LMAO
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Dak had plenty of talent. I never really understood why he wasnt recruited more heavily than he was. He is still the best QB I've seen play in HS. It's not like he struggled throwing in HS- he threw for over 6,000 yards in his HS career. He was completing 50 yard Go routes on the reg. At State- he got better with footwork and changed his delivery slightly. Now he is one of the best in the NFL. I compare Dak to Steve McNair. You could look at both of them in college and just wonder- "how in the hell did so many miss seeing this talent?" Blows my mind Jackie and his staff wanted him to be a DB. Almost as bad as us missing on Jerry Rice in our backyard.
Fitz had a cannon- but it was a loose cannon. He just never developed the accuracy or touch needed to make it in the NFL. I think some of that is him moving to QB late with only 1 year of HS at the position. But some people just never develop that and it is what it is. Same with pitchers.
I think that's where people kind of differ on what should be considered "raw" talent. "Raw" talent to me is unrefined and just pure athletic ability. Dak is and was an incredible athlete, intense worker, etc. What kept him off the field at State was typical transition from HS to college stuff. But, he had already been learning the game and position before he got here. To me that's not raw. Fitz literally learned to play QB at State. He had never thrown a pass in a football game when he was offered a scholarship by Mullen. He threw less than 100 passes in high school - the fact he was a starting SEC QB as a RS Sophomore is damn near unheard of. As I fanbase, I don't think most ever realized how far that guy had to go to be as good as he was.
Dak and Fitz both had raw arm talent, but unless you're just calling arm strength talent, it's hard to tell who had more raw talent because Dak played a couple of years of QB throwing the ball before getting to MSU, while Nick came to MSU with practically no game experience throwing the ball.
It's hard to say whether Fitz reached his ceiling because of his injury and then changing offense his last year. He didn't appear to get any more accurate his last year, after presumably a lot of practice, but he was having to rehab and learn a new offense at the same time, so that may have stopped him from continuing to get better the way Dak did between 2014 and 2015.
Nick was bigger, faster, more athletic, and a stronger arm. Using your metrics he should have been way better than Dak.
All that was missing was the accuracy and decision making, which are the two most important attributes of a qb (both of which will could be very good at by the way).
I worked with one of Steve's top WR at Alcorn. The guy went on almost every visit with him also. Every coach in the SEC offered him at DB. The thing was, Steve didn't like playing DB but was the best in the state also. He went to Alcorn because they promised him that he wasn't ever going to DB since his older brother was their best QB before him. Every other school was basically, we might give you a shot at QB but you will be a DB.
Also NC State was one of the only QB offers for Philip Rivers. He was offered by almost everyone in the SEC at LB or Safety. Sometimes guys miss evaluations.
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Not sure If I believe Nick had a stronger arm than Dak.