A Different Quarterback Pecking Order?

While attempting to find as much information as I can about the upcoming NFL Draft, I came across Tony Pauline's NFL Combine rumors on WalterFootball.com. Pauline also has his own site, Draft Insider, and has been in the game for long enough where I can put some stock in this.

One of his recent reports has to do with how the quarterbacks are stacking up in Indianapolis, and it has a bit of a different look from what we've largely seen to this point.

In conversations here in Indy it's apparent the quarterbacks stack up 1) Blake Bortles, 2) Teddy Bridgewater, 3) Derek Carr, 4) Johnny Manziel on a number of team boards.

For much of the process so far, the pecking order has been the "Big Three" of Bortles, Bridgewater, and Manziel. Carr then heads up the list of "second tier" quarterbacks that includes names like Jimmy Garoppolo and A.J. McCarron. This is the first time I've seen Carr in the top three thus far, and that obviously has a lot to do with the time he's spend with SB Nation recently. (Or, you know. . .not.)

Speaking of Garoppolo, former NFL executive Bill Polian told ESPN that he thinks Garoppolo is a first-round pick. I'm not sure if I'd go quite that far, but Garoppolo has made a pretty positive impression through much of the off-season process thus far. I'd be surprised to see him land in the first round, but taking him in the second. . .say, with the 40th overall pick. . .wouldn't be terrible by any stretch.

At this point, we really don't know anything about anything, especially about how the Vikings' draft board stacks up at the present time. If the Vikings see a guy that they like, they will make the necessary maneuvers to draft them, whether it's in the first round or slightly thereafter.