Jameis Winston, Florida State, 6-4, 235, 4.85, RSOPH … Enigmatic pocket passer with elite physical skills, but who also has a myriad of off-field red flags including several runs with legal authorities; became the youngest player ever to win the Heisman Trophy in 2013 when he led Florida State to the national championship as a redshirt freshman, but ran out of miracles this past season when the Seminoles were the only unbeaten team in the country in the regular season, but lost in the national semi-finals; tall, thick QB with all the tools, although he is still probably not in the Andrew Luck-type category; has been compared favorably, though, to prototype NFL pocket passers like Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning; has well above average arm strength and can make all the throws in the pocket and fit the ball into tight spaces; also anticipates routes extremely well and trusts his receivers; stands tall in the pocket; sees the field well, is patient going through his progressions and can find the open receiver; has decent accuracy with a 66% completion rate in his FSU tenure; has nice touch on deep balls, but has a tendency to fly passes on intermediate routes when he doesn’t set his feet; also has a somewhat deliberate release and release point can be inconsistent; however, also has that natural ability to get rid of the ball just before the pocket collapses; also can throw the ball off his back foot, but will force balls into coverage and can be careless throwing the ball late over the middle as he doesn’t always see backside coverage; indeed, the one real knock on his game is that he throws too picks as he had 28 in his two years at FSU including 18 this past season; decent athlete who can extend plays with his feet and is tough to bring down in the open field, but isn’t necessarily either overly quick or fast and doesn’t run much by design; versatile athlete, though, who is also a quality relief pitcher on the FSU baseball team and was drafted by MLB out of high school; very competitive player and vocal team leader who literally willed the Seminoles to comeback wins on what seemed like a weekly basis in 2014; in fact, based on pure physical talent would rate as the top prospect in the 2015 draft, but the off-field issues cloud his final grade; among relatively minor incidents Winston was involved in a BB gun shooting at a university apartment complex, was cited for a minor theft of crab legs from a local supermarket, and gave a profanity-laced performance at a prominent site on campus; more seriously, though, also faced several investigations after he was alleged to have sexually assaulted a female student in December 2012; no charges were ever filed and he was cleared by a university student ethics probe, although the alleged victim currently has a civil Title IX case pending against the university and there have been concerns that the local police never did much of an initial investigation; given the NFL’s new-found sensitivity to domestic violence all this combined with questions about his overall intelligence and maturity, could make Winston one of the 2015 draft’s biggest wild card.
