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The last few years, my Six From Saturday notes have been included at the bottom of my MMQB column on Monday mornings. This year, they’ll be published as a separate post each week. Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s college action, geared mostly toward what should be of interest to NFL fans.
1) In one way, Saturday night was a culmination for USC quarterback Caleb Williams, the manifestation of a goal he set for himself (he actually wrote down that he wanted to win two Heismans) as a middle-schooler, with the word “Heisman” scrawled on a piece of scrap paper. In another, Williams’s taking home the most famed individual award in U.S. sports is only the beginning. As we’ve said here over the last couple of months, NFL teams already have their eyes on a kid who turned 20 less than a month ago, and already has been a starter for two college football bluebloods. Plenty of folks in pro football have watched Williams. Few have actually studied him at this point, since he’s not draft-eligible until 2024. But I was able to find someone who’s worked ahead on that quarterback class, to get better perspective on this year’s class. And the early evaluation was, as you’d expect it would be, glowing.
“Elite arm talent and amazing skill set—can make every throw from different platforms, but he’s also a really instinctive and anticipatory thrower,” says our personnel executive. “He’s able to throw guys open rather than just throwing to spots. He also has a great feel for the game; he doesn’t get the offense in trouble. He takes what is there, makes the drive-starting throws. Lots of [Patrick] Mahomes in his game. I’m watching the Kansas City free agents, and he does a lot of the same stuff.”
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This scout’s evaluation of North Carolina’s Drake Maye, while we’re on 2024 prospects, was similarly glowing. (“Another guy with elite arm talent and able to throw guys open and has great instincts … able to move the pocket and throw on the move. … Not as explosive as Caleb but super productive and does everything you want to see.”)
So are these two better than anyone in the 2023 class? “I think they are,” says our exec, before cautioning that, yes, it’s always easy to say that about players who are a year out. And I’ve been guilty of doing that before, for sure—looking at the guys a year away (Texas’s Quinn Ewers could wind up in this category, too), and saying it’d be smart for teams to wait. But I’d be pretty surprised, in this case, if either Williams or Maye winds up becoming Spencer Rattler or Matt Barkley.
2) This is the time of year when you start to hear about players having come out of the woodwork as higher prospects than anyone envisioned in preseason, because teams have had a chance to work through the college season, and Illinois CB Devon Witherspoon is one to watch along those lines. One experienced NFC executive gave me his name last week and, while I was fishing around for more names, a second personnel man said, when I told him I’d already gotten Witherspoon’s names, “S---, that’s literally the one I was going to give you.”
Witherspoon first became a starter late in his true freshman season of 2019, was honorable mention All–Big Ten last year, and broke out in this, his fourth season at Illinois. The first exec pointed out his athletic ceiling (Witherspoon didn’t start playing football until his junior year in high school), in addition to his length and toughness, saying he could potentially sneak into the first round. Last year, Cincinnati corner Sauce Gardner rose through the draft process as more evaluators got eyes on him. The same sort of thing could happen with Witherspoon.
3) Along those lines, here’s another name to watch: Washington State LB Daiyan Henley. He transferred from Nevada for his fifth year and was first-team All–Pac 12 this year. He carries with him a colorful backstory, as the son of street legend and famed entertainment exec Eugene Henley, who worked with the likes of Snoop Dogg and Nipsey Hussle, and was featured in FX’s Hip Hop Uncovered documentary. The elder Henley was also a gang kingpin (he did time for robbery, spending part of Daiyan’s childhood in jail), and is said to have since gotten his life in order. At any rate, his son is giving the family plenty to look forward to.
“He really impressed me,” says an NFC exec. “Three-down guy—outstanding speed and coverage skill. … He’s got the skill set to be a modern-day NFL ’backer. Former receiver, moved to safety and then to inside linebacker, so there’s some rawness to him. But that gives you a snapshot of the athlete. He has range, can play man, can blitz, excellent speed.” So he’ll be a good story and good player for everyone to dive into in the spring.
4) The stock of a coach can be volatile—and Todd Monken’s sure was a few years ago. In 2018, he was considered a rising star after a nice three-year run as the Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator. He was close to landing the Jets job that went to Adam Gase. He interviewed for the Packers job that went to Matt LaFleur and the Bengals job that went to Zac Taylor, and eventually settled in to be Freddie Kitchens’s OC in Cleveland, a job that would put him at the wheel of a talented young offense, with a promising second-year quarterback.
Many assumed he’d land a head coaching job in 2020. You know the rest. Those Browns collapsed, and Kitchens was fired. Monken couldn’t even find another coordinator job in the NFL. So he returned to college as Georgia’s OC and has helped the Bulldogs to one national title, and maybe another in a few weeks. And my understanding is, after this year, he has a real interest in getting back to the NFL as a coordinator. Which brings you back to how Monken actually did in the league. So consider this …
• The Bucs went from 18th to 18th to 12th in points; and 18th to ninth to third in total offense over Monken’s three years in Tampa Bay.
• Jameis Winston’s two most efficient seasons in Tampa (2016 and ’17) came while playing for Monken.
• Ryan Fitzpatrick entered in a pinch and became the Bucs’ starter in 2018, and posted the only 100-plus-rating season of his 17-year career under Monken.
• Despite all that went wrong with the 2019 Browns, and a dysfunctional offensive line, Monken got great individual seasons out of Nick Chubb (1,494 rushing yards), Jarvis Landry (1,174 receiving yards) and Odell Beckham Jr. (1,035 receiving yards) in Cleveland.
And obviously, Monken’s done good work with Stetson Bennett, Georgia’s freakish young tight ends; and his players, guys like George Pickens and James Cook, have shown readiness for the pros. So I’d think there’ll at least be some NFL teams curious about him, and my understanding is Monken will be ready to listen to them after the College Football Playoff.
5) Deion Sanders’s impact on recruiting was felt in a big way this week, with one of the 10 best senior running backs in the country flipping his commitment from Notre Dame to Colorado—giving the Buffaloes their first four-star recruit in three years. And, with the early signing period a little more than a week away, it seems a certainty that there’s more coming. Whether this works, Colorado’s decision to go all in on Sanders should be fascinating, and the early returns show that at least some of the advantages he brought to Jackson State the last three years are carrying right over to the major college football level.
6) NFL prospects’ (justifiable and) more routine decisions to skip bowl games have taken some steam out of the early parts of the bowl schedule. As such, this week’s games will be without Florida QB Anthony Richardson, Louisville QB Malik Cunningham, Oregon State TE Luke Musgrave and SMU WR Rashee Rice (the latter two have been nursing injuries and are shifting their focus to draft prep). It’s pretty tough to blame kids in nonplayoff bowls, given the chance to get a four- or five-week jump on getting ready for the combine and pro days.
