2011 NFL Draft: Mizzou QB Blaine Gabbert Going Pro

2011 NFL Draft: Mizzou QB Blaine Gabbert On Going Pro

The Missouri Tigers learned this week that QB Blaine Gabbert would be leaving Mizzou and headed pro to the 2011 NFL draft. We didn't really have a firm idea on whether he'd leave or not but once we saw guys like ESPN's Todd McShay hyping him as the second QB taken, we knew he would probably go.

Gabbert released a statement on Monday announcing the news.

"This is definitely a bittersweet day for me, I was really looking forward to having a chance to do some special things next season with my teammates, but in the end, this is the right decision to make for myself and my family," Gabbert said in the release.

"These last three years have been an unbelievable experience for me, and I'll miss being at Mizzou, but I'm definitely looking forward to this next stage of my life. I'm so grateful to have been part of such a great program and all of the people who have helped me get to this point, and now I have to take what I've learned, and build on that for the next level. I'll always be a Tiger, and I look forward to watching the guys do big things in the future," he said.

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Gabbert talked immediately after the Insight Bowl loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes and talked Mizzou being great next year so that had some wondering if that was a hint he's staying. Apparently not.
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Another top notch QB prospect declaring is a good thing for us.

Just pushes another quality player to our position.

We really need Luck to declare and I'm sure he will.

If I ran this team, one of those QBs might be in Dallas next year. Depends on the way the talent comes off the board.

But I would never ignore the most important position on the field because of some need nonsense. The chance to acquire a franchise QB doesn't come around very often. If you feel you have one there, you take him.

Otherwise you're sitting there two years from now with a declining underachieving Mexican and nothing behind him for the future, in full panic mode ready to reach in the draft for any QB you can find.

Stick to the board. Positions be damned. Ignore anyone who starts matching rounds with positions in the draft. They're clueless morons who don't understand what the draft is all about.

Having said that, our "brain"trust will go into this draft with QB scratched off the list of potential first round picks.

Because we don't have a GM.

I agree if the guy at the top of the board is head and shoulders better than the next rated player.

And I think the only player that'll be head and shoulders above anyone else is Andrew Luck.

If you have multiple players at different positions all rated similarly when you're on the clock, and a QB like Locker/Mallett is one of them, I'd go in another direction.