Pro Football Focus does a good job of evaluating what college players project to at the next level. There is good and bad that come of that.
Good in that you get an honest, unbiased evaluation about how a player has performed at the collegiate level and how that play effects how they project at the next level.
The bad in that is that sometimes the truth can hurt.
Pro Football Focus recently rated every starting quarterback for every team playing in a bowl game this year on how they project as future NFL signal-callers.
Unfortunately for Ian Book, that didn’t come with a very kind evaluation.
Ian Book checked in at No. 35 on the list and here’s the write-up from PFF on Book at the next level:
Book has a limited arm and serious pocket-presence issues. We charged him with 11 sacks and 38 pressures on his own this year after charging him with 18 sacks in 2018. Combine that with a limited arm and you have a long shot in the pros
-Pro Football Focus
It’s important to remember that these evaluations are done with the pro game in mind.
Book does so much with his feet that he can still be a difference-maker at the collegiate level in many cases. However against the stiffer competition, such as Clemson, Georgia and Michigan, the ability to scatter ahead and keep drives moving consistently so much by his feet is extremely difficult to do.
I agree in that Ian Book doesn’t project as a professional quarterback because of what is sighted there and what we’ve discussed on here time and time again.
For what its worth, Brock Purdy of Iowa State checked in eighth in the rankings.