Once I breakdown the draft and determine the prospects I like, once the draft happens and they get assigned to their respective teams... what I thought about them as prospects goes out the window. All that matters from that point forward is how they play.
Zappe was a good QB prospect and a great prospect relative to where he was taken in the draft.
His senior year he passed for the most yards and TD's for a single season in college football history... passing Joe Burrow. He completed 69% of his passes, his QB Rating ranks a respectable 6th all-time for a single season.
He's only 6'1" tall but is a stocky 220 pounds. He was very accurate at the combine and tossed a 50 yard bomb that was right on time, so he has a fairly strong arm.
He was a good prospect... none of that matters now. All that matters is how he plays, and if he continues to improve going forward. Mac looked decent early, then took a flaming nose dive after teasing us with flashes of good for two years. Zappe has to grow each week and fix his mistakes. We need to see visible improvement and flashes of greatness.
What I can say about him so far in a very limited sample size is firstly, he runs a clean operation. Notice there haven't been a lot of penalties with him under center, there's not a lot of two receivers going in motion at the same time, there's not a lot of offensive lineman jumping offsides, there's no delay of game penalties. He has control of the huddle and there's not a lot of pre snap penalties like we saw with Mac.
There's also not a lot of free blitzes catching him unaware at the snap of the ball, he does a decent (not perfect) job of spotting pressure before the snap of the ball. He also moves well in the pocket and feels pressure. When he has been sacked it was the result of a lineman simply getting beat.
Lastly he has shown some touch on the ball, some zip on the ball, and more importantly having watched Mac for too long he seems to know when to employ both. He has zipped the ball into some tight windows, he has looked DB's off with head fakes, he shows some overall competence and checks it down when nothing is there... rather than take a coverage sack or make an ill advised throw like Mac did.
Here is Zappe so far:
3-1 record, 73-108 attempts, 67.6 completions, 878 yards, 6 TD's/2 INT's, 8.13 YPA, 103.1 QB Rating
Too small a sample size to make a definitive statement, but too good to say he sucks or can't be a potential starter eventually.
Some here are desperate to say "BB sucks" and has to go, so they don't want to admit this kid (a BB draftee) might turn out okay. An objective fan takes emotion out of it and judges each player on his own merits. I'm not a homer, I'm simply not a hater.