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What do you think is Stephen Morris's ceiling?

J

JustCanesBaby

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He's a strong armed Qb, vocal, plays passionate, needs to improve his accuracy etc. but do you think he can develop his game into a 1st round Qb?

Think about all the Qbs that have catapulted themselves into the 1st round the past couple of years (i.e. Kyle Boller, J.P. Losman, Josh Freeman) off of measureables or some perceived pre-draft hype.

I think him and Seantrel can potentially be two 1st rounders in next year's draft. If not 1st at most 2nd round.

Thoughts?
 
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I think at best a 3rd rounder. The amount of balls that should be picked off is a ton. He does not have good vision or decision making. Accuracy can get better with practice but decision making rarely does. It's something you are born with.
 
its not out of the realm of possibilities but probably not very likely. thats not a knock on him at all fwiw. it is pretty unlikely for any QB to be a 1st rounder simply due to the small number of QBs taken in the 1st
 
I think between 3rd -4th rounds. He has the size, the arm, the ability, but his Accuracy is very weak. Decision making needs to improve a bit as well. I think if he has a really good year and plays extremely well against the top teams, he could go in the 2nd round. Having him during the spring is crucial this year. He has the OL, WRs, TEs and a monster at RB.... he should light up teams!
 
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He has 1st round physical ability but he has improvements to make this season to get there for sure.


It's all mental with Morris. Needs to improve his progressions and hitting wide open checkdowns instead of forcing balls into double coverage. If he can do that and learn how to put touch on the shorter routes, the sky is the limit for him.


He also needs to be more consistent. IIRC, he could be lights out for the 1st quarter, then disappear for the 2nd and 3rd, and when the game gets close again he starts playing well in the 4th. Needs to be steady through the entire game instead of peaks and valleys.
 
Ignoring Stephen Morris for a second.

The NFL lacks talent at the QB position. there are so many busts drafted in the first round: Brady Quinn, JaMarcus Russell, Tim Tebow (a joke in itself), Matt Sanchez, David Carr, Vince Young, Matt Leinart, J. P. Losman etc.

It is the one position where not enough quality talent comes into the league. There is a reason Mark Brunell was able to be a back-up QB at 40. Matt Hasselbeck is 37 years old and started 5 games last year. Although once a very good QB, he is way over the hill he is still viewed as valuable enough to get a 2 year contract for 7.25 million. He may never live out those years, he may be cut but even in his age, he will still have a job. Look at all these QBs in starting gigs because there is no one better to take the starting position. It is the reason Matt Flynn can get paid $20 million (10 guaranteed) after hardly playing.

Back to Mr. Morris. He really has an NFL arm and I am sure he can throw further then a bunch of NFL QBS, he also is pretty athletic which is something the NFL is looking for now. He has a lot to work on, mainly his touch. It would not surprise me if he was drafted in the 2nd or 3rd round after having a 4000 yard campaign. He needs work but it can be done.
 
Pro scouts will nut themselves over his arm and his athleticism. He's mobile enough to roll the pocket and he can make every throw on the football field, which makes him dynamic. He's got some size at 6'2, 215ish which helps him. He does not have great pocket awareness or anticipation. He makes a lot of throws he shouldn't just because he can bullet a pass into a window (ala Jay Cutler). I would like to sit in on one of those X's and O's meetings to see how he grasps offensive concepts.

My completely irrelevent, unprofessional scouting report:
Ht: 6'2, Wt: 215 (per Miami website lol)
Record of 9-7 as a starter
4,868 yards, 28 Td, 18 Int , 57.8% completion
Size: B
Arm Strength: A+
Accuracy: B-
Anticipation: C
Pocket presence: C
Touch: C-
Decision making: C
Athleticism: C+
Consistency: B-

If I were a GM, 3 or 4th round unless he just ****es all over the ACC this year and leads us to a BCS game.
 
Consigliere said:
Ignoring Stephen Morris for a second.

The NFL lacks talent at the QB position. there are so many busts drafted in the first round: Brady Quinn, JaMarcus Russell, Tim Tebow (a joke in itself), Matt Sanchez, David Carr, Vince Young, Matt Leinart, J. P. Losman etc.

It is the one position where not enough quality talent comes into the league. There is a reason Mark Brunell was able to be a back-up QB at 40. Matt Hasselbeck is 37 years old and started 5 games last year. Although once a very good QB, he is way over the hill he is still viewed as valuable enough to get a 2 year contract for 7.25 million. He may never live out those years, he may be cut but even in his age, he will still have a job. Look at all these QBs in starting gigs because there is no one better to take the starting position. It is the reason Matt Flynn can get paid $20 million (10 guaranteed) after hardly playing.

Back to Mr. Morris. He really has an NFL arm and I am sure he can throw further then a bunch of NFL QBS, he also is pretty athletic which is something the NFL is looking for now. He has a lot to work on, mainly his touch. It would not surprise me if he was drafted in the 2nd or 3rd round after having a 4000 yard campaign. He needs work but it can be done.
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All this right here. Good post. Morris was still a pretty raw QB last year that missed all of spring practice, so he is barely scratching the surface. These NFL guys are always out there hunting for the next QB in line to groom and Morris is not only physically gifted, but by all accounts, he is very coach-able and intelligent.
 
