The Michael Penix draft conundrum … No question that Washington QB Michael Penix has been the best player in college football this fall and seems to be a shoo-in to claim this year’s Heisman trophy. He’s been throwing for almost 400 yards per game this season – only one other passer has more than 330 per game -while completing 72% of his passes and tossing for 20 scores versus just 3 picks. And Penix put to rest any questions that he was just beating up on inferior competition last Saturday when he threw for over 300 yards and 4 scores in the Huskies’ dramatic win over Oregon. However, one still gets the feeling that NFL scouts still aren’t sold that Penix is a true elite prospect with legit top ten potential for the upcoming draft. On the one hand, there is no question that Penix has elite intangibles. He sees the field well, has excellent route anticipation and is a very accurate passer who mostly throws darts. At the same time, though, there are some real possible issues there. Penix has a strong enough arm and can make all the throws, but he needs a clean pocket with room to step up, but loses both accuracy and velocity when he can’t set his feet. The bigger questions, though are a) his lack of mobility and b) a very sketchy injury history. Penix does move around the pocket reasonably well, but isn’t at all a very good athlete and isn’t going to escape trouble in the pocket or make plays with his legs. Then there’s the injury history. Penix has already missed all or parts of two seasons with ACLs and a third because of a shoulder injury. The consensus we seem to be hearing at this time is that Penix has top 15 type productivity, but in terms of the total pro package looks more like a mid-second round prospect.
