LSU QB JaMarcus Russell had his pro day on March 14th, and by all accounts, was successfully able to showcase his arm for NFL Scouts. The Oakland Raiders, who are projected to take Russell with the #1 pick in the War Room Report’s 2007 NFL Mock Draft, interviewed Russell the evening before his pro day.

NFL Draft analysts are starting to lose perspective on Russell. The War Room Report is high on the 6-6 QB, ranking him 4th overall on the 2007 NFL Draft Big Board, but he does not compare to many of the recent top QBs, because of the high bust risk that accompanies a player who is still developing.

Mike Mayock of NFL Network claims that Russell has the best arm he has ever seen leading up to the draft. Scouts Inc’s Todd McShay described the pro day performance as “…the most impressive of all the pro days I’ve been to…” While both accolades may be true, it is important to keep perspective. Russell still must work on reading defenses better. At times he exhibits too much confidence in his arm, forcing the ball into spots and leading to turnovers. For a player projected as the #1 QB in the draft and who is getting compared to prospects like Vince Young or Peyton Manning, Russell did not dominate in college, despite having two first day picks at WR.

Russell’s potential is intriguing, and it does elevate him above Brady Quinn as the top QB in this draft. But at the same time, you would think that scouts would have learned from past instances, not to put too much emphasis on workouts and arm strength

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 15th, 2007 at 7:15 am and is filed under JaMarcus Russell, 2007 NFL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.