another position of great need such as CB or DE. 

I still favor Flynn, and his connections to Schneider are undeniable, but the other 3 are intriguing possiblities as well.