Mayock: Bryce Petty 'might be most natural thrower' in draft

[jrry32]

What surprises me, jrry, is that you see a gulf between Mariota and Petty. Both have high talent, both played in systems where they need to adjust to the NFL game, but you list one as part of the "top two" and disregard the other.

It is a strange effect with Petty, where I personally see him almost disregarded by draft experts, scouts that feed the media, and the media. Of course we are seeing a correction starting now, but I wonder what it is you see from Mariota that separates him so significantly from the rest.

As problematic as Mariota's system is, it's FAR better in terms of preparing him for the NFL than Petty's. They actually use NFL route concepts and combinations. I've even seen some reads and combinations he had to make that I've seen in the NFL.

Petty plays in a pure college offense. Baylor spreads the field horizontally as much as anyone. They simplify reads, open up large windows, and run a very limited route tree.

Both offenses limit how much defenses can do against them but when Mariota has faced exotic looks, he was FAR more comfortable than Petty. Petty looked in over his head and significantly struggled with his mental processing. Mariota handled it well mentally. Mental processing speed is a rather large difference I see in their respective games.

Both have some lapses with accuracy but Petty's are much more pronounced.

And the final huge thing is that Mariota is an elite athlete for the position. That will allow him to compensate for some of the weaker points of his game even if they don't develop. Petty isn't.

Plus, Petty is nearly 24 years old. Marcus Mariota is 21 years old.

To summarize and put it most bluntly, Petty's issues are somewhat similar in nature to Mariota's but MUCH worse which makes the fact that he lacks Mariota's athletic upside and youth that much worse. They're just not close in my mind.