Even though Boise State's Kellen Moore is the all-time winningest quarterback in college football history, at the Senior Bowl he is just a player who will be poked and prodded all week. The first negative that came against Moore was in the official weigh-in at the Senior Bowl where Moore was listed at 191 pounds and came in at 5-feet-11-and-3/4-inches tall.
The 6-foot mark is supposedly to be the lowest height for a quarterback to succeed, however just look at Doug Flute and Drew Brees. So there is a precedent in shorter quarterbacks succeeding, but in the draft it is likely that Moore's height will limit where he will be taken in the draft. The latter comment I know is funny, because it is not like Moore's height was a mystery before the Senior Bowl.
However, Moore's height is not what hurt him on the first day practice but his inability to make NFL throws. SB Nation's Alfie Crowe was on site and described Moore's performance:
Moore's lack of arm strength was apparently early in practice when he missed badly on back to back seven-yard out throws. Moore muscled the ball, but just couldn't get the depth on the sideline the route required. Moore was also noticeable smaller than everyone else on the field, coming in at under six-foot and only 191 pounds.
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Despite his lack of arm strength, Moore was able to hit a couple of nice passes down the field, dropping the ball right into the receivers hands.
Sports Illustrated's Tony Pauline had a similar reaction:
- Though its still early, Kellen Moore (QB/Boise State) does not look good. He shows no ability to put speed on his passes and his throws have consistently been behind receivers.
Moore will still have a few more practices to impress the scouts this week, and odds are that this was his worst performance of the week and he will only get better.
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