ESPN Draft Analyst, Mel Kiper Jr. Talks Former Georgia QB, Jake Fromm
Jake Fromm's decision to forgo his senior season at The University of Georgia and enter the 2020 NFL Draft was that may have surprised some following a junior season in which he struggled.
ESPN's NFL Draft analyst, Mel Kiper Jr. spoke to the media today during a teleconference call and I asked him about whether or not Fromm made the right decision to enter the NFL draft early.
"Yea that's a tough one. You come out, you figure you're going to lose both book end tackles Isaiah Wilson also came out. You think about what Pickens could be as a sophomore, that's a big plus moving forward. Blaylock was coming off the injury, he didn't have D'Andre Swift. So there were reasons to stay and reasons to leave.
Fromm's arm strength, or lack thereof, has been the main point of concern for NFL scouts and general managers throughout this process, something that Kiper believes can improve once Fromm gets to the NFL:
"The arm strength you would have hoped would have improved a little bit when he's a senior, but like I said he wouldn't have had the offensive line that he had this year in front of him losing the two bookends. But you'd hope once you get him in the NFL the arm strength will improve. We saw evidence of the lack of big-time arm strength, which we knew was a problem, at the Combine. He had trouble making some of those throws that you need to make."
Kiper feels as though Fromm's draft stock was directly impacted by his performance at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis and Jalen Hurt's performance certainly didn't help things either. He sees Jake Fromm being the seventh quarterback taken in next month's draft:
"I think right now he could end up being, if you look at the quarterbacks, he could be the seventh quarterback drafted behind even Jalen Hurts from Oklahoma. But that doesn't mean he can't play in the league, it's just his arm strength is the big question. I think people want to see if he's going to be Aaron Murray or Eric Zeier, or is he going to be Andy Dalton. That's the big debate in these NFL Draft discussions when they are talking about these teams that are going to take a quarterback in the third round which is what I expect Fromm to be, a third-round quarterback."
We will never truly know if Jake Fromm's decision to enter the NFL Draft a year early was the right decision. Like Kiper alluded to, there were reasons to stay and reasons to leave. However, what it appears we do know is that Jake Fromm is likely going to be a Day 2 selection in the NFL Draft, and I don't think that would have changed with another season of college football.
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