It will be an important week for quarterback’s Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen

Quarterback prospects Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen will likely be the most talked about prospects during this year’s draft class and during this week’s Reese’s Senior Bowl. Mayfield is a Heisman winner who is shorter than you like, has a fiery personality that rubs some the wrong way, and comes from a spread offense. Allen, on the other hand, is a bigger quarterback with excellent arm strength who struggles with accuracy and is either loved or hated by evaluators.

So how they perform this week will certainly help or hurt their draft stock as they head into the NFL Combine. What is also important is that they will be coached by our Denver Broncos who are in need of a quarterback and have the 5th overall pick in the draft. A good week could go a long way to having the Broncos selecting them in the first-round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

Baker Mayfield, Quarterback, Oklahoma:

Mayfield’s first test will come before they even hit the field for their first practice. They will get their height, weight, arm length, hand size, and wingspan measurements and this will be rather important to Mayfield.

As we know, he’s shorter than you would like at quarterback and apparently has smaller hands. He’s listed at 6’1”, but if he is closer to six foot than 6’1” it may throw up some red flags for some coaches/GM’s. As for hand-size, some say it doesn’t mean anything, but Broncos General Manager John Elway has been very outspoken about it in the past and said that “hand size is important.”

So how he fairs in this regard will set the momentum for this ever important week for the Heisman winner.

The other thing he needs to do is interview well with the teams. Mayfield’s personality is well known and he has a prior arrest to answer too. He also has a few on the field errors, including one where he grabbed his...groin region...while barking at the opposing team. The camera’s caught this and people commented on it. Some people think it’s not big deal and love his competitiveness and others think he is another Manziel personality type. So how he fairs there will likely be more important than anything he does on the field.

Finally, Mayfield needs to prove he can play in an NFL offense. He played in a college spread offense while at Oklahoma and didn’t take many snaps under center. If he shows he can do that, it will quiet down the more traditional decision makers and GM’s in the NFL.

If he does all that and continues to show off his freakish accuracy while at Mobile, he will be firmly in the top-ten draft talks going forward.

Josh Allen, Quarterback, Wyoming:

You either love Josh Allen or you hate Josh Allen as a prospect. He has the size you look for, he has the incredible arm strength you look for, and he has the mobility you look for in a quarterback prospect. Those traits alone usually make you a lock to be a top five to ten pick in the draft, but despite all that, Allen is coming off a pretty bad year at Wyoming.

He made his flash plays, sure, but he had some downright awful games and had sub-60% completion percentage once again. His career completion percentage is below 60% as well and that is a pretty bad omen for a quarterback prospect.

Here is an even more damning tweet for Allen.

Yuck.

Now with all that said, Allen has a chance to shake this. If he comes out and shows good accuracy during the practices and game at Mobile it will certainly quiet the haters out there. He needs to show better footwork and mechanics as well.

Allen has all the tools to be a great quarterback but can he or some put it all together? That remains to be seen and the Broncos will get their first shot at trying to ensemble the project that is Josh Allen. If he has a strong week he certainly will be in the conversation for the Broncos 5th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Final thoughts:

I remain in the group that believes that General Manager John Elway will make a strong run at impending free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins this offseason, but if he doesn’t, one of these two quarterbacks will be in Denver.

If the Broncos do not get a Kirk Cousins, it will come down to how much pull Gary Kubiak has in Denver. Baker Mayfield fits the mold of quarterback Kubiak prefers while Josh Allen is exactly what John Elway likes.

Kubiak was added for a reason and he and Elway figure to have a better idea of what they want to do at quarterback after Senior Bowl week. Will Kirk Cousins remain their top option? Or will Mayfield and/or Allen make them pass on the expensive Cousins?

Only time will tell.