Garrett Grayson - 2015 NFL Draft Scouting Report

And so it begins. With the college football season over, the 2015 NFL Draft season immediately starts up to fill that void. I plan to take a look at all of the top quarterback prospects but will also be willing to take suggestions if there are prospects at other positions that you would like to see analyzed. But my bread and butter is quarterback play (a position I still feel is undervalued in the draft). Today, I am taking a look at Garrett Grayson from Colorado State University.

Garrett Grayson is, admittedly, not a quarterback prospect I have had much chance to watch this season, but with the strength of Colorado State this season, clearly, their quarterback was doing something right. I took a look at his games against Wyoming and San Jose State. Thanks as always to DraftBreakdown.com for making the cut-up videos that make this possible.

Accuracy
Let's start with a positive and show his ability to throw the ball accurately and hit his receiver in stride.

This is probably his best pass that I saw from him in that he drives the ball down the middle of the field and hits his receiver in stride to help him keep running after the pass for an easy touchdown. His arm strength is not great, but throws like this can make evaluators believe it is good enough to succeed.

Next is a pass that shows his best and possibly worst traits all in one play.

He has great touch on this ball, and places it perfectly into his receiver's hands for a touchdown. His accuracy is something that consistently shows up as he throws some nice balls that allow his receivers to make plays. However, there is bad to this play, as he stares down the wheel route the entire time. He is just waiting for it to get open, which works here, but that is not the sort of habit that will lead to success in the future.

Awareness
Now he does occasionally scan the field when that receiver is not a reasonable option, but it's a little slow when he does do it. Staring down receivers may work against most Mountain West teams, but it is not going to work in the NFL.

Because of this, he was lucky in that he did not face pressure often, but when he did, he left a lot to be desired.

He shows some feel for how to move in the pocket as he moves to the open space, but he's not a great athlete, so all he did was delay the inevitable. I never saw him avoid pressure and make a play.

Arm Strength
As I mentioned before, his arm strength is definitely a question mark.

This is not a huge throw, but the ball floats out there, and the defender is able to blow up the play. Leaving a ball in the air that long on an out route is a great way to throw a touchdown. Unfortunately, it will be the defense scoring it.

How's his deep ball? I'm glad you asked.

Yeah, not good. There were limited opportunities to see true deep balls, but they were underthrown when he did try. This is the most egregious example as he has all the time in the world and decides to just throw up a prayer and hope for a flag.

Overall
I'm just not excited about Grayson. He has some nice touch, which is nice but it's not exciting. He put up good numbers in a very quarterback friendly system while not facing top notch competition. There is a difference between college open and pro open. Grayson took advantage of guys that were college open, but was never forced to throw into tight windows which will be a necessity at the next level. On top of that, anytime he felt pressure, bad things happened. He's fine, but I wouldn't give him a grade higher than an undrafted free agent, because I see a limited ceiling and honestly he needs to take some big steps forward in handling pressure just to be an adequate backup.

The good news is that he is the first quarterback I have taken a look at, which gets him the #1 spot on my board so far.

Quarterback Prospect Rankings:
1. Garrett Grayson - Colorado State