Thursday, January 5, 2012

Why Are Both Matt Barkley And Landry Jones Staying In College?

What is up with college quarterbacks these days? First, we have USC's Matt Barkley announcing he was returning for his senior season and now today Oklahoma's Landry Jones has announced he is staying as well.

What happened to the days of quarterbacks leaving early for the draft like Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford?

Okay, maybe those examples are EXACTLY the reason why these two guys are staying in school.

I'm a firm believer in the more starts you get in college, the better prepared you are for the NFL.  If you look at today's starting quarterbacks, you find the vast majority of the star players fulfilled their college eligibility before declaring for the Draft.  Those guys include Brady, Manning (both brothers), Rivers, and Brees.  The only really elite QB in today's NFL that didn't go four years was Aaron Rodgers. He had one year of junior college, two years at Cal, and then declared for the Draft. He, however, was exceedingly smart and ended up getting three years on the bench to continue developing before he got his chance to start.

I'm in favor ultimately of these guys staying in college as long as they can.  I want better quarterbacks in the NFL, and I also want better quarterbacks in college. Also, with these guys coming back to their schools, both USC and Oklahoma should compete for the national championship alongside LSU and Alabama.

Thank god.

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