An observation from the end of pro days … The annual pro day schedule came to a screeching halt late last week when just about everything in the sports world shut down. Everything else being equal, the final pro day likely before the actual draft was at Oregon where QB Justin Herbert reportedly had a strong performance. One of the most notable aspects of Herbert’s work out, other than the fact that he reportedly launched the ball over 60 yards throwing off his heels without a wind-up, was who was in attendance. In particular, Carolina G.M. Marty Hurney, whose Panthers have the 7th pick overall and appear to be on the verge of moving on from incumbent starter Cam Newton, was in Eugene to take in Herbert’s workout. Normally, and of course its always important to keep in context the idea that these are not normal times, your general manager doesn’t travel fully across the country – especially with a pandemic on the horizon – to check out a player unless your scouts already have a pretty good grade on the guy. At the same time, Miami, which has the 5th pick overall, tried to sneak Utah State QB Jordan Love in for a late on-site visit to their facility, literally as the league was in the process of banning such visits. Nothing is written in stone here, but these events do tend to suggest that, at least in general terms, NFL teams appear to have top ten grades on Herbert and Love. Whether said teams also like them enough to consider moving up into the top 5 in order to secure their services, though, remains to be seen. Again, as we have noted a couple of times in recent days, the key unknown right now regarding the early going at the 2020 draft is just how the NFL rates the top second-tier QBs after LSU’s Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa of Alabama, both of whom appear to be locks to be selected within the first 2-3 picks whenever the draft finally gets held. Stay tuned!
