Mike Mayock: Teddy Bridgewater Not A First-Round Quarterback

The mind-boggling fall of Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater continues, as now NFL.com analyst Mike Mayock has declared that he would not use a first-round pick in this year's draft on him.

"I would say in general, tape is worth about 85 percent of an overall grade, and the rest of the process is set up for red flags, and to go back and watch more tape to try to confirm what you saw or didn't see," Mayock said. "I saw about four of his tapes prior to the combine, and I really liked him. I thought he had a chance to be a franchise quarterback from what I saw on the tape. ... Except you've got to see the quarterbacks throw the ball live. I've never seen a top-level 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.

"I went back and watched a bunch more tape and compared him to the rest of the guys in the draft," he said. "And like it or not, I've come to a conclusion -- if I was a GM in the NFL, I would not take him in the first round of the draft."

Look, I'm not a scout or a personnel guy or anything like that, but the way Teddy Bridgewater is dropping at this point is simply mind-blowing to me. A few months ago, this was the guy that teams were absolutely supposed to be throwing their seasons away for. Now, to many, he not only isn't the best quarterback in the draft, he isn't even worth a first-round selection. Then again, enough people think highly enough of Bridgewater that he's the most selected player in the most recent edition of our Mock Draft Database, and by a significant margin.

We've all read Arif's scouting reports on Bridgewater and the rest of the quarterbacks in this year's draft class, and after everything I've watched, I don't have any reason to come to a conclusion that's any different than his. . .Bridgewater is the best quarterback available in the 2014 draft, and if the Minnesota Vikings have the ability to select him, they most certainly should. I know that everyone is in love with Johnny Manziel and that Blake Bortles has all the potential and Derek Carr seems like he'd be a great fit in a Norv Turner offense and all that.

But this team needs a quarterback. . .and if a scenario were to arise where all four of those quarterbacks were available when the Minnesota Vikings select and there's nobody interested in trading up, I simply don't understand why a coach/general manager/whoever would take any of those other three guys over Bridgewater. Maybe I'm missing something, but if you had told me in January that the Vikings would have a shot at him without giving up a ton to trade up, I wouldn't have bought it, and the odds are pretty good that you wouldn't have bought it, either.

The Minnesota Vikings are going to come out of this draft with a quarterback. It's just a matter of which one. But I will say that if that quarterback turns out to be Teddy Bridgewater, I'll be absolutely ecstatic, despite the drop he's taken in the past couple of months.