The 2014 NFL Draft is closing in at ramming speed, and we’re not going to be ready for it. From all the rumors, looming trades and the actual start of the draft with the #1 overall pick, we’ll be lucky to survive Thursday night – let alone get through all three days.

Needless to say, the NFL pushing the draft back has really messed with our minds, which clearly has not kept us all from overthinking value and where certain players might fall.

That’s natural, because we’re human, but the one thing we might not consider is that the same goes for NFL scouts, coaches and GM’s. Yes, believe it or not, Jerry Jones and the like are not robots, but living, breathing humans. Some of them even pay their taxes; hey-o!

The point is, even the front office brass of the most established franchises can overlook talent, while they’re certainly reach for some at some point, as well. Naturally, that inevitably causes household names to plummet from the ranks.

Just last year we saw it happen to Geno Smith and Matt Barkley, and few can forget the epic tumbles of Brady Quinn, Aaron Rodgers and many others.

Who will take equal tumbles, potentially all the way out of round one? These five guys just might:

Teddy Bridgewater, QB, Louisville

Initially the top-rated quarterback and proposed #1 overall pick since the top team usually needs a franchise passer, Bridgewater’s stock has taken a dramatic hit over the past month or so. From size concerns to facing a weak level of competition, he already held some red flags. But add a poor Pro Day and the guy might fall out of the first round.

True, the knee-jerk reaction comes off as a bit harsh, but the extra time to overthink, sit back, relax and re-think these prospects is murdering some of their stock. Bridgewater probably tops the list. Not only do teams not want to risk high picks on passers right now, but they’re squirming to trade down just so they don’t feel obliged to do so. Bridgewater is seen as a guy that can be available in round, two, which might just make that notion a reality.

C.J. Mosley, ILB, Alabama

A fine athlete with excellent leadership and great instincts, you won’t find a better linebacker to man the middle of your 4-3 scheme than Mosley. He has the closing speed, overall athleticism and wrap-up tackling ability you look for in your man in the middle, while he even has the range to excel in coverage. He can also be plopped in a 3-4 next to another inside ‘backer, giving GM’s little reason to not like him.

Whether they like him isn’t the problem. The need for elite inside linebackers is.

Teams just don’t need Mosley right now, and even the ones that do, either have a much more pressing need or would rather take their chances landing a slightly lesser talent in round two or three. He is easily a top-10 talent and if he were taken there, no one would even really go nuts about it. But the lack of need is so great, that no one would be all that shocked if he slid to the bottom of the first round, either. In fact, it might not be insane to think he’d still be available at the beginning of round two.

Bradley Roby, CB, Ohio State

From a talent and skill-set perspective, Roby is quite easily one of the best corner prospects in this year’s draft. He has the elite speed and athleticism GM’s look for in first round corners, while he also has adequate size and lockdown ability.

Unfortunately, Roby has had some off field issues and didn’t have the greatest 2013 season. His tape from last year leaves many scratching their heads, while he visibly lacks focus and consistency. He can still turn it around and become an elite corner at the next level, but sticking in the first round will require a team at the bottom end of day one to take a bit of a chance. Don’t be shocked at all to see him slide into the middle of round two.

Stephon Tuitt, DE/DT, Notre Dame

Tuitt is a very interesting prospect, as you simply can’t teach his mammoth size and strength, while his upside is saliva-inducing. He’s also quite athletic and extremely versatile. He can play all over the line on a 4-3 depending on where his weight at, while he can play the end on a 3-4 and possibly even beef up to man the nose tackle spot. What he wants to be and where he gets is probably entirely up to him.

The problem is he’s extremely inconsistent and has issues with focus and conditioning. He didn’t have a great 2013 by most accounts, either, and just didn’t look like a difference-maker at least half the time on tape. In the end, it’s going to come down to upside vs. “what has he done lately?”. Tuitt is a fringe first rounder at this point, and it should shock no one if he doesn’t make the cut at the end of day one.

Louis Nix III, NT, Notre Dame

Aside from Mosley, Nix is the main guy who is pretty likely to free fall, but doesn’t deserve to in the least. A mammoth beast in the middle of the defensive line, Nix is quite agile for a man his size, and is able to explode off the line and track down the ball carrier in pursuit.