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Slow delivery, poor pocket presence, poor touch, poor decision making sometimes, poor performances in big games, poor record as a starter, poor completion rate, 3rd OC in 4 years.

First round for sure
 
rokulika said:
Slow delivery, poor pocket presence, poor touch, poor decision making sometimes, poor performances in big games, poor record as a starter, poor completion rate, 3rd OC in 4 years.

First round for sure
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Never said now. I'm speaking in terms of ceiling and will a significant amount changes occur in the off-season where 1st round discussion is his potential. Not every Qb taken in the 1st round had an exceptional year prior to the season they developed buzz and were drafted out of. Good examples would be Freeman, Ponder and Tannehill.
 
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canesupremacy said:
I think at best a 3rd rounder. The amount of balls that should be picked off is a ton. He does not have good vision or decision making. Accuracy can get better with practice but decision making rarely does. It's something you are born with.
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Completely disagree with this.

Morris's decision-making is very good, as several scouts and Coach Golden have pointed out. His interception rate last year was the lowest since Dorsey in 2000. He rarely throws into double coverage. He also did a phenomenal job running the no-huddle last year-- very few procedure penalties and often caught the defense out of position. Coach Golden recently spoke to WQAM about how Morris understands offensive concepts and said he will impress people at the combine with his IQ.

The issues with Morris are physical-- accuracy and touch. You are born with it to an extent, but then again Morris's accuracy isn't completely broken. I think it can improve as he becomes more settled and consistent with his footwork and fundamentals. That will also improve his redzone performance. He doesn't anticipate throws very well, either, but that is common for a quarterback with Morris's arm strength. Plenty of NFL quarterbacks had that same knock coming out.

Morris has ton going for him: sublime arm strength, toughness and character, athleticism (for a pocket passer), grip strength, whip-like delivery, familiarity with pro concepts. Expect the buzz about him to pick up around the time of the Manning Passing Academy in July.

If I'm projecting, he could go anywhere from first to fourth depending on the quality of his senior year. I'd compare him to a cross between Matthew Stafford and Jake Locker. The safe money is late second round.
 
If he shows up in the UiF and FSU games this year, and displays the ability to consistently hit the 15 yard out and hit guys on the slant in stride, there is no limit to what he could do. No one had Ryan Nassib as a high rounder until this season.

People here just love to dog Morris for whatever reason...110 schools would GLADLY trade us their QB for him.
 
DMoney said:
canesupremacy said:
I think at best a 3rd rounder. The amount of balls that should be picked off is a ton. He does not have good vision or decision making. Accuracy can get better with practice but decision making rarely does. It's something you are born with.
Click to expand...

Completely disagree with this.

Morris's decision-making is very good, as several scouts and Coach Golden have pointed out. His interception rate last year was the lowest since Dorsey in 2000. He rarely throws into double coverage. He also did a phenomenal job running the no-huddle last year-- very few procedure penalties and often caught the defense out of position. Coach Golden recently spoke to WQAM about how Morris understands offensive concepts and said he will impress people at the combine with his IQ.

The issues with Morris are physical-- accuracy and touch. You are born with it to an extent, but then again Morris's accuracy isn't completely broken. I think it can improve as he becomes more settled and consistent with his footwork and fundamentals. That will also improve his redzone performance. He doesn't anticipate throws very well, either, but that is common for a quarterback with Morris's arm strength. Plenty of NFL quarterbacks had that same knock coming out.

Morris has ton going for him: sublime arm strength, toughness and character, athleticism (for a pocket passer), grip strength, whip-like delivery, familiarity with pro concepts. Expect the buzz about him to pick up around the time of the Manning Passing Academy in July.

If I'm projecting, he could go anywhere from first to fourth depending on the quality of his senior year. I'd compare him to a cross between Matthew Stafford and Jake Locker. The safe money is late second round.
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Agreed...The touch thing can be fixed, it is just mental and not everything needs to be a fastball.

As for the accuracy, I don't know. There were a bunch of incompletions that were on him but a lot of WR/TE/RB didn't help him out. Dorsett, Walford and Cleveland dropped touchdowns that should have been caught. Scott dropped a lot of catchable balls too. These plays make up the season, these plays determine wins and losses and unfortunately enough drops make a QB stats suffer.
 
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so he's a 2-3 round at this point and may move up to 1st round.

on a hilarious side note, sports science did a segment on EJ Manuel and his accuracy.
 
canesupremacy said:
I think at best a 3rd rounder. The amount of balls that should be picked off is a ton. He does not have good vision or decision making. Accuracy can get better with practice but decision making rarely does. It's something you are born with.
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You do realize 3 Int's last year were off of tipped balls. So he would've thrown like 4 Int's for the whole first full season as a starting QB. Even in bad games he limits his really bad mistakes. If Morris repeats statistically what he did in 2012 then he'll be a solid 3 round pick. Especially with the artillery pieces Morris has surrounding him this year.
 
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I like Morris a lot. I have no idea where is going to land in the draft but if EJ Manuel is a 1st round possibility I know Stephen has a chance then. I think the biggest improvement he needs to make to make it to the next level is his pocket presenece. He needs to learn how to slide away from DTs instead of just running from them. With his arm, play making ability, and leadership if he was able to do this I think it could cover up some of his flaws. Very excited to see his progression this year
 
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