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Just as the NFL calendar was about to briefly press pause, Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby infused chaos into what is typically the rare period of calm for the league’s calendar.
Typically, when mandatory minicamps end — or, in the case of recent trends, are cancelled by forward-thinking coaches as a reward for hard work during the spring’s OTAs and in an effort to mitigate added injury risk that accompanies added practices, general managers, coaches, players, and staffers shut off their cell phones and jet off to parts unknown to reintroduce themselves to their families and recharge.
However, after Sorsby was granted a temporary injunction to play for Texas Tech this season despite the NCAA suspending him in the aftermath of him placing $90,000 worth of bets, including on his own games while playing at Indiana, he decided to take his ball out of Lubbock and declare for the NFL Supplemental Draft.
Unsurprisingly, questions about Sorsby’s status and how the league views him dominated this week’s mailbag, so let’s get right after it …
What is the NFL’s take from teams or people that you have spoken with about Brendan Sorsby? How many teams do you expect to be interested? Who are the teams? How important will his Pro Day and private visits be to his stock for the NFL Supplemental Draft? ( Paul ‘Boy Green’ Esden )
When news broke that Sorsby was entering the supplemental draft, I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes a bit, especially out of skepticism that a team would touch a quarterback who doesn’t just seem to have genuine gambling issues but said issues included him placing over 40 bets on his own team, as a Hoosier.
That’s on me, for thinking that the NFL would draw a moral line on the sidewalk when it comes to gambling.
The reality is, the NFL is a results-driven and talent-focused league where production on the field, especially at the quarterback position, matters above all else.
That’s my takeaway from conversations with six different sources, including high-ranking front office executives and offensive coaches in several buildings across the league. Sorsby’s going to get drafted.
After all, Sorsby is a big-armed 6-foot-3 and 235-pound prototypical quarterback who maybe half the offensive coordinators around the league would line up to build their offense around. Last season at Cincinnati, he passed for 2,800 yards with 27 touchdowns to just five interceptions.
Perhaps most enticing of all is that Sorsby is a complete dual-threat weapon, who added 580 rushing yards and nine touchdowns last season, while finishing his collegiate career with 1,305 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns on the ground.
Those are the kind of numbers that make a general manager or head coach shrug their shoulders at $90,000 worth of bets, glance at the DraftKings logo plastered on the wall just outside their office, and cock their head sideways at the built-in diagnosis of a gambling addiction and anxiety disorder argued by Sorsby’s attorneys in front of a judge … as a built-in justification for looking the other way at his accompanying issues.
“He has a ton of talent,” a veteran NFC talent evaluator tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. “But, his background is going to hurt him. I have no doubt some team will draft him, but that team’s going to have to weigh him against a good group of quarterbacks coming in this spring.”
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That will be the tightrope 32 front offices and coaching staffs will need to walk.
How much better is Sorsby on the field than an Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Julian Sayin, or LaNorris Sellers, to name a few, and how strong is said franchise’s leadership council and infrastructure to not only help Sorsby get the help he seems to need and manage any accompanying public backlash to selecting him?
At the end of the day, the decision whether to place a bid on Sorsby, and in what round, will likely be made significantly more based around his film, his performance at his private pro day, and insight from the coaching staff at Cincinnati than it will be his gambling, because this league has an insanely high tolerance for risk, especially when it comes to quarterbacks.
“I think he’s a better prospect than any of the quarterbacks who came out in April’s draft,” an offensive coordinator tells Between The Hashmarks. “He’s athletic. He has a good arm, I don’t know him and haven’t met him, so I’m not sure how smart he is, but that’s for a team looking to draft him to figure out.”
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