Raiders: Mid-February complete 7-round mock draft
By Nico Di Fede
Quarterback. player. 846. Scouting Report. Stats. Washington State. Anthony Gordon. 3
Round 3, Pick 27: Anthony Gordon, QB, Washington State
While Mike Leach and his Air Raid system are known for making weak-armed quarterbacks produce godly stats, Anthony Gordon is not the typical Mike Leach quarterback.
Gordon has a big arm and some intriguing arm talent. He put up 48 touchdowns and over 5,500 yards through the air in an offense that had him throw over 50 times in most games, with a single-game high of 70.
Having that many attempts is a good thing for Gordon though, as he only has one year as a starter or any meaningful playing time in college. In 2018 Gordon was beat out by now emerging NFL quarterback Gardner Minshew in a quarterback competition that Mike Leach considered extremely close.
I personally believe Gordon is a better prospect than both his successors in Minshew and Luke Falk.
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Where Gordon needs work is his footwork — and he needs work there badly. He often throws off his back foot and almost never plants his feet. These things are coachable and why he will, of course, need to sit for a year or two.
He has a rocket quick release which is not coachable and a beautiful deep ball despite playing in an offense that throws a lot of designed screens and dump-offs.
Carr deserves another year and should be the starter going into Las Vegas next season, but the Raiders need to groom a young gun in case he doesn’t prove to be the guy that can lead the team to be a contender in the future.
Neither Nathan Peterman nor DeShone Kizer is the answer.