By Rich Tandler
I get a lot of Redskins fans asking me about Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson and Boise State QB Kellen Moore. And I have been saying that we need to wait and see what their official heights turn out to be when they get officially measured.
Well, they got measured at the Senior Bowl on Monday and both were just about as tall as their respective college programs said they were. Unfortunately, that’s not good news for fans of either player.
Wilson checked in at 5 feet, 10 and 5/8 inches. Moore measured a shade taller at 5 feet, 11 and ¾ inches. Quarterbacks in that height range, i. e. under six feet tall, rarely even get drafted, much less take the field in regular-season NFL games.
And, yes, that is said knowing full well the Drew Brees, one of the best in the business, is about six feet even. But not every shorter quarterback is Brees. For every Brees, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of sub-six-foot quarterbacks who were highly productive in college but couldn’t cut it in the NFL.
Intangibles like being heady and competitive and all of that can get you a long way when you’re playing against Iowa or Utah but everyone on the Giants and Packers is football savvy and highly competitive. Usually when the shorter QB’s lose that edge they end up on a bus back home.
Wilson and Moore may turn out to be the exceptions. But it seems nearly certain that the will be drafted sometime later on the third day (rounds 4-7) and won’t see the field for another two or three years.
In other words, Mike Shanahan is not going to stake his reputation on either guy.
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