For a guy who has to know he's better than 1/3 or more of the starters in the league, he's maintained a very good patient attitude.
It's very possible that Mallett will do better in another system, but if