I really didn't want to be the one to start ANOTHER McPherson thread, but I wanted to hear thoughts on why he went where he did in the draft. I really thought he would go in the 3rd maybe the 4th, but the 5th!?! It isn't even that he went so late that surprised me, but the fact that so many teams decided to go QB on the second day and passed on him. . (Detroit being one of them)

Just wondering why teams shyed away from him. It seemed a lot of fans jumped on his bandwagon, but clearly NFL teams didn't feel the same.

Kid, I think it's because a lot of teams feel that he has character issues stemming from what he did at Florida State. Once again I will say that if a team isn't comfortable with a prospects character, then they shouldn't draft him. A team like the Lions doesn't need people with questionable character like McPherson or guys that have the potential of being a locker room cancer like Winslow JR. There were a lot of Lions fans that wanted the Lions to draft Winslow JR in 2004 I find it really disturbing that a lot of Lions fans want to overlook important stuff like character and whether a guy will be a team player. I find it very disturbing. In order to have a sucessful team, you need people you can rely on no matter what. new

I actually think it had less to do with character issues and more to do with game film. For instance, take Maurice Clarett. Clarett was drafted in the 3rd round and McPherson in the 5th, and Clarett had arguably greater character issues than McPherson. However, Clarett had played an entire season at Ohio State while McPherson only played four games at Florida State.

I've noticed in the NFL, a lot of time a rookie QB will begin playing and initially have a lot of success (see Grossman's first three games and Krenzel's first game). My theory is (and I may be wrong) that after getting some film on these guys, other teams are better able to scheme to take advantage of the QB's weaknesses (like with Ben Roethlisberger, calling complicated zone coverages). I would assume that the same would be true for college. My point is that, even though McPherson played very well in the four games that he did play, they had reason to be leery of whether McPherson would have been able to maintain that success throughout an entire college season.

Simple McPherson was considered a 5th round pick to start with. Everybody here jumped on the bandwagon when some scout said he had first round talent. But it doesn't matter if you don't have it upstairs just look at Mike McMahon.

Anyway Dan Pompei of the sporting news already addressed it:

"If I were doing the drafting, I wouldn't touch McPherson because of the character concerns. It isn't fair to compare McPherson's baggage with Clarett's baggage. There is baggage, and then there is baggage.

Let's review: McPherson was charged with gambling on his own team's games. He was charged with stealing a blank check and cashing it. He was kicked off his college team. Clarett might not be Mother Theresa, but he is not a criminal. Furthermore, McPherson is far from a sure thing at quarterback, as some have made him out to be. He barely played at Florida State, having failed to beat out Chris Rix, a quarterback who might not get drafted.

I don't want to hear about what McPherson did in the Arena League. In the 19-team league, 15 quarterbacks who made the minimum number of attempts completed a higher percentage of their passes. Seven threw for more yards per game. And three had a better passer rating. No one is talking about Mark Grieg, Tony Graziani or Clint Dolezel about being the next Michael Vick, are they? They outperformed McPherson in nearly every category.

At this point, McPherson is more of an athlete than a quarterback and didn't test anywhere near as spectacularly at the Combine as some thought he might. At best, he is a developmental prospect with some interesting tools. But in my estimation, developmental prospects aren't worth your time unless you can trust them."

Hmm that isn't what I read or heard. I think the vast majority of
"draft experts" didn't have him going past the 4th round. Many mocks had him going in the 3rd.

I guess character could be the reason. IMHO gambling (even on your own team) isn't nearly as bad as what some college athletes have done and gotten away with. That said, I realize that gambling hurts the integrity of the entire sport and must be taken seriously. I just didn't think he'd fall so far.

Many mocks also had Shazor getting drafted in Rd 3, along with Browner, Munoz, Butler, etc. That's why they're called mocks. People guess who the team will pick, and are usually biased towards their favorite team picking the players they like the most. Obviously, McPherson wasn't rated as highly as the other numerous QBs who were picked before him. The front offices know much more about these guys than the fans do.

I think Leos post speaks volumes for the comparison of mock drafts/fans thoughts and the reality of the draft and the team's front office perspective.

Just remember, professional teams spend millions of dollars every year getting college players scouted and rated by their own staffs. They will then consult other so called 'experts' to get their take on individual players and how they have rated them. Many of these draft analysts will project a player as a 'can't miss' prospect who then completely flops. Those 'experts' will then distance themselves from their projection and talk about the players they got right. If scouts and analysts were correct all the time, Tom Brady would have been a first overall selection and Akili Smith would have been looking for work somewhere north of Wisconsin. Only time will tell if McPherson made a dumb youngster mistake, or if he indeed has a serious character issue. Only time will tell if McPherson has what it takes to be a starter or clip board keeper in the NFL.

Of all the analysts doing mocks and projections this year, how many thought Mike Williams would fall to the Lions? How many of those that saw Williams falling projected the Lions would select him? How many of those 'experts' are now giving the Lions some harsh criticism? And if the Lions offense exploded and they become a playoff team, how many of those people will eat crow nationally and admit they were wrong?

I totally agree that mocks aren't any better at predicting a draft than scouting reports are at predicting who a future playmaker will be. Even as the media and the fans were going on and on about McPherson I did notice the lack of attention he seemed to drawing from the actual teams. I just thought it was interesting that there was SO MUCH hype on the guy by "us" while the teams turned out to have so little intest.

Good sir, I must say that I love your new avatar.

Seriously going into the draft McPherson was considered a second day prospect by the "draft experts". But once the draft hype started McPherson became so over hyped that people were calling in saying Detroit had to take him as high as the second round.

More than likely none of these people have ever seen him play. He played I believe 4 games for FSU and one season of AFL where he had good but not great stats in a league where QBs who can't make it in the CFL go.

Rick Gosselin had McPherson rated as the #12 QB on his board just below Orlovsky at #11. All 11 of the QB rated ahead of him were drafted with 9 going before him almost in the exact order Gosselin ranked them.