We could rant all day about how he’s the perfect nose tackle for a 3-4 system, but that’s actually his problem. With no real versatility, Nix is correctly pigeon holed to play that exact spot and only that spot at the next level. Within reason, that almost surely leaves only the Cardinals, Packers, Chargers and Patriots as potential suitors in round one. If they find another need more pressing, a very talented 3-4 nose tackle could be ready and waiting at the top of round two.

As you see in the title of this article we are going to focus on one of those players and that is Lousiville’s Theodore Bridgewater. A year ago when the Cardinals defeated Florida in the Sugar Bowl he looked like a can’t miss prospect, now with a season of missed team expectations and a bizarre pro day his stock is going down.

Allegedly.

Let’s say for one second that Teddy is there at 31. Should the Broncos select him? Lots of talk is going on around this very topic in the Denver fan base. Many are on board but the problem is that the Broncos have a QB of the future in place: Brock Osweiler.

Considering the Broncos traded down from the first round in order to obtain the additional second round pick that Osweiler was selected with, he within all intents and purposes a first round pick. Selecting Teddy would say a lot about what the Broncos think about that move.

If the Broncos internally aren’t sold on Osweiler they should by all means select a player to compete with him in the first four rounds of this draft. If that man is Teddy Bridgwater I have no problems with it.

Bridgewater is the more accurate passer, just as good if not better a scrambler, and has the uncanny knack of getting better as he gets hit more during the course of a game.

Peyton Manning will probably lace those boots up for the last time in 2014-2015. If the Broncos don’t want to fall out of contention fast then by all means getting the heir apparent in place now only makes sense. Is that man Teddy Bridgewater? Or is he Brock Osweiler all along? Only time will tell…

However if the player the Rams want is unsuspectedly taken at #1 overall (teddy Bridgewater, Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Greg Robinson, or Sammy Watkins) then it gets real.

In a scenario with the “best” player in the draft Jadeveon Clowney still on the board, the Rams could set to once again trade out and get a large sum of picks in return.

Rams general manager Les Snead said at this point the calls for the No. 2 pick have been “flirtatious” and nothing will be serious until it becomes clearer what direction the Houston Texans will take with the No. 1 overall pick.

Chris Long and Robert Quinn are already holding down the DE spot. Clowney would be a luxury for a NON PLAYOFF TEAM. AKA, a pick that won’t make them marginally better because they already have talent at his position.

In my scenario the best thing the Rams could hope for is trade down to three or four and take Clemson’s Sammy Watkins instead.

The biggest issues were that his overall accuracy looked off, his weight was down to only 208 lbs, and his 40 yard dash clocked in at just 4.78 seconds. Some scouts are publicly going in on Teddy, claiming this will negatively hurt his draft stock.

Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater says he pays no attention to "draft stock." Says he's satisfied with way he approached today.

— John Oehser (@JohnOehser) March 17, 2014

For all the talk about his size remember Bridgewater is still bigger than Russell Wilson and Johnny Manziel. His arm is more than adequate, and his accuracy during the season was the highest among all quarterbacks when charted.

It seemed to me that Teddy over thought the workout and changed too much too soon. He seemed to change his delivery point on the ball and in general did not have the same demeanor he usually does. This workout won’t hurt him much. I don’t think it’s going to erase anything on tape he did during the season.

With Manziel entering we now have our quarterback class completed. The best of bunch will consist of: Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, Derek Carr, Blake Bortles, Zach Mettenberger, Aaron Murray, Tajh Boyd, and Stephen Morris. There are also some good developmental prospects such as David Fales, Casy Pachall, and Logan Thomas as well.

For an an indepth look at how accurate each player is, check out this piece by Rotoworld. They did the indepth numbers on each player and adjusted for receiver drops.

With all that said, let’s go over some quick NFL comparisons of the top guys.

Teddy Bridgewater NFL Comparison: Ben Roethlisberger

Johnny Manziel NFL Comparison: Doug Flutie

Derek Carr NFL Comparison: Tony Romo

Blake Bortles NFL Comparison: Jay Cutler

Zach Mettenberger NFL Comparison: Matt Ryan

Aaron Murray NFL Comparison: Chase Daniels

Tajh Boyd NFL Comparison: Steve McNair

Stephen Morris NFL Comparison: Tyrod Taylor

However a legitimate concern in this year’s class is at quarterback. Yes the class is loaded with names- Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, Brett Hundley, Blake Bortles, AJ McCarron, Derek Carr, and AJ Murray just to name a few; but is there a can’t miss prospect in this bunch? According to reports NFL scouts are starting to whisper that there may not be “that guy” in this year’s class.

