NFL Draft Player Profile: Devin Gardner of Michigan

by Derrik Klassen

(Gardner #12) Photo credit to DetroitNews.com 

The converted WR may have only played the final 5 games at QB, but he still flashed glaring signs of NFL potential. He lacks the finer skills, but he definitely has all of the physical tools. While he needs refinement, he shows plenty of talent for a player who was thrown into the fire with little experience at the position and a struggling team to work with. His potential ceiling is somewhere up in the stars.


Few QBs in college are more physically gifted than Devin Gardner. His combination of size, speed, and arm strength is a rare breed. One of Gardner's flaws, which is also a flaw in Hundley's play style, is that instead of  just taking off and running, he will jump around and try to make defenders miss instead of taking what he can get. Despite that, Gardner has speed to outrun most LBs, yet also has a fairly strong lower body to bounce of weaker tacklers. His ability to bail out and run the ball, while it doesn't always work, has saved Michigan often and kept drives alive. While I value his athleticism, a QB will only survive the NFL if he can play well from the pocket.

While I don't see it as a problem, Gardner sports a fairly high and wide throwing motion. Regardless, he still seems to be able to maintain power and accuracy. It can almost be seen as a positive considering it will drastically lower the probability of his passes being swatted at the line. One of the most impressive traits seen in Gardner is his arm strength. He doesn't have a terribly long wind up, yet he can launch the ball down field with a solid arch. At this point, his accuracy is nothing more than average, but remember, he played with little experience at the position. There are glimpses of better accuracy from him that I believe we will see a lot more of next season. His lack of experience also hurts him because he lacks great footwork and struggles with timing and sound decision making.

As I previously stated, Gardner's potential is limitless considering his natural physical talents. He currently ranks as my No.8 QB out of the 19 that I have studied, but I firmly believe he can develop to be even better.   He will certainly be one of the more intriguing prospects to keep an eye on next season.