It's looking increasingly likely that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will select Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston with the No. 1 overall selection. But what kind of signal-caller would coach Lovie Smith be getting when Winston shows up at the team's facility?
NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah thought a bit outside of the box when comparing Winston to a current quarterback in the league.
"I've compared him to Ben Roethlisberger before, but the more I think about it, another name comes to mind, and that is Philip Rivers," Jeremiah said on NFL Network's "Path to the Draft." "The guys have unorthodox deliveries, guys that are not shy and like to talk a little bit and have that confidence. I think they're similar football players, and Jameis Winston could have a career, at his best, like Philip Rivers."
Jeremiah is on to something when it comes to Winston and Rivers' moxie and ability to win football games, and given the Bucs' QB woes in recent years, the team's front office would surely love to draft a player who could play at Rivers' level in the NFL.
That wasn't the only interesting comparison brought up on the show for this year's QB prospects. Fellow NFL Media analyst Curtis Conway looked back a few years to find an intriguing comp for the draft's second-ranked QB, Marcus Mariota.
"The one thing that comes to mind is his ability to run," Conway said. "The guy that came to mind was Jake 'The Snake' Plummer. He was a guy that was a little ahead of his time. When you have that kind of guy as an asset, as a weapon, it's going to be hard to tuck that away and not play with it. Jake Plummer did a great job of breaking the pocket, rolling out, throwing the football and using his legs to create opportunities for his wide receivers down field. I think Mariota can do the exact same thing."
Other NFL comparisons mentioned for this year's prospects: UCLA's Brett Hundley was said to be a bigger Russell Wilson; Baylor's Bryce Petty could have a career trajectory similar to Kerry Collins; and Colorado State QB Garrett Grayson has plenty of similarities to Matt Hasselbeck.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.