Thursday, November 21, 2013

Week 11 Rookie Report: Matt McGloin's Big Day and Disappointing Top-5 Picks

Through 10 weeks of the NFL season, most of the league’s impact rookies have already been profiled in Draft Insider’s Rookie Reports. That will lead to a few repeats over the remainder of the year and this week’s includes the NFL’s lone first-round rookie quarterback. Chris Tripodi also breaks down the second undrafted quarterback to get a shot under center this season, one that was far more impressive than the first who got an opportunity and likely never will again. Week 11’s report also includes a few top-5 picks that aren’t living up to their team’s expectations.

E.J. Manuel (QB-Buf)

Coming off a rough Week 10 return to action against Pittsburgh and facing a Jets defense that flustered him in Week 3, this time without starting receivers Stevie Johnson and Robert Woods, it looked like Manuel would be in for a long day in windy Western New York conditions. Instead, Manuel showed why the Bills drafted him after he impressed in a cold weather workout, completing 20-of-28 passes for 245 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead Buffalo to a blowout victory.

Both of Manuel’s touchdowns came on deep balls, but the plays themselves were very different. One his first touchdown pass to T.J. Graham, Manuel saw an unblocked Demario Davis coming at him and quickly set his feet and threw to the go route down the left sideline. The ball hung up in the wind and was well short, allowing Graham to adjust back to the ball while Dee Milliner couldn’t stop his momentum and ended up slipping to the ground, making for an easy catch by Graham and run into the end zone.


Read the rest at Draft Insider

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