Jimmy Haslam signing the praises of 2014 @NFL Draft. Had a GM tell me last night it reminds him of the 2011 draft when it comes to QBs. Ouch

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 30, 2013

With Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Eli Manning, and Ben Roethlisberger all still playing is there hope for a non blue chip prospect to win a title anytime soon? There is that old guard of championship quarterbacks and an emerging, hungry, younger crop of Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick and Andrew Luck all playing at a high level and able to win it any given year as well.

We all know that missing on a quarterback (or just not having a good one) sets a team back, but with the level of talent at the position these days is it even worth it for a team to overdraft a guy just because they need a passer? If you aren’t going to win the next Super Bowl anyway, why not just wait for that new guy who can step into the Andrew Luck, Russell Wilson etc. class?

All of these questions and more are what NFL teams are going to have to ask themselves this year. The 2014 NFL Draft will be REALLY interesting as far as quarterbacks go.

Teddy Bridgewater is gaining momentum and with good cause. He looks extremely prepared, confident, and accurate in the pocket these days. While Louisville is playing a very weak schedule this year Bridgewater still impressed in the latest contest versus Kentucky.

His final stat line reads 16/28 250 yards and 1 touchdown but this is kind of misleading as Teddy was making very difficult throws with relative ease. Louisville picked up more yards in the third quarter alone than they managed the entire first half.

He’s only going to get better as the season progresses. With the Jacksonville Jaguars in desperate need of a quarterback after finally benching Blaine Gabbert it looks like this is a match meant to happen…

Positives:
At 6’3-6’4 and 218 lbs, Teddy certainly checks the “size” box off pretty quickly. He is around the prototypical size of a pro passer. There won’t be any issues brought up about his physical size like there will be about Johnny “Football” Manziel.

The first thing that leaps off the page at you is Teddy’s athleticism. He is a smooth, smooth athlete with the football. He will bring up a lot of Vince Young comparisons in that regard though it looks that in-game, Teddy is a shade faster. This is a guy that can easily gash a team for 15-20 yards at a time if he’s given a lane.

But what about his passing? Well, he throws for a respectable 68.5% completion percentage and comes from an offense that actually goes down field. These aren’t inflated throws at the line of scrimmage (*cough, cough, you know who*). Teddy has a nice spin on the ball and stands tall in the pocket. He isn’t afraid of contact and keeps his eyes down-field even when he knows he’s going to get hit.

What needs to be worked on:
When he misses throws, he tends to miss long and throw them where his man cannot get a chance to make a play. This is a negative and a positive, actually.

The biggest area of concern I have personally is that he doesn’t do a lot of checking off. Meaning that when he decides to go somewhere with the ball, that is where it is going immediately. He’s a big fan of the quick underneath throw to his backs within 10 yards. This is great for completion percentage, but in the NFL teams will cover the flats against him and dare him to go down-field.

Where Will Teddy Bridgewater Get Drafted?
I don’t foresee a huge drop off such as what happened to Geno Smith and Matt Barkley. Teddy will be picked in the top 10 baring unforeseen circumstances. There is another quarterback I’d personally select over him, today, but I believe he should be no worse than the 2nd quarterback off the board.

Pro Comparison:
I’d compare Teddy most to the current Dolphins quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. Teddy is a guy with all of the tools and the size a team wants, but it may be a rough transition against pro style defenses who will take away his strengths (taking the flats, scrambling ability).

The way Bridgewater ran the offense and executed passing plays are the reasons he is already in the top two on my 2014 NFL Mock Draft. It was so impressive many Florida Gators made it a point to come up and show respect after the game. But this post isn’t about him. It’s about the two pair of Gators that will be throwing their hat’s into the draft, Matt Elam and Shariff Floyd:

After the game, Matt Elam and Sharrif Floyd both announced that they will enter the NFL Draft. Good luck to them both.

— GatorZone Football (@GatorZoneFB) January 3, 2013

I have Floyd in my 2014 mock, so I’m going to have to edit that soon as well. I think both have a shot at being high second rounders, third rounders at worse. It just depends how they stack up at the combine. I’m very interested to see how Floyd looks in the drills.