Mike Mayock Shakes Up Quarterback Rankings

Feb 22, 2014; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Louisville Cardinals Teddy Bridgewater speaks to the media in a press conference during the 2014 NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

The long crawl to the draft is slowly coming to its conclusion, but in the meantime it seems some analysts haven’t turned off the tape yet.

NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock released an updated top 5 prospects by position list today, and his rankings had a major shift when it comes to quarterbacks.

Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles remain in the top two spots from Mayock’s previous rankings, but the real shake up came at the end of Mayock’s list.

Teddy Bridgewater, who tumbled from first to third on Mayock’s rankings in the last update, now finds himself barely hanging on to a spot on the list. Bridgewater is now tied for fifth on Mayock’s quarterback board, with LSU’s Zach Mettenberger.

This is Mettenberger’s first appearance of Mayock’s rankings, taking the spot of another former SEC signal caller, AJ McCarron. McCarron had been ranked fifth or tied for fifth with Eastern Illinois’s Jimmy Garopollo in the previous three rankings, but now with a week and a half before the draft he finds himself off the board.

As a result of Teddy’s tumble, Derek Carr and Jimmy Garopollo have each taken a step up to third and fourth in the rankings, respectively.

Bridgewater’s pro day was a major red flag for Mayock, even though after every live performance he states he’s going to “go back and look at the tape.”

“If I was a GM in the NFL, I would not take him in the first round of the draft … You’ve got to see the quarterbacks throw the ball live,” Mayock said about Bridgewater on the Petros and Money show on AM-570 in Los Angeles, per Pro Football Talk. “I’ve never seen a top quarterback in the last 10 years have a bad Pro Day until Teddy Bridgewater. He had no accuracy. The ball came out funny. The arm strength wasn’t there, and it made me question everything I saw on tape because this was live.”

Mayock has never been one to give a “hot take,” or shake things up on his rankings simply for extra attention. If he is sliding Teddy down now, Mayock has real concerns, and the only possible objection one could raise is that Mayock is now overthinking things this far into the draft process.

If the draft had already been in the books at this point like last year, maybe Teddy holds his spot on Mayock’s rankingns.

In the end, it’s another mark in the loss column for Teddy Bridgewater, and it seems more and more likely every day the Louisville signal caller could have a long wait in the green room next Thursday. How long that wait may be remains to be seen.