JaMarcus Rusell: A rich man's Josh Swogger
As many of you have probably heard, Montana Grizzlies quarterback Josh Swogger is headed to the NFL Combine, where he will do everything he can to prove himself. JaMarcus Russell will be doing the opposite as he'll probably be walking around just trying not to slip on any laminated Wonderlic exam booklets and go out George Costanza style. Sure, a guy who's going to be drafted first and one who will be lucky to sign as a free agent are going to have some big differences, but they also have some key similarities.
So if you're an NFL GM who's looking for a guy like Russell but don't have the #1 spot and already used up all your draft picks on players who are actually worth a damn, Josh Swogger is your quarterback of the future.
The biggest similarity between these two is that their best attribute is exactly the same. Both of these guys have the ability to "throw the football over them mountains." Swogger's arm strength doesn't equal Russell's, who can supposedly throw a ball 182 yards lying flat on his stomach, but Josh does have an NFL caliber arm that's probably above average for those playing on Sunday. The difference is that Swogger doesn't have as good of touch on the deep ball. Had Russell been put in Swogger's shoes, I guarantee he would've thrown the ball towards the sideline, away from the safety and hit a wide-open Craig Chambers in stride for the win against UMass instead of lofting it towards the defensive back like it was worth about 50 points game of '500.'
However, it's not like like Russell hasn't had his problems with questionable throws. The biggest only knock on the Russell is that his decision-making is a bit inconsistent. This also happens to be one of Swogger's biggest flaws. He occasionally has some trouble getting the ball to the right guy and tries to Brett Favre the ball into covered receivers.
One more similarity is their size, both are built like racehorses. Swogger is listed at 6-5, 238 so he looked pretty damn big when compared to the likes of Cole Berquist and other undersized FCS players. Russell comes in an inch taller and 20 pounds heavier at 6-6, 260. Their size helps them shake tacklers when they need to. Swogger definitely showed he could pick up some yards when he actually decided to leave the cozy confines of a collapsing pocket. (A Swogger/Bledsoe comparison post was too easy)
Still, he's not Russell when it comes to scrambling, who on top of being built like a racehorse can run like one too. He supposedly ran a 4.35 recently. The Vegas line on Swogger's forty time would probably sit somewhere between 5.1 and 2 hours.
That's the end of the comparison. There's a reason they're at complete opposite ends of the draft board but there are also a couple reasons to pick up Swogger. There's not really anyone else I'd want to have lining up under center in the 4th quarter of a preseason game.