Last year, it was clear just how needy several teams were for quarterback prospects. Blaine Gabbert was a top 10 trade target. Christian Ponder and Jake Locker both went much earlier than most expected. In the end it seemed that every NFL team with a hole at quarterback felt a sense of panic (outside of Cincinnati) and went for the best available prospect they could find, no matter of the rest of the draft board.
The same thing could happen this year in the 2012 NFL Draft, and Ryan Tannehill could be the beneficiary. Don Banks has the Texas A&M quarterback climbing in his first mock of the NFL off-season with a top six selection, going to the Washington Redskins to fill the void currently occupied by John Beck and Rex Grossman.
Banks writes, “So let’s keep in mind that this is our first mock of the year, not our seventh, which runs the day before the draft. I’m aware that Tannehill’s broken foot makes him a giant question mark at this point, and could possibly knock him out of the first round. But there’s a quarterback every year who gets pushed up the board in the pre-draft scouting process (see Ponder, Christian in 2011), and my early read is that Tannehill is the most likely candidate. Washington’s desperation at quarterback is obvious, and no Matt Barkley or Landry Jones means the Redskins might have to roll the dice on the ex-Aggie.”