One fleeting moment in the weekend of Mel Kiper Jr. was when he acknowledged the pitfalls of quarterback evaluation. And it’s one where he has some agreement from Joy Taylor.
As Shedeur Sanders became the story of draft weekend, and the apple of the 64-year-old Kiper’s eye, ESPN’s lead NFL Draft analyst made it his mission to take the NFL to task. Not only was Kiper “disgusted” with how the No. 5 player on his big board kept slipping throughout the first four rounds, but he was also “disgusted” with the National Football League.
You see, as Kiper locked horns with Rece Davis during Day 3 coverage, he took a sly shot at the NFL. The same analyst who once stumped hard for Jimmy Clausen, banged the table for Blaine Gabbert, and ranked Patrick Mahomes as only the fifth-best quarterback in his class, turned his ire toward the evaluators. In Kiper’s words, the NFL has been “clueless” about quarterbacks for the better part of five decades.
Mel was spicy. Vintage Mel. And he couldn’t care less about the heat coming his way.
He wasn’t alone, either.
Michael Wilbon had his back on ESPN, and Joy Taylor, whose nephew, Mason, got picked by the New York Jets in the second round, lit up the whole quarterback evaluation process. Her take? These scouts don’t know how to judge quarterbacks. And honestly, neither does anybody else.
“With all due respect, I don’t care about quarterback evaluators,” Taylor said Monday on Speak. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re guessing, and sometimes you’re right. And most of the time, you’re super wrong. They do not know how to evaluate the quarterback position. I say that with an immense amount of respect, but you don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s an insurmountable amount of evidence that you’re completely clueless when it comes to evaluating quarterbacks.”
.@JoyTaylorTalks goes in on Shedeur dropping to the 5th round 🔥
“With all due respect, I don’t care about quarterback evaluators. They don’t know how to evaluate the QB position… No one knows how to evaluate quarterbacks!” https://t.co/s6uSGiMHYC
— Speak (@SpeakOnFS1) April 28, 2025
Joy Taylor already made headlines the week before during the relaunch of her Two Personal podcast — this time without Taylor Rooks — when she got unusually candid about her personal life, saying she needs to have sex every day. On the football side, she spoke about feeling a “familiar anxiety” as she and her family waited to hear Mason’s name called.
Judging by her silence on tight end scouting, we can safely assume she holds evaluators of that position in slightly higher regard. Mason was the third tight end off the board, behind Colston Loveland and Tyler Warren, when the Jets took him at No. 42 overall.
To be clear, Joy Taylor wasn’t taking shots at tight end evaluators. Her beef was strictly with how the league judges the quarterbacks throwing to those tight ends. Sure, her nephew might be the safety blanket, but she made it clear that the NFL has no clue how to evaluate the guys tossing them the ball.
“There are so many factors that go into whether a quarterback is successful, or not,” she said. “And talent is really the last thing, because they’re all somewhat talented. It’s the organization you go to. It’s the coaching. It’s the development coaching that you have. It’s health. It’s the offensive line. It’s the offensive line coach. It’s the offensive coordinator. It’s the defensive coordinator. It’s whether you’ve played in that weather before. It’s who your veterans are. The list goes on and on and on and on… It’s the system that you’re in. It’s the skill positions that you have. It’s if you have a running game. It’s if the defense can stop the run, so that you’re not on the field all the time.”
Again, the list goes on and on.
“So, with all due respect, no one on this planet knows how to evaluate quarterbacks,” Taylor continues. “No one. You’re all full of it. Please give me this job, because it’s literally just a guess. So, this whole idea that everyone’s like, ‘Wow, he was going to be overdrafted.’ Was Brock Purdy overdrafted? Was he underdrafted? He was the last pick in the NFL Draft. He was Mr. Irrelevant. He’s played in the NFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl.
“I don’t care what any of you have to say about quarterbacks. You don’t know anything about evaluating quarterbacks. This whole thing is nonsense… Stop talking to me about these high picks, and what you know about it. You don’t know anything. It’s all a complete crapshoot. So, I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I can’t get that far, but please, ‘Oh, he didn’t interview. He’s not humble.’ I have got some news for you guys, and this is gonna sound dramatic, but these kids don’t care about what you’re talking about anymore. They’re NIL. They’re coming into this league with millions of dollars, with sponsorships, with followings, with shows, with podcasts.
“Maybe, just maybe, these young people want to feel like they’re somewhere where their future is in the hands of someone competent. God forbid there be some accountability with these organizations. What am I talking about? He was projected to go anywhere from 2 to 21, and he fell to the fifth round.”
Joy Taylor’s point aside, Sanders and his camp dictated which teams he would and would NOT interview with. So, if he was blowing those meetings with handpicked teams, what does that say?
Anyway.
“Listen, best of luck to everyone; that’s all I’m saying,” Taylor adds. “Because if those goes sideways, and he actually ends up being good, ya’ll gonna have some real explaining to do. But, I don’t know, and guess what? You don’t know either.”
Time will certainly tell.
