Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater once was seen as a top-10 pick, but NFL Media draft analyst Mike Mayock said Thursday that he "would be surprised if he goes in the first round."
During a NFL Network draft preview teleconference, he also said Bridgewater was in the second tier of quarterbacks, behind the top three of UCF's Blake Bortles, Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel and Fresno State's Derek Carr.
Mayock admitted to being conflicted about Bridgewater.
"I've always believed that (game) tape is everything," Mayock said.
But Mayock was at Bridgewater's pro day, which he called "unsettling." He also said, "I didn't like it at all." Mayock said he then re-watched game tape from "a different prism," looking specifically for arm strength and accuracy, and didn't necessarily like what he saw. The workout was a "cross-check that I needed to watch more tape."
Mayock said Bridgewater's pro-day workout was the only one in 10 or 11 years that made him feel he needed to go back and re-examine a quarterback's tape.
Mayock said that he found in talking with some teams, they had "a higher opinion of (Bridgewater) four months ago than they do today."
For the second day in a row, Mayock also said Bridgewater's football persona could be an issue.
"I don't feel an 'it' factor," Mayock said, comparing him unfavorably in that regard to Manziel. "I don't know if he's ready to be 'the guy.' "
On NFL Network's "Path to the Draft" on Wednesday, Mayock said that when a quarterback is drafted in the first round, a team expects the signal-caller "to be the face of your franchise; you expect him to embrace the moment. I think people had some concerns about whether or not this young man is ready to step up and be the face of a franchise."
While Bridgewater appears to be enveloped in a sea of negativity at the moment, there is a completely different way to look at his slide.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
