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Baylor’s Bryce Petty: Big 12 Quarterback Savior in NFL

By Jerry Levi

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After having read an article blasting the Failures of Big 12 Quarterbacks (most notably RG3) in recent years, it’s my summarization of just who and what makes up a great NFL quarterback? Why do NFL owners and GMs consistently take quarterbacks in the 1st round, only to see them fail miserably in just a year or two? Insert Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles, and yes Big 12 QBs RG3, Geno Smith, Sam Bradford, and Blaine Gabbert. The real culprit amongst all of this is the system of evaluation itself, not the Big 12 defenses that make the conference quarterbacks look so good. Why draft a QB so high from any conference and expect great things from him in years 1 and 2 when your entire franchise has been a struggle? Insert Cleveland with Brandon Weeden, Cleveland again with Johnny Manziel, Geno Smith in New York, Sam Bradford in St. Louis, RG3 in Washington, and Blake Bortles in Jacksonville. Owners and GMs spend so much money in guaranteed contracts that they fail to place the proper pieces around their star quarterback that it’s doomed from the get go. Do you honestly think that Jameis Winston (projected 1st to Tampa Bay) or Marcus Mariota (1st round to Philadelphia or Tennessee) have a chance? Evaluators should look at ALL quarterbacks much in the same manner as they do running backs. Start taking them in the 2nd and 3rd round after you’ve given them the proper pieces in the 1st and 2nd of the NFL Draft, i.e. Offensive Guards, Tackles, and Defensive Tackles and Ends. Which brings us to Baylor Quarterback Bryce Petty.

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Bryce Petty is an ideal candidate for the NFL. Yes he is a Big 12 quarterback. Yes some of Petty’s downside is he locks in on one target instead of going through his progressions. Yes Bryce Petty puts up video game numbers against Big 12 defenses, but he could be a steal come Draft Day to the right team. If I were a Kansas City or San Francisco GM I’d think about grooming this kid to the NFL standard, especially if Petty can come on the cheap in the 4th or 5th. At 6’3″ 230, Bryce Petty has the size and the arm strength, he just needs the proper NFL management to get him there.

Which brings us to this. Which conference right now is blitzing the NFL with quarterback talent en masse? The Big Ten? Russell Wilson went to Wisconsin after transferring from NC State. Tom Brady went to Michigan. The Pac 12? Andrew Luck went to Stanford and Aaron Rodgers went to Cal. The SEC? Oh yeah the best conference out there has Greg McIlroy and the Tim Tebow Project lighting up NFL defenses as well as Johnny Manziel right? At least the ACC had Ben Roethlisberger since he went to Miami. No check that. That’s Miami (OH). Tony Romo? Eastern Illinois and Undrafted. Tom Brady 6th round. Colin Kaepernick 2nd Round from Nevada. Quarterback longevity in the NFL is the key here, not what conference a quarterback came from, thereby justifying what kind of defenses that quarterback played against. If that were the case then the NFL would be filled with SEC quarterbacks, which it is not with the exception of the Manning brothers.

Will Bryce Petty break the mold of inconsistency of Big 12 quarterback play in the NFL? We’ll know when he’s picked on the 2nd day, sometime in the 3rd, 4th, or 5th round and after a few years of watching from the sidelines, but we’ll most certainly dog mark this as a litmus water mark when Bryce Petty becomes a superstar in the NFL. Nobody will care what conference he came from or what defense he played against. Do we sit here and say ‘Oh when Peyton Manning played against SEC defenses…” No we don’t. The evaluator is time itself. Time in the right system equates to success on the field. Bryce Petty can get us there. We’re (especially me) all counting on you Bryce Petty, savior of the Big 12 quarterback position…

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