Central Connecticut State passer Jacob Dolegala has risen from relative obscurity to a bonafide NFL Draft prospect with draftable potential.
To this point, the talk of the 2019 NFL Draft class has been dominated by a pair of potential first round quarterbacks. Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins are far and away the best pure prospects in this class, but most grade neither out as highly as quarterbacks in prior classes like Mitchell Trubisky, Jared Goff or Carson Wentz.
With seemingly no “sure thing” at the quarterback position this year, some NFL scouts are digging deep to find their potential quarterback of the future. Someone somehow unearthed Central Connecticut State passer Jacob Dolegala.
The 6-foot-6 quarterback was injured during his senior season of high school and only received one scholarship offer out of high school. Four years later he’s an 8,129 yard career passer with 48 career touchdowns who led his team to the FCS playoffs for the first time in program history.
He’s accurate (57.6 career completion percentage) and looks the part of an NFL quarterback. With both the traits and the production, he’s going to get at least a look by NFL scouts this spring. Whether or not that says more about Dolegala’s draft worthiness or this quarterback class remains to be seen.
Dolegala won’t care, he’s risen from relative anonymity to being a draftable quarterback prospect. If he is selected he’ll be only the ninth FCS quarterback selected since 2008 when Joe Flacco went No. 18 overall to Baltimore by way of Delaware.
Others like fifth-round pick John Skelton (Fordham) in 2010, second-round pick Jimmy Garoppolo (Eastern Illinois) in 2014 and most recently fourth-round pick Kyle Lauletta (Richmond) in 2019 have found reasonable NFL success. The FCS has produced a decent crop of quarterbacks. Dolegala could be next.