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UCLA’s Brett Hundley: the NFL Draft’s other quarterback

By J.P. Scott

Nov 1, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley (17) warms-up before the game against the Arizona Wildcats at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 1, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley (17) warms-up before the game against the Arizona Wildcats at Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /
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UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley is flying under the radar thanks to a couple of Heisman Trophy winners.

If you watched the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine like I did, you saw a whole lot of Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota coverage. The two former Heisman winners were front and center all week, as the media and scouts seemed hellbent on creating a rivalry between the two as some sort of “main event.”

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Every once in a while, a journalist who knew how to do his or her job would ask an analyst to name some other quarterbacks to watch during the combine. Every time the question was answered, Brett Hundley’s name was mentioned — and for good reason.

Hundley is quite simply the safest pick at the position in the upcoming NFL Draft. He’s the only one of the consensus top-five signal callers whose college coach has significant NFL coaching experience. UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr. was raised in the NFL and has been grooming Hundley to play on Sundays for the past three seasons.

Let’s face it, nobody is going to match the ridiculous statistics that led to Mariota’s Heisman win in Oregon’s high-octane offense — but Hundley was impressive nonetheless.  Playing in the most pro-style-like spread offense you’ll see in college football, Brett Hundley completed just over 67.5 percent of his passes for 9,971 yards in his three years at UCLA. He also posted a 3-to-1 touchdown to interception ratio (75 TDs, 25 INTs).

In addition to his efficiency through the air, he also ran for 1,747 yards and 30 touchdowns — one more than Marcus Mariota during the same period.

Yes, Hundley can run — but make no mistake about it — he has all of the tools and background to be a solid pro-style pocket passer. Like Russell Wilson, Hundley’s legs will be used to create rather than be the essence of who he is as a player. The difference between Wilson and Hundley, however, is that Hundley throws a better ball — especially deep.

Going off the eye-test alone, the only quarterback in the draft who throws a better ball than Brett Hundley is Jameis Winston. Hundley’s mobility combined with fakes off the read-option created a lot of open pass plays during his career, but I can still recall several times when he threaded the needle into tight spaces with Tom Brady-like precision.

When talking intangibles, I put Hundley firmly above both Winston and Mariota. Some are turned off by Winston’s cockiness, citing that he may not be mature enough to handle being a starting NFL quarterback. Others fear the same of Mariota, but for different reasons. Some scouts have doubted whether or not Mariota is the kind of guy who can take charge of an NFL huddle.

There have been no such concerns about Hundley. In fact, some are even saying the opposite:

Granted, none of this is going to change the fact that Winston and Mariota will be the first two quarterbacks off the board.  The pressure to win now and the hype surrounding the two will be too much for quarterback-starved franchises to avoid.

Hundley is likely to fall to the end of the first or early second round. If he makes it to pick No. 19 of round one, I would expect the Philadelphia Eagles to trade up and give up much less for him at that spot than they would have for Mariota earlier. Everyone keeps expecting Chip Kelly to sell the farm for Mariota, but as we’ve seen during the past two years, he’s not married to Oregon players.

Although I feel that Philadelphia might be the ideal situation for Brett Hundley, there are about eight teams he could go to and be starting before season’s end. If your team needs a quarterback and ends up landing Hundley in the first or second round, I’d feel pretty good about the future of the franchise.

Next: Latest 2015 NFL Mock Draft: Post-Combine

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