Rivals.com National Recruiting Director Mike Farrell and National Recruiting Analyst Adam Gorney don’t always see eye to eye. In this edition of Rival Views, the two debate which current coveted NFL free agent surprises them the most based on what they saw out of high school.
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FARRELL'S VIEW: KIRK COUSINS
When Cousins was in high school, he was a smallish quarterback with limited arm strength whose recruitment was hindered by a broken ankle his junior season. He had offers from Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Toledo as well as a walk-on offer from Colorado before Michigan State came in and offered him under new coach Mark Dantonio.
The rest, as they say, is history as Cousins just signed a ridiculous three-year, $86 million deal with the Minnesota Vikings after having the franchise tag slapped on him a couple of times by the Washington Redskins. After being drafted three rounds after Robert Griffin III in the same draft in 2012, there’s no way I would have thought he’d be so coveted at this stage of his career.
GORNEY'S VIEW: CASE KEENUM
There is a ton of quarterback intrigue in NFL free agency this year and other than Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum has been a major surprise based on his evaluation and ranking coming out of high school. In the 2006 recruiting class, Keenum was rated as a two-star prospect out of Abilene (Texas) Wylie and signed with Houston, his only offer. Baylor, North Texas and some other schools recruited him, but Houston was his only offer, so it's not necessarily a stunner that he was a two-star recruit.
Still, with the huge numbers Keenum put up in high school, taking a second look at a three-star ranking at least should have been considered. Keenum threw for at least 5,000 yards and 44 touchdowns three times at Houston. After a mediocre five-year start to his NFL career, Keenum was 11-3 as Vikings starter last season.
Now, according to reports, it looks like he'll sign a two-year, $36 million contract with the Denver Broncos and try to turn that franchise around. Will the Broncos still take a quarterback in the first round or is Keenum the answer Denver has been looking for?
Allen Robinson, Star Lotulelei and others are big-named free agents that are a surprise based on high school potential, but Keenum proved us wrong big-time at Houston and now with a late burst in his NFL career.
