FanPost

Bryce Petty is a...viable option for Broncos

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photo courtesy nbccollegefootballtalk.com

I will be happy to play devils advocate. This FanPost is in response to Christopher Hart's post titled Bryce Petty is a bad option for Broncos. For the record I think Christopher wrote an excellent post and clearly made some good points. The problem is I don't agree with them in their entirety. Since I have seem multiple scouting sites say Petty is the Broncos man. I disagree with the certitude of the assessment that he would be "bad" for the Broncos and feel while not a great option or even my front-runner, I feel he is an option. I will explain why in direct response to what Christopher Hart feels is Petty's deficiencies.

- "Comes from a spread offense and has limited experience making plays outside of the pocket. With that in mind, I don’t see him being a quality fit for Gary Kubiak, who has a history of having quarterbacks who can stretch out the length of plays and make big throws on the move outside of the pocket."

A. On this point I agree. He is not a roll out, boot leg quarterback. But neither is Peyton and as Kubes has said you style your offense to fit your talent. Fit is not everything. For seven of his eight years in Houston Kubes had, wait for it...Matt Schaub for a quarterback. You would never mistake him for a throw on the run QB as he was extremely limited athletically. But yet Petty has by most accounts above-average to good athleticism. Perhaps Petty could under Kubes tutelage usher in a return to the era of late career John Elway. This system wouldn't require much of Bryce but to act robotically and throw to exactly who the offensive coordinator instructed him to. This is the same system that made Rich Gannon NFL MVP in 2000.

In addition Petty looks like he can damage a defense with his feet to me.

Petty gets flipped into end zone

Petty has a clear path

- "Has virtually no play-calling experience and relies on sideline information from coaches, instead of his own intuition and personal judgment on how to best adjust against defenses."

A. Agree he is not NFL ready, but we don’t need him to be. He could have at least 1 redshirt year and that should be plenty. He’s not nearly as raw as Oz was; has 25 career starts compared to 13 for Oz. Also while Peyton is a highly cerebral QB and audibles into calls he makes, I don't see this as how Kubes allowing his QB's that free reign anyway, unless of course that QB is Peyton Manning.

- "Comes from a simplified spread offense under Art Briles, which is great for praying on collegiate defenses, but does not help a player improve his game knowledge or football acumen. As such, I am not confident he will do well in chalkboard X’s and O’s sessions during private evaluations with teams — essentially he is the anti-Jameis Winston in that regard."

A. While he does come from a Spread offense I think it is a leap to say he has a low football IQ. Lance Zeirlein from nfl.com says he has what it takes.
"He needs a year or two of practice time and camp work to learn how to get through his progressions, but has the intelligence to do that"

- "Historically speaking, few spread quarterbacks are successful when making the leap to the NFL from the college ranks. At Baylor, their offense is predicated on half field reads, as opposed to full field reads in pro-style offenses. This necessitates he will take two years minimum to get in the groove of the NFL. I worry he will never get there."

A. There is some smoke here. However an excellent study by Joe Redemann points out that while vertical passers that go to vertical pro offenses are king. Runners up in terms of success and longevity is precision passers to transition to vertical offenses that also require intermediate and deep throws.

- "His statistics are impressive, but most yard accumulation is a result of quick passes to primary receiver on quick/pop routes. He rarely gets to the second option when reading the field (side to side) and struggles to differentiate reading levels of coverage (up and down), which makes me worry about his ability to ever become a starter in the NFL. After watching half a dozen games, he made it to his third read less than the number of fingers I have on both my hands. That is extremely troubling."

A. Again while correct in that his 9.7 yards per attempt is very Alex Smith like. You neglect to remember that not all attempts are created equal. In other words a touchdown is sometimes more valuable than its actual distance. As such his adjusted yards per attempt would rank him 1st all time in NCAA. A smidgen ahead of a guy named Sam Bradford.

- "Horrendous footwork, which leads to lack of accuracy and zip on balls. Even with improved mechanics, his arm is a "B" grade strength at best."

A. Arm strength is vastly overrated and he has the ability to make all NFL throws. That’s all that matters. But i will point out he had 20 touchdowns over 20 yards deep and 13 of those were for 30 plus yards. In addition 63 comp percent is not exactly a Jake Locker like 54 percent who oddly improved to a paltry 58 percent in the NFL. Petty is not Tim Tebow he can spin the ball a lot better and he has a very good delivery. In addition the great equalizer is the team surrounding a player. Even Steve Yohng would be garbage if he was a Tampa Bay Buc his whole career. Broncos are loaded with talent.

- "Last but not least — he is not a clutch player, which is an X-factor trait for QB's and an important factor on projecting the successive quarterbacks. When the game is on the line and it matters, especially on third downs and when facing great odds, he rarely comes up with the big play. Petty struggled immensely against better teams in his conference with good defenses and did not register quality completion percentage (over 60%) in any of those games."

A. Then how do you explain a 21 point comeback against the 6th ranked team in the nation last year. Earlier in his career in 2013 against KSU he had another comeback. In fact his poor play followed by coming to life late is very John Elway like. His teammates called him "Big Game Bryce" for crying out loud.

In conclusion, while I don't feel he is a high round pick if Petty is there for the taking in round 4 I say Denver should pull the trigger. In fact I just ran through a mock draft on Fan Speak using Mocking the Draft Big Board and he was available at that point. Not saying he is the savior we need but I am at the point where I feel he is an upgrade over Dysert and Oz both. At 39 years old for Peyton Manning that means a lot in terms of not only 2016 but also 2015.

This is a Fan-Created Comment on MileHighReport.com. The opinion here is not necessarily shared by the editorial staff of MHR.