Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden is generally regarded as the fourth-best quarterback in this year’s NFL draft, behind Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III and Ryan Tannehill. But there’s one major red flag for Weeden that doesn’t exist for the other quarterbacks in this year’s draft: He’s 28 years old.
At least, that would seem to be a red flag for Weeden, who played five years of minor league baseball before devoting himself full-time to football. Many teams will question just how long they could count on a 28-year-old rookie to last as their franchise quarterback.
But Weeden claims that after meeting with NFL coaches and executives individually and working out for scouts at the Senior Bowl, Scouting Combine and Pro Day, he has convinced them not to think about his age. Asked by the Oklahoman what he has proven in front of NFL scouts, Weeden said, “That my game translates to that level. That, and then that my age is a non-issue.”
In a year when we know Luck and Griffin are going 1-2 weeks ahead of the draft, and Tannehill seems to be moving up draft boards as the third quarterback, Weeden believes he has solidified his status as No. 4.
“I think every stop that I’ve made — Senior Bowl, Combine and then Pro Day — I’ve shown that I can do it,” Weeden said. “I think I’ve interviewed well, I ran pretty well, I threw well. I’ve done everything at each stop to help myself. The more I talk to teams on a one-on-one basis and I do interviews and have sit-downs and stuff, age is a non-issue. Of course in the media and all, everybody talks about it. It’s a big issue. But I promise you, what I’m hearing from teams, unless they’re lying to me, it’s not an issue.”
It’s easy to see why Weeden wouldn’t feel like his age is an issue. The question is if it’s really true that NFL teams view it as a non-issue as well. Weeden may be onto something when he suggests that NFL personnel people who tell him it’s a non-issue could be lying to him.
