4. Zach Wilson, BYU
Size: 6-2, 214
The Good: The arm might be the best in the draft. He’s got the gun to put the ball anywhere he wants to, he can do it on the move, and he’s not afraid to trust his pass when he’s got a shot to make something big happen.
The mobility is good enough to be a positive – even though he’s not going to be devastating on the ground – and he’s not going to be afraid to get tough when he has to for the hard yard. However, his skills will kick in when he’s able to move around a bit, buy himself some time, and then fire away.
When he’s on, forget it. He went 18-for-18 with four touchdown passes in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl win over Western Michigan, he hit Louisiana Tech for a 92% passing day last year, threw 33 touchdown passes and three interceptions all season, and …
The Not-So-Good: It’s not fair to knock him with the bum-slayer tag, and the BYU losses to the better teams weren’t because he was awful, but he lit up a whole slew of Group of Five programs and was just okay against the Power Fivers.
He was able to pull off the win over USC two years ago with a terrific performance, and it’s not like he was bad against the other top teams, but his magnificent moments mostly came against the meh.
Even though he played the better part of the last three seasons, he’s still going to need time to develop. He’s going to have to be quicker at reading his progressions under pressure, and there’s going to be more of a learning curve than some might like.
Zach Wilson ‼️@BYUFootball | @zachkapono1 pic.twitter.com/yJBzgDdPQy
— NFL (@NFL) March 26, 2021
NFL Draft College Perspective Thought: He’s not the perfect prospect, but – to go totally cliché – he checks a whole lot of boxes. It would be nice if he was a little bit bigger, and again, it might take a little while before he becomes worthy of a top five pick – okay, No. 2 pick to the Jets – but his arm will bail him out of a whole lot of jams.
The problems – other than the size – are seemingly correctable. He’ll need to play within the system a bit, and he’ll have to take his lumps for a while when the passes that connected against Texas State and North Alabama don’t quite work right way against the Bills and Patriots.
Don’t worry. He’ll be terrific.
Projected Round: No. 2 Overall