The Nittany Turkey

Morelli alert!

Former PSU quarterback Anthony Morelli is waging the fight of his life for the Arizona Cardinals #3 quarterback position.

Matt Leinart is listed as first on the depth chart, and Kurt Warner is second. Those two might switch places several times during the pre-season and into the regular season. Although they are battling for the starting slot, hey both have guaranteed jobs. Not so #3. That’s where the real battle is.

The two contenders for third-string quarterback are Brian St. Pierre and Penn State’s own Anthony Morelli. St. Pierre, whom you Nittany Lions fans might remember as one of the fine quarterbacks produced by Boston College, has been a career third-stringer in his six year NFL career, mostly with the Steelers, but including a brief stint with the Ravens. He has been played very little, unless you count scout team service. As a Steeler, he played for Ken Whisenhunt, former Steelers offensive coordinator and current Cardinals head coach. The Cardinals signed him to a one-year contract this year. Some would say that this gives him the inside track.

I don’t know about that. After all, St. Pierre can hardly be described as an experienced NFL quarterback, and Whisenhunt did not regard him highly enough to give him any reps in Pittsburgh. Indeed, he was cut twice, and relegated to the scout team on another occasion. To Whisenhunt, Morelli is something new and strange. Very strange.

From the Arizona Republic, August 15:

“That’s been one of our strongest competitions in camp, as far as guys stepping up and getting better,” the coach said. “I can sit up here and say all the time that I think competition makes us a better team, but in that area, I’ve really seen it. I’ve seen dramatic improvement in all of those guys in terms of what we’re trying to get done.”

Morelli stepping up and getting better? What the hell took him so long? I wonder if his dad is telling Whisenhunt how to coach his son. As I saw no quote by Morelli, I’ll assume that Dad is still not allowing him to talk to the media.

Will I ever stop bashing Morelli? Or will Morelli prove that it was not his lack of talent, brains or football acumen, but rather the crappy quarterback coaching at Dear Old State that was to blame for his failure at PSU.

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In a humongous sweep of draft leftovers, the NFL Cleveland Browns signed 23 free agents. Among them was ex-Nittany Lion tailback Austin Scott.

Unfortunately, Austin Scott will be better remembered around Penn State circles for his off-field exploits than for his accomplishments as a running back. However, he never lived up to the promise of his high school career.

Scott’s penchant for dancing around behind the line of scrimmage before moving forward was a great hindrance to his success in the faster moving college game, where opposing linebackers were in the backfield before Scott could get his ass in gear.

It is important to distinguish Scott’s actual performance from his potential, but that is all water under the bridge. He’s the Brownies’ problem now for a year, if he survives all the cruel cuts of the NFL pre-season.

Jamal Lewis is the Browns’ feature back. It is unclear how Scott will fit in to the Browns’ offensive scheme.

A Cleveland Plain-Dealer reader posted the following comment:

I’m excited about Austin Scott. This guy is amazing…if he can stay out of trouble. I never like taking questionable character guys..I leave that to the Bengals…but I’m glad the Browns are taking a flyer on him. Remember, Jam Lewis was in trouble and actually had his career derailed for a time by it…[even] serving time in prison Maybe Lewis can serve as a mentor to Scott. Go Browns!

Scott signed a one-year contract, but it is conditional on his making the team, which is to say that he must be on the final, 53-man roster.

“I’m going to turn it up another couple of notches,” Scott vowed. “I just want to get ready for the preseason minicamps and make an impression to make the final cut, to make it to the season, actually. I want to make sure that they understand they can use me and that I’m a good athlete to have on their team. I want them to know that I can help the Browns. I want to make an impression on special teams.”

Full story at theMorningCall.com.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, at Arizona Cardinal mini-camp, Anthony Morelli continues to struggle with apprehending the playbook, as he vies with Brian St. Pierre for the third-string job behind Matt Leinart and Kurt Warner. Par for the course, eh?

On the other hand, Dan Connor was impressive lining up at middle linebacker with the Carolina Panthers second and third teams. Having scant time to master a complex defensive playbook, Connor was still able to make some decent reads.

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Former Nittany Lion quarterback Anthony Morelli signed a free-agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals in the aftermath of the NFL Draft, in which he was not picked by any team.

A glance at this morning’s Arizona Republic fails to find a mention of this momentous signing, as if to wish it away.

Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt, a former Steelers offensive coordinator, has been recognized as an offensive genius. Perhaps he saw something in Morelli that the rest of us did not?

From Scout.com:

Former pro scout Tom Marino, who has 30 plus years in the league, is pretty high on Morelli as a project.

“He has all the tools you look for in a QB; an athletic body, very strong throwing arm and far better movement then I had expected, but is acutely under coached and unprepared for the job of being a professional QB.

Has a violent overhand delivery and when he’s on his game has as much ability as anyone in the draft. Can make all the throws; out, dig, fade and comeback. Going to have to start from square one with this player, but has a big upside. A 6th - 7th round steal.”

He is indeed a project, a reach, a zircon-in-the-rough. However, one meta-fact I can glean from Marino’s comments is that PSU has a reputation for “undercoaching” quarterbacks. The JoeJay approach is a quarterback spoiler. That’s for sure. Whether Morelli would have done better in another system, we’ll never know.

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The NFL draft is upon us once again. It’s a half-hour away and already the first two picks are known. Meanwhile, the Turkey sits in bated anticipation of great Penn State coups.

The first two picks, by the Dolphins and the Rams, were dealt for in advance, so no great suspense there. Offensive tackle Jake Long of Michigan went to Miami as #1 overall pick, while St. Louis gained the services of Virginia defensive end Chris Long (son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long) at #2.

With regard to Penn State’s output, this will not be a banner year year. Your Turkey foresees no first-rounders. The draft eligible players are linebacker Dan Connor, cornerback Justin King, running back Rod Kinlaw, the now exonerated running back Austin Scott, and, of course, bringing up the rear, much maligned quarterback Anthony Morelli.

Is it my imagination or does it seem that the NFL is regarding Nittany Lions pretty lightly these days? One thing that concerns me is that there seem to be a lot of serious rookie year injuries of highly picked Penn State players. If the PSU strength and conditioning program is perceived as deficient, for example, players might slip down in the draft because of the gamble involved. There is indeed a history of early exits or unrealized expectations due to injuries: Courtney Brown, Ki-Jana Carter, Curtis Enis, and LaVar Arrington, to name a few. We won’t know whether Paul Posluszny’s leg will ever be the same, but it is too soon to tell.

Connor stands the best chance of being a first-rounder, although early second round seems more likely to this Turkey. Linebackers Keith Rivers of USC and Jerod Mayo of Tennessee are more highly regarded. Nevertheless, many NFL scouts think that Connor has the brains and the brawn to exceed the capability of his predecessor, Paul Posluszny.

Justin King hurt himself with his performance on the field in 2007. The vaunted Nittany Lion “shutdown corner” didn’t shut too much down. It was apparent at the end of the season that opposing offenses were targeting his side of the field. We heard excuses about secret neck injuries and such, but no one knows for certain what King’s problem was. King will be a project for whichever team chooses him. He’s got the speed, as he demonstrated at the Scouting Combine, but his usefulness against the big, speedy, bump-and-run NFL receivers is as yet untested. Look for King to be a late second or early third rounder, at best.

Kinlaw and Scott are potential late rounders at best. Scott’s off-field woes hurt him, as does his dancing behind the LOS, which would get him killed in the NFL. Kinlaw is a no-nonsense runner, but this draft class is loaded with running backs.

Now, we come to Morelli. He’s the only one of the PSU players in the draft with three flags next to his name. Flags are negative indicators. Connor and Scott, for example, got the “character” flag for being involved in off-field incidents. Morelli earned his “character” flag for taunting Michigan fans during the Penn State loss in The Big House. Morelli also got a “mental” flag, which equates to “does not learn and retain the system.” Finally, he is the proud recipient of the “speed” flag, which means he lacks ideal speed for his position. With all this going for him, he really needs his dad to make excuses for him, which I’m sure NFL teams will buy into. Yeah, right! Morelli might wind up an undrafted free agent, although he has talked to a couple of teams, most notably the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The big quarterback derby this year surrounds Matt Ryan of Boston College. Both Atlanta and Baltimore are in serious need of a QB who can step in quickly, in the wake of the departures of Michael Vick and Steve McNair. Chad Henne, who started all four years at Michigan, is probably going to go in the second round, as Ryan and Joe Flacco of Delaware should be snapped up in the first—unless, of course, someone grabs Morelli. (OK. Just kidding.)

The Turkey will return with some more commentary right after Dan Connor is selected.