McShay, what’s with the up-and-down on McCoy?

Perhaps there is some inner-McCoy/McShay feud going on for the battle of which “Mc” has the best last name.

There has to be something eating at Todd McShay in regards to Texas quarterback Colt McCoy, because for some reason McShay is all over the place on this guy in his NFL prognostications of McCoy’s abilities at the quarterback position.

It was April 30th, 2009, when Todd McShay did his first 2010 NFL Mock Draft. I was still with CBS Sports, just going over the 2009 NFL draft, and wanted to get some insight into what next year’s crop of talent would bring to the party.

To my utter disbelief, Colt McCoy was the 6th player in McShay’s mock draft. That was very surprising to me, because I was never a big Colt McCoy guy in terms of his professional prospects. I have always looked at him as kind of a Kliff Kingsbury type of guy, who was very successful in the system he is in. Not that I can’t envision him as a starting quarterback in the NFL, but it won’t happen with a lot of work, progression and little bit of luck to get that opportunity.

But when McShay, a “noted” NFL prognosticator, came out and said that this guy was the second best NFL prospect at the quarterback position, I’ll admit, I bought into it.

However, McShay has had a change of heart over the past year and has McCoy as a third round quarterback, which is kind of hard to believe given that McCoy continued to be a high-completion percentage guy this past season and didn’t lose a game until the very end of the year—in a game that he didn’t even finish.

Okay, but I’ll forgive McShay for that. Things happen. Perhaps, McShay really didn’t see much of the 2008 University of Texas football team, and just assumed that McCoy’s Heisman Trophy candidate resume was worthy of being “Matt Hasselbeck‘s future replacement.” And naturally, when one goes on to have yet another Heisman Trophy-worthy season the following year, of course you would bump him down to the second and third rounds.

Right?

However, I’m not saying that McCoy is worth more than second or third round pick, because he just doesn’t have that natural throwing ability worthy of a first round pick. So in defense of McShay, he has it right—currently.

My only problem with McShay now is that he doesn’t seem to know what he’s talking about when it comes to Colt McCoy. On ESPN, after McCoy’s pro-day workout, McShay said McCoy was an inaccurate passer and that he has poor anticipation skills.

Call me crazy, but McCoy is the exact opposite of those things. The man is one of the most accurate passers in the history college football, and while a lot of things in college don’t translate to the NFL, McCoy’s accuracy, in Big 12 play, is going to benefit him at the next level.

And as far as McCoy’s anticipation skills go, that’s all he really has going for him. Without having the strongest arm or the fastest “fastball,” McCoy has essentially gotten through the Big 12 by anticipating where his receivers will be and where the defense won’t. His entire passing relationship with Texas wide receiver Jordan Shipley was based on having those anticipation skills.

Okay, but let’s say I’m wrong, and McShay’s right about McCoy’s lack of accuracy and lack of anticipation. I still have a problem with McShay, because after giving that assessment of McCoy, he went on to say that McCoy would be better suited for a west coast offense, because of these factors, as opposed to a big play, more traditional pro-style offense.

What?

Correct me if I’m wrong, but in a west coast offense, the most important asset a quarterback can have is a very accurate throwing arm. You don’t want a guy completing a mere 50% of his passes in the west coast offense, all that will do is get you “schedule” and make you have to throw “less efficient” or “less accurate” throws on second and third down. On the contrary, a less accurate thrower would be more suited for a downfield passing game, and playaction throws, because truthfully speaking, every quarterback is less accurate the further you throw the ball down the field. Besides, windows aren’t as tight down field, and the need to anticipate isn’t as great the further the route is.

So why McShay would say McCoy is better suited for a west coast offense, given that he thinks McCoy isn’t all that accurate, makes absolutely no sense to me. Of course, projecting a guy to be the 6th pick in the draft, only moments after a draft he very well could have been is, and then dropping him down to the third round doesn’t make much sense to me either, but McShay did that as well.

I tell you what, it must be nice to be a draft expert and never actually draft anybody. Not that I’m knocking what McShay does, because I know draft talk puts a smile on the faces of a lot of NFL fans. But at some point, we as consumers of this stuff have to realize that projections don’t really carry any weight unless you have some skin the game. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good prediction, but I don’t love the 29th and 32nd revision of your prediction. Be a man, or a woman, make a pick and move on. I can’t stand the year long debate over who’s going where in the draft from a bunch of people that have no record whatsoever of being good draft pickers. But as with my evaluation of Colt McCoy, maybe Mr. McShay would disagree with me.

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