If there's truth to the buzz about Dwayne Haskins slipping in the draft, that'd be baffling

All signs point to Dwayne Haskins becoming the first B1G quarterback to be picked in the first round of the NFL Draft since 1995. Up until a couple weeks ago, all signs pointed to Haskins coming off the board in the first 10 picks on Night 1.

But, as is often the case during the 4-month pre-draft process, that has taken a sudden turn.

Last week, we heard ESPN’s Todd McShay explain why despite what many mock drafts projected for Haskins — that he’d be picked No. 6 overall by the Giants — there’s apparently some buzz that Haskins will slip out of the top 10 and that the idea of taking someone like Drew Lock later might make more sense.

“If any of these quarterback are going to fall a little bit, it might be Haskins,” McShay said on Get Up! “It will be interesting to see. I keep hearing the Giants may not be in love with Haskins. I put him there because it’s kind of the only place in the top 10 I felt good about putting him. I do think, ultimately, he’ll wind up going somewhere in that range. But it may be a team moving up. The Giants could just pass on him and wind up taking Drew Lock a little bit later with that 17th pick.

“Haskins is the most interesting of the three (quarterbacks),” McShay said. “As you get closer, look at Lock. All of the teams are starting to say 46 games, Lock’s a veteran, been through a lot, the confidence. Haskins is only a one-year starter. I’m getting more and more information from teams that Haskins could wind up falling a little bit further than both Mel [Kiper Jr.] and I have him going at No. 6.”

It’s not just McShay who threw out a take like that. Longtime NFL draft analyst Gil Brandt ranked his top 150 prospects. In there, Haskins was all the way down at No. 25. That was behind Kyler Murray (No. 7), Daniel Jones (No. 17) and of course, Lock (No. 20).

In that scenario — or that one laid out by McShay — that would mean Haskins wouldn’t even be one of the first 3 quarterbacks selected in the draft.

I’m sorry, what?

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Forgive me for sounding like an armchair quarterback here, but what on earth would warrant 3 quarterbacks going ahead of Haskins?

You know, the guy who just had the best season ever for a B1G quarterback with 54 touchdown passes and 5,396 passing yards. The guy Urban Meyer called “the best quarterback he’d ever scouted.” The guy who is 6-3, 221 pounds with a rocket arm, an NFL-ready delivery and just finished a 13-1 season in which he led Ohio State to a B1G Championship and a Rose Bowl victory.

Oh, that’s right. The pre-draft process has once again picked apart someone who has passed every test he’s been given so far.

There’s nothing wrong with teams going to crazy lengths to figure out if a franchise quarterback is worth the investment. I get all that. There are jobs on the line when you draft a quarterback in the first round. That’s the way this thing works.

But for the life of me, I cannot understand why any legitimate Haskins blowback would come out now. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo listed 3 reasons why he thinks Haskins could fall (he did only say “could”):

1. Lack of mobility
2. 1 season as a starter
3. Not experienced fitting balls into tight windows

Yeah, about that. What if I told you that Haskins completed a higher percentage of his throws outside the pocket than Murray (via Derrik Klassen)?

I could poke holes in the belief that Haskins has a lack of mobility — I wouldn’t argue that to Steven A. Smith levels — but that’s more about the perception that he’s not as mobile as Murray … who was also only a starter for 1 year.

And this belief that Ohio State always had guys wide open because the receivers were so much faster than everyone else simply wasn’t true. I’d trust the skill level of Haskins’ throws against B1G defenses more than Murray’s against whatever they called “defense” in the Big 12 last year (Haskins completed 71 of his passes between 11-20 yards compared to roughly 65 for Murray).

It’s actually not really the Murray/Haskins discussion anymore. The Cardinals are apparently in love with Murray and him going No. 1 overall looks like the worst-kept secret in the draft.

But is Haskins really going to slip past guys like Lock and Jones? That’s what I wouldn’t get.

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While Haskins might not have the edge against them in mobility, I’m not sure there’s another area that he trails in. Maybe Lock has a better deep ball? Even that argument has holes in it because it was nowhere to be found when his go-to deep target Emanuel Hall was injured in the middle of the 2018 season.

Besides, we saw more from Haskins than we did in 3 years of Lock and Jones. People want to hate on Haskins for the Purdue game because it was a nightmare. Meanwhile, Lock didn’t beat a ranked team until November of his third season as a starter and suddenly it’s “well, he proved he can play against quality competition,” according to Mel Kiper. And Jones gets beat by Wake Forest 59-7 at home on Senior Day but that’s not considered a knock against him.

(Numbers aren’t everything, but if you go back and look at some of the in-depth stats from Klassen on Jones, it’s alarming. Jones had 45.8% accuracy under pressure, he had a shockingly low 5.9% explosive play rate and was just a 58% passer in 4th quarter/overtime.)

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why that’s the case.

Look. If teams like the Giants don’t like Haskins, I suppose that’s their deal. Lord knows that’s a franchise who has had its fair share of issues evaluating the quarterback position the last few years.

It just seems like Haskins is becoming a victim of the pre-draft process. If Haskins is really going to slip for his 40-yard dash time or the Purdue game, I’ll shake my head in disbelief. If someone like Haskins can’t even crack the top 10 after the year he had, I’m not sure any B1G quarterback can anymore.

But maybe sanity will prevail and this will all be for naught. I can only hope.