Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron has a hot girlfriend. But too bad AJ McCarron’s NFL draft stock isn’t as hot as Katherine Webb. Well, it’s luke warm. According to some NFL scouts his draft stock is high. But he has his detractors though too.
There were three NFL head coaches and three general managers in attendance at Alabama’s Pro Day. Were they see to AJ McCarron? Well, yes, no and maybe. The head coaches included Sean Payton (Saints), Marvin Lewis (Bengals) and Chip Kelly (Eagles).
And the general managers were Mickey Loomis (Saints), Jerry Reese (Giants) and Rick Spielman (Vikings).
The Vikings may not reach for a QB this time with their first pick in the NFL Draft (#8 overall) come May. They already made that mistake with Christian Ponder Steele. So they may go a different route other than QB with that pick. I doubt that any of the troika of top tier QBs:
Teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles and Johnny Manziel will still be there at #8. Then there’s a big drop off to the second tier: which is AJ McCarron and Derek Carr. The Vikings should be able to pick AJ on day two of the draft, as he’ll likely still be there.
AJ McCarron is praised for his accuracy, vision and mechanics. But there seems to be this nagging issue with his size. AJ McCarron is 6-4, or so says the Alabama web site, and weighs about 214. His height is fine, but apparently the knock on AJ McCarron is his weight (what is this, a cheerleading squad?), because 214 apparently is too skinny for the NFL. And people seem to think his height measurement is inflated. Then the combine came, and McCarron actually threw in Indianapolis, unlike most of the other QBs. And he impressed too. At 10 inches, McCarron’s hand size was tied for fourth among the 19 quarterbacks measured at the combine. Outside of his hands, McCarron measured out at 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds with a 31 1/2-inch arm length. When he arrived at Alabama in 2009, he was listed at 189 pounds.
That may be why AJ McCarron decided to stay one more year at Alabama. Not to win another national championship, but to get bigger in the weight room and maybe show the NFL scouts that he should be taken more seriously as an NFL prospect. He’s definitely done that. And the Vikings might recognize that.
Draft-eligible Crimson Tide athletes that participated at Crimson Tide Pro Day include: Kenny Bell, Deion Belue, HaHa Clinton-Dix, Cade Foster, John Fulton, Adrian Hubbard, Cyrus Kouandjio, Cody Mandell, AJ McCarron, C.J. Mosley, Kevin Norwood, Tana Patrick and Ed Stinson.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. An MBA and Fulbright scholar, he’s also a frequent analyst on multiple news talk radio stations. The former NBC Chicago and Washington Times contributor has also been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) you should too