Partner Pulse

By DEREK STEPHENS
The Blue Bird Herd

Happy Draft Day!

Here's a quick look at a few overrated and underrated players who could surprise fans and make teams regret their decisions over the next few months ...

Overrated
Blaine Gabbert – QB – Missouri
Oh yes ... I'll draw my share of criticism for this one, but hey, I'm just going off of game tape. Sure, Gabbert has a good arm. He's got prototypical size, and he flashes some nice accuracy. What I can't seem to get away from, though, is the overwhelming evidence of a lack of ability to go through progressions and find a second or third receiver consistently. Could this have something to do with the style of offense that Mizzou ran? Perhaps somewhat. However, there were clearly cases where Gabbert was supposed to check down and go through progressions, but instead held the ball too long, panicked and spun out of the pocket before making an off-balance throw down field, often times missing. He only performed marginally in Mizzou's spread attack during his junior campaign, and his lack of experience taking snaps from under center doesn't do him any favors in terms of cushioning the blow of an already steep learning curve that he'll surely be undertaking at the next level. There have been flashes, but I think this guy has a long way to go and needs to show loads more in the instincts department before I go spending a first round pick, let alone a top 5 pick on him.

Underrated
Ryan Mallett – QB – Arkansas
Mallett has the biggest arm and the best pocket presence of any QB coming out this year. He knows football, reads defenses and can make all the throws with accuracy. The character flags should raise some concerns, but this is football, and teams should be looking at the football player before anything else. Sure, a QB is the face of the franchise and Mallett clearly has some maturing to do, but I'd much rather bank on being able to help a young man develop as a person when he is already there as a player, than to hope that I can develop him as a player when the instincts are lacking and/or there are clear holes in his game (i.e. Gabbert, Newton, Locker).

Click here to see more overrated and underrated prospects in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Read more of Derek Stephens at The Blue Bird Herd.