NFL Notes: 2020 QB Class, London, Supplemental Draft

2020 QB Class

An unnamed AFC scouting director compared Georgia QB Jake Fromm to Colts QB Andrew Luck. 

“He doesn’t wow you in practice watching him throw because he’s a little small and doesn’t have a huge arm, but he knows where to go with the ball and makes the right decisions,” the executive said via Bleacher Report’s Matt Miller. “That counts for more than 4.4 speed or a cannon arm.”

• Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer mentions scouts like how Fromm beat out highly regarded prospects like Jacob Eason and Justin Fields, forcing both to transfer from Georgia. 
• Breer adds that many in the league wouldn’t be surprised if Fromm elects to stay for his senior season at Georgia. 
• According to Breer, scouts have been impressed with the 2020 class of quarterbacks, including high praise for Oregon QB Justin Herbert from an AFC executive: “He’s so talented, he’s big time, the type of cat that goes No. 1 overall. He has everything you want. … Physically, you see it with him throwing at practice—he has a hose. He’ll have a top five or six arm in the whole league coming in.”
• Breer quotes two anonymous NFC executives as being impressed with Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, with one calling him “rare” and the other praising his instincts, accuracy and vision.
• Herbert and Tagovailoa both have the talent to go No. 1 overall in 2020, per ESPN’s Trent Dilfer: “If Daniel Jones can go sixth, and Daniel’s good at a lot of things, but not great in any one are, [Herbert] and Tua are both first-pick-in-the-draft type talents.”
• Breer notes Utah’s Jordan Love, USF’s Blake Barnett, Iowa’s Nate Stanley, Stanford’s K.J. Costello, Colorado’s Steven Montez and LSU’s Joe Burrow as other quarterbacks the NFL has its eye on. 

London

The NFL held the final trials last week for the NFL Academy in London, one of its initiatives to grow the sport of football in the United Kingdom. The Academy will consist of a class of 80 male athletes between the ages of 16 to 18 who will take college courses while spending 10-12 hours a week learning how to play football. There were 1,500 applicants from London, the U.K. and around Europe, making this an important step in the potential for an NFL team in London. 

“I don’t think doing this today makes a franchise more likely, but if there was to be a franchise in the future, we’d point to today and say this was an important step,” NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said via Sports Illustrated’s Jenny Vrentas. “We have moved ahead substantially, but it doesn’t mean we get a franchise. Ultimately, that comes down to an owner deciding he wants to move. It could be something that takes a long time, or never happens. I don’t think success or failure is based on that. All we are doing is building the sport to the level of popularity that the league has a decision it can make it in the future, which maybe five years ago they never had.”

Supplemental Draft

• Per the Athletic’s Greg Auman, TE Devonaire Clarington says he’s fielded calls from 20 different NFL teams, including multiple calls from the Browns, ahead of the supplemental draft. 
• In total, Auman reports that seven NFL teams were on hand for Clarington’s Pro Day.