NEWSLETTER
I was taken aback when Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney cautioned NFL teams not to pass on his quarterback Deshaun Watson, warning them that doing so would be akin to not drafting Michael Jordan.
So when footage of the Portland Trail Blazers taking Sam Bowie with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft aired during my viewing of “The Last Dance” on ESPN last night, I was briefly taken to a dark place as I remembered that the Chicago Bears passed on Watson to draft Mitch Trubisky.
Chicago isn’t in a position to take a quarterback who is as polished as Watson this time around. Not with the franchise’s first pick being 43rd overall. But Eric Eager of Pro Football Focus offers up the next best thing:
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1251888283459567616?s=20
Eager drops a Watson comp on Hurts, which is eye-opening. His reasoning is in the scouting reports and grades that are on paper and from PFF. And apparently, the similarities between Hurts and Watson are strong enough to push Eager to favorably compare the 2019 Heisman Trophy finalist to a player who has developed into a dynamic NFL quarterback. That’s bold. So let’s dive into the quote.
“We think of Watson being an accurate thrower, good scrambler, and things like that,” Eager explains. “Really, his best traits are captured also by Hurts. He’s tough. He wins. He probably hangs onto the ball too long. He doesn’t have the greatest arm in the world. But Watson has made that work at the NFL level.”
That’s certainly tantalizing. Despite the knocks on him as a prospect, it is easy to see Hurts fitting in as a franchise’s developmental quarterback option. To play winning football for Nick Saban at Alabama, then transfer to Oklahoma and pick up Lincoln Riley’s offense en route to becoming the Heisman Trophy runner-up says a lot about what Hurts’ coaches thought of him and what he could do as a quarterback. And through that lens, it isn’t difficult to come to the conclusion that Hurts should be on the radar of a team like the Bears that has been searching for a winning quarterback for quite some time.
Of course, it’s not going to be easy to find that guy in the second round. And while Eager is skeptical that Hurts can re-create Watson’s magic, the analytics provide a bit of hope that it can happen.
So what if the Bears were given a chance to make right on a misstep? Would you be interested in taking it?
Better yet, should Ryan Pace be interested?
