Jon Gruden’s QB Camp has proven to be one of ESPN’s most notable pre-NFL draft features, and it’s coming back again this year. ESPN announced Wednesday that Gruden’s QB Camp is back for a seventh season beginning April 12 (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), with segments airing across ABC and ESPN networks at future dates and times to be announced. They also announced the seven quarterbacks participating in this year’s edition: Cal’s Jared Goff, North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, Michigan State’s Connor Cook, Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg, Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, Memphis’ Paxton Lynch and Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott. Here’s Gruden’s analysis on some of the QBs in this class (his thoughts on the others can be found here):
On Christian Hackenberg: “He’s one of the big mysteries of this year’s crop. Highly-touted and we know the production he had as a freshman under Coach (Bill) O’Brien. The offensive change and losing Allen Robinson didn’t help him, but he’s got prototype size and he’s got some traits people are looking for.”
On Cardale Jones: “Another mystery – perhaps the biggest mystery in college football history. Who is he? He comes out of nowhere, takes the cape off and the Buckeyes win the national title, and I haven’t seen him since. He’s inexperienced and there’s not a lot of film to look at. He’ll be one of the most intriguing shows we’ve ever done.”
On Dak Prescott: “Prescott is perhaps the No. 1 dual-threat quarterback this year. He can hurt you running or passing. He’s done it in a very difficult conference, and he’s won at a place where a lot of quarterbacks haven’t. I’ve spent some time with him before this process and he’s a bright-eyed, eager, confident talent that needs to be in the right place, but he can play.”
On Carson Wentz: “Wentz has tremendous size and arm talent. He’s had some injuries, but all they do is win at North Dakota State. His Senior Bowl week put an exclamation point on his college career, and he has the NFL coaches and scouts stirring as we speak.”
50 players, 43 of which were quarterbacks, have already gone through Gruden’s QB Camp, including 10 current NFL starting quarterbacks. We’ll see how this year’s class stacks up, and how many Spider 2 Y Bananas they’ll diagram.
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About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.