INDIANAPOLIS — The Raiders’ contingency plans at quarterback are being crossed off one by one at the NFL Scouting Combine. General manager Mike Mayock seemingly gave Derek Carr a vote of confidence on Tuesday, but the team is still examining their options at the position.
On the college front, Joe Burrow is going first in the draft to the Bengals and it doesn’t seem like Jon Gruden is high enough on Tua Tagovailoa or Justin Herbert to consider trading up from No. 12 to get them. That leaves Utah State’s Jordan Love as an option at Nos. 12 or 19 (the team’s other first-round pick) or waiting until the third round to select Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts.
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The team has met with both quarterbacks, and Mayock had some reservations about Love.
If some teams squint really, really hard, they might see the next Patrick Mahomes — and it’s the big reason why Love will be drafted in the first round. But Love went from 32 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2018 to 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions last season, and Mayock seemed to have questions about whether he should be picked in the first round.
“He’s a big, strong kid with a big arm,” Mayock said Tuesday. “He’s athletic. He was a basketball player — you can see that in his movement skills. So the upside of the kid is really cool. I think the caution, or the downside, would be that he had a good junior year but his senior year wasn’t as good.
“He throws a lot of interceptions, and he is very raw in terms of what he is getting from the sideline. He is reading off his wrist guard. So, like a lot of college players, he has a long way to go. And you have to factor that into what his ultimate value is.”
Hurts, meanwhile, had a very good meeting with the Raiders, who are intrigued by his upside and would bring in Hurts as a developmental backup behind Carr if they went that route.
He went a combined 38-4 as a starter at Alabama, where he won a national championship in 2016, and Oklahoma, where he threw for 3,851 yards and 32 touchdowns while rushing for 1,298 yards and 20 touchdowns.
While no team asked him to work out at a different position here in Indianapolis, the 6-foot-1, 222-pound Hurts was asked if he would be open to playing another position in the NFL. He said no, according to a league source.
“Yeah you know, I’ve always been a team-first guy,” Hurts said on Tuesday. “But I think I’m a quarterback. I think that’s that.”
Hurts’ deep touch improved last season, but he will require some coaching to make plays from the pocket. His running ability and special ability to make off-schedule plays will buy him some time to learn and ideally be groomed into a starting job.
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Love, on the other hand, would be asked to do a little more a little sooner since he would be picked in the first round. He ran for 175 yards last season, and is already more of a pocket passer than Hurts. One with an itchy trigger finger.
“I was trying to do too much and force the ball downfield,” Love said Tuesday. “Thinking I could make throws into tight windows. There were situations where I could have checked the ball down, but I was trying to make that play. …
“Seventeen learning moments. … I can’t keep letting it happen, and that’s what I tell teams right there. They play the game, so they know. You’ve got to learn from your mistakes.”
Teams also know that the 6-foot-4, 224-pound Love has a rare combination of size, mobility and arm talent.
Who would Love compare himself to?
“I get asked that a lot,” Love said. “I’d say Patrick Mahomes, based on arm talent and what he can do. I’m not saying I’m Patrick Mahomes, calm down, but Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, guys who can make plays.”
Gruden is trying to close the gap between the Raiders and the Chiefs in the AFC West, and just the thought of getting anyone even resembling Mahomes has to be a little tempting.
Mayock talked about the importance of pocket awareness on Monday, and Love says getting out of trouble when pressured is something he has always been able to do.
“That’s something I feel is a huge part of my game,” Love said. “When the play breaks down, being able to make off-schedule plays and get out of the pocket. Throwing on the move, and being able to take off and run. So, that’s just an instinct from growing up and playing backyard football. You either have it or you don’t, and I feel that I have that playmaking ability.”
Love grew up watching Gruden’s “QB Camp” show on TV and would love to play for him.
“Coach Gruden, being able to play for him … I mean, that’s someone I watched growing up,” Love said. “You’ve got the show, you’ve heard a lot about him, he’s a quarterback guru guy, that’s who you want to play with.”
(Photo: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)
