Brady Quinn: Pat Mahomes has 'entire skillset' needed for NFL
Count former NFL quarterback Brady Quinn as a fan of Texas Tech's Pat Mahomes. During an appearance last week on Bruce Feldman's Audible podcast, the Fox Sports football analyst said Mahomes is one of the most intriguing quarterbacks in the country heading into the 2016 season.
"He's most intriguing to me because of his skillset," Quinn said. "He's the most athletic and maybe has some of the best arm talent that I've seen coming out of this class. It's just a matter of if he can be healthy, if he can display with a level of consistency what NFL scouts and evaluators are looking for and if he can get some help from his defense.
"Hopefully when people evaluate Mahomes for the next level they're not evaluating him as a guy who just put up big stats and numbers. Hopefully it's for wins, too."
Quinn believes the biggest question about Mahomes as an NFL Draft prospect is his comfort level with advanced football concepts.
"I really think he has the entire skillset to be the guy at the next level, to be one of the top-round draft picks," Quinn said. "It's all going to come down to the football IQ and those meetings behind closed doors that you see at the combine and all that to see how teams evaluate him. It's not going to be displayed necessarily at Texas Tech with the offense they run."
| Cmp. | Att. | Pct | Pass Yds | Pass TD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
364 |
573 |
63.5 |
4,653 |
36 |
15 |
While the Red Raiders' Air Raid attack is very different than the offenses run in the NFL, Quinn expects Kliff Kingsbury to have Mahomes ready for the next level.
"He runs a spread system that everyone's going to frown upon (in the NFL), but he's with a coach who I think can prepare him for the NFL level better than anyone else," Quinn said. "Kliff played at the NFL level, he coached briefly at the NFL level and so he knows what it's going to take. And he does implement some things as far as their reads and progressions that are going to be a little bit like what (Mahomes) is going to be asked to do at the NFL level."
Mahomes led all FBS players in total offense per game in 2015, becoming just the third player in Big 12 history to account for more than 5,000 yards of total offense in a single season.