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.
