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By Justin Brisson

Many football fans find information every day on what is going on in the sport’s world.  They go to ESPN, FoxSports, or NFL.com for their daily dose of knowledge.  Often they go to these websites or watch these television programs habitually and somewhat mindlessly.  When it becomes a habit, however, it can become potentially hazardous behavior.  All people have bad habits.  Watching SportsCenter and reading news updates on ESPN.com without thinking critically about the information you are digesting is a bad habit.

I would at least like to think that almost every football fan desires to be intelligent and critical when discussing and analyzing what occurs in the realm of the sport.  If that is indeed the case, it is only logical for us to take in as much information as possible from a diverse amount of sources, and form opinions for ourselves based upon our own judgment.  Do you think that if the President of the United States listened to advice from one man, and then made decisions based upon what that one man said, that he would be conducting his decision-making process effectively?  Of course not, and that is why the president has many advisers.  Do you think that a research paper would look good with one source — probably Wikipedia, if we’re being honest — as a reference?  Hell no.  You cite many sources in order to give your research proper credibility and completeness.

ESPN ombudsman Don Ohlmeyer

Listening to SportsCenter every day and just accepting Adam Schefter’s opinion as fact would be ludicrous.  Obviously, Schefty is the first to know about just about everything in football, and he has earned his position.  But I guarantee you he’s been wrong on predictions just as many times as he’s been correct.  Schefty is only human.  He does his job to the best of his ability and he does it damn well.  But his opinion is just an opinion.  You should simply weight Schefty’s opinion more heavily than you would your college buddies.

Keep this in mind as the NFL Labor Negotiations continue as well.  The NFLPA and the owners have two vastly different opinions on things.  ESPN’s experts on the topic, Andrew Brandt and Lester Munson provide great insight into the process.  You will hear dozens of different opinions on which side should concede what to the other.  You’ll probably hear my opinion soon, too.  But you should listen to all of these opinions and, ultimately, decide for yourself.

By Justin Brisson

I have seen every game in Blaine Gabbert’s collegiate career, and as a man who watches quarterbacks rather critically, I feel at least somewhat empowered to analyze Gabbert’s projects going forward.  I should start by confessing that as a student at the University of Missouri I am subject to some form of bias.  I’ll admit it — I want to see this guy succeed and I will root for him in the NFL.

Right from Gabbert’s first start against Illinois in 2009, I knew he had some serious potential.  Over the course of that season, I learned that Gabbert had a great arm, that he could make plays with his feet and had the potential to be really good.  But potential is the key word.  He was rated as the fifth-best QB prospect out of high school by ESPN.  Mel Kiper ranked Gabbert in his Top 5 Juniors the whole season this year.  So we know he’s been on people’s radars, but he has yet to fulfill people’s hopes.

He throws footballs – we can at least agree on that.

During the 2010 season, I hoped to see Gabbert work on his footwork, his pocket presence and his ability to read coverages.  Unfortunately, he really didn’t improve his game all that much.  I think Gabbert’s footwork in the pocket was noticeably better and he pushed off his back foot instead of “arming” throws this year, but in ‘09 he had a hard time throwing off that right ankle due to injury, so it’s hard to say if he improved in that area.  Also, Gabbert still seemed flustered in the pocket when his primary option was covered and I had hoped he would be able to go through his progressions much better.  Another negative is that Gabbert is very raw in knowledge of the NFL route tree.  He is very accurate on throws he has worked with in practice, but he needs time to work on many throws that will be relatively new to him.

Having said that, Gabbert is still one of the best quarterbacks in this draft class.  Quarterbacks are naturally over-drafted, and there is no clear favorite this year.  If it were up to me, I wouldn’t draft Gabbert in the top half of the first round because he has a lot of learning to do.  I fear that he will be thrown into the fire too quickly and won’t be given a fair opportunity to grow into the player he has the potential to be.  Potential is the key word.

A prevailing thought in the NFL these days is that you need an elite quarterback in order to win football games.  Eleven of the twelve teams to make the playoffs this season have a “franchise quarterback” on the roster — Seattle was the only team with a question mark at the position looking forward.  By my count, eleven of the first sixteen teams drafting in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft are liable to a quarterback.  Dallas, Houston and St. Louis are really the only three teams in the top half of the first round that are completely settled at quarterback.  This would lead me to think that indeed, having stability at quarterback is possibly the most critical step in building a winning team in the NFL.

The North Carolina Panthers possess the first pick in this year’s draft, and had the worst quarterback play of any team this past season.  But can they afford to draft a quarterback number one overall?  Surely, Jimmy Clausen was drafted in the hopes of being the team’s franchise quarterback, but he didn’t really show much potential in 13 games played.  With Andrew Luck staying at Stanford, Carolina will probably shy away from drafting a quarterback with the first pick, but they should look at their options in free agency, just in case an upgrade could be made.

This is the first photo on a Google Images search of "Jimmy Clausen."

The Buffalo Williams are sitting pretty snug at number three in the draft, and they should at least consider Cam Newton and Blaine Gabbert.  I know Buffalo feels comfortable with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and admittedly, he had a pretty good season given the circumstances, but is he the future there?  I’m not sure, and Mr. Wilson shouldn’t either.

The Cincinnati Bungles could also look at Newton and Gabbert.  Incumbent starter Carson Palmer says he wants out, but head coach Marvin Lewis and owner Mike Brown are saying they will not trade away their franchise player.  Palmer’s play has seemingly diminished over the past four seasons now, whether that be because of chemistry problems with receivers or not, I don’t know.  Needless to say, Cincy shouldn’t be blamed if they look in a different direction at quarterback, especially considering their marquee player doesn’t want to be a part of the team anymore — allegedly.