Redskins Draft Prospect: Colt McCoy

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7:11 PM

* Check out Rich's profiles of other QBs at the Combine

By Rich Tandler
Redskins Correspondent
CSNwashington.com

It’s been more than two months since the college football season ended, and former Texas quarterback Colt McCoy still is bringing home the hardware.

Since returning from the NFL Scouting Combine earlier this month, the quarterback with the most wins, 45, in major-college football history has collected the Manning Award (named after Archie, Peyton and Eli) as the nation’s top quarterback, The Maxwell Club Award as the nation’s top player, and the AT&T Player of the Year Award.

As his college career gets further back in his rear view mirror, McCoy is preparing for the next phase, a job in the NFL.

And there is a chance that his NFL career will be with the Washington Redskins. The Redskins are said to be looking for a quarterback to challenge incumbent Jason Campbell. They have the 37th pick of the draft, and that is right around where many analysts figure the McCoy will be drafted.

On a recent appearance on Sirius NFL Radio, McCoy mentioned the Redskins as one of two teams who have shown interest in him beyond the normal, cursory contact that takes place at venues such as the Combine. McCoy said that he has met Mike Shanahan on a couple of occasions, and that the two have had great conversations. McCoy also said that he knows Redskins offense coordinator Kyle Shanahan, a fellow Longhorn alum, from various events in Austin and around the state of Texas.

The strategy speculation that is making the rounds is for the Redskins to fill the vital left tackle position with the fourth pick in the draft by taking a player such as Russell Okung of Oklahoma State or Bryan Bulaga of Iowa, and then looking at a quarterback. That strategy makes a ton of sense as it would allow the young quarterback to learn while in the vertical position rather than having to pick himself up off the ground as Campbell, playing behind the Redskins’ weak offensive line, had to do all too often last year.

Any quarterback who makes it to the second round of the draft has some flaws; otherwise, he would be snapped up in the top ten selections. At the top of the list of perceived McCoy negatives is the injury he received in January’s BCS title game.

“I just had a nerve injury in my deltoid. It’s not even actually my shoulder,” McCoy explained at the Combine. “And just a weird injury. Hard to describe, hard to explain. Only thing I can say is, there was no pain, there was never pain involved in the whole injury, the whole situation. It was just completely dead.”

The injury did not worry some as much as the fact that it occurred with what appeared to be minimal contact. “I’ve taken a lot of hits in my career in the last four years. I’ve been hit a lot harder than that,” McCoy said. “It seemed [Alabama defender Marcel Dareus] just caught me the right way, and I was very disappointed.”

The record would suggest that McCoy generally was a durable quarterback at Texas. He missed just three games since taking over as the Longhorns’ QB early in his freshman season in 2006.

Another knock against McCoy is his height. It was recorded as six feet, one-and-a-quarter inch. "My height's a knock. It is,” McCoy said. “This is what God gave me. I'm going to use it the best I can.''

Something around that 6-4 mark is the preferred height for an NFL quarterback, better to see over all of the onrushing defensive behemoths. But not all NFL quarterbacks are that tall. One who actually is shorter than McCoy just hoisted the Lombardi Trophy. Drew Brees of the Saints is listed at six feet even.

And then there’s the rap that is aimed at most of the top quarterback prospect these days, that he played in a spread offense and rarely took a snap from under center.

“I realize that's something I really need to work on because the last two years, we didn't spend that much time underneath center,” McCoy said. “The good thing with my shoulder, after the game, for about three weeks I wasn't able to throw, so I committed myself to working on my feet, working on my drops, my play-action drops. My feet are going to be perfectly fine.''

McCoy certainly does have his strong points. Starting 45 winning games is a good starting point. In 2008 he said the NCAA record for the highest completion percentage in a season by hitting on 77.6 percent of his passes. He finished his four-year career playing at the highest level of college with a completion percentage of 70.2 percent.

Texas offensive tackle Adam Ulatoski said of McCoy, “He's accurate — most accurate quarterback in college football history — so I think that says a whole lot about him.”

McCoy doesn’t lose much of that accuracy when he is on the move. One scouting report said, “McCoy is a good athlete for the position who knows how to buy time in the pocket and keep plays alive with his feet. He looks natural when asked to improvise, and showcases good accuracy and decision-making on the move.”

McCoy, of course, agrees. “When it's uncomfortable, when we have to make a play, I feel like that's one of my greatest strengths.”

There still is a long way to go before the April 22 draft. The most important day for McCoy will be Texas’ pro day on March 29. He did not throw at the Combine as he still was rehabbing his shoulder, so this will be the first and perhaps his only chance to throw for scouts.

Of course, we have no way of knowing if Shanahan is truly interested in drafting McCoy. Shanahan likes playing cloak-and-dagger games. In 2006 went to great lengths to hide his interest in Vanderbilt quarterback Jay Cutler. He did not go to Cutler’s pro day, talk to him at the Combine, or have him to the Broncos’ complex for a pre-draft visit. It was no wonder that everyone was surprised when Shanahan traded up to the eleventh overall pick to snag Cutler.

So, perhaps the interest in McCoy is merely a smoke screen designed to throw the rest of the league off track. Or maybe not? We won’t have much of an indication until draft day.

McCoy, for his part, will be glad when it’s all over. "The draft process is going to be negative. People are going to beat you up and find faults,” he said. "But once you get there [with a new team], you throw the draft out the window. Then it's time to play ball."
 
Rich Tandler has been following the Redskins since 1966 and he blogs about the team at RealRedskins.com. He has written three books on the team including his latest, The Redskins Chronicle. For details on this unique book and for ordering information, visit www.RedskinsChronicle.com. You can reach Rich by email at rich.tandler+csn@gmail.com.