FanHouse

Opinions are like ... well, you know. Here's our smelly take.

WHAT NFL SCOUTS ARE SAYING

Pro Football Weekly's 2008 NFL Draft Guide

Is clearly well-coached, with very sound mechanics. A pure pocket passer with functional arm strength, Booty is a West Coast, rhythm passer who will need to play in an offense that features a lot of short crosses and slants to be effective. Could develop into a solid backup, but would handicap what an offense could do as a starter.

Bonus Moment of Contradiction

Keeps his poise under pressure and does not pull the ball down to run.

Two sentences later:

Shows little awareness for pressure and can be rattled.

PROBABLY GETTING DRAFTED ...

Second day, in the third, fourth or fifth round.

GUY WHO WATCHED HIM FOR FIVE YEARS IS SAYING

One of the draft's most vexing prospects, Booty did the near impossible in transforming himself from a marvelous high school gunslinger in a shotgun system to a pure pocket passer running an NFL offense. He's one of the rare quarterbacks to successfully transition out of a system that produced highly regarded future flame-outs Josh Booty, Brock Berlin and Brent Rawls.

I think the telling comment here is that he is "well-coached". If you watch his high school films, Booty was a magical passer with a great downfield arm, wonderful accuracy and an ability to throw accurately on the run and even off the wrong foot. He's gone from a gunslinger to Robo-QB. What was his weakness coming out of high school is now his strength, and his strengths have all but disappeared and made people hilariously wonder about his feel for the game.

What appears to have happened here is that Booty was overcoached in a program that models itself after the NFL. What made him special and unique was somehow lost. Next victim if he's not careful: Mark Sanchez.

Bottom line: Booty has fine mechanics, a cool demeanor, is tremendously accurate and played in a big-time program that runs an NFL offense. He played his best in bowl games and has a lot to offer. I buy the argument that he's an NFL backup, but there's some potential buried somewhere in him if you watch those high school films. If he lands with a franchise that doesn't demand such regimented play from its quarterback, that gunslinging side of him could come back out and he could really blossom.