WATCH/LISTEN: National Analyst Sizes Up Washington Quarterback Room
Cam Mellor watches a lot of football and for good reason. He's the senior communications creative director for Pro Football Network and a former Pro Football Focus contributor.
Husky Maven's Kaila Olin and Mike Martin recently caught up with Mellor to size up the University of Washington quarterback room and he didn't mince words.
Mellor considers returning starter Dylan Morris 94th among the nation's top 130 college quarterbacks — which would rank him ninth in the Pac-12 — and possibly not the top player at his position on the UW team.
The analyst uses a straightforward yet complex system full of data points. He watches a quarteback's every pass play and assigns a value to the each individual throw.
With his scoring mechanism, Mellor eliminates variables such as receivers and offensive schemes, and generates a rating for each projected starting QB for each FBS team.
"The ranking is a list of how each player should fare solely in college based on the skills they’ve shown at the collegiate level or, in some cases, back to their high school days," he said.
In a pandemic-shortened four games, Mellor noted that Morris made very few "turnover-worthy" plays but struggled with touch passes and deep throws.
"The second half of the Utah game was Morris at his best," he said.
However, Mellor felt it may only be a matter of time before true freshman Sam Huard takes over, He calls Huard "a generational talent."
If there's a change from Morris to Huard, Mellor said the quarterback ranking for the Huskies would improve, given Huard's ability to throw the ball to all zones on the field with touch.
"I love Huard's arm," he said after viewing the freshman's high school highlights. "There were plenty of applicable throws for this offense."
The Pac-12 once previously was known as the conference of the quarterbacks. Mellor has just two in his top 20.
Watch the video above or the Podcast below to hear the discussion in its entirety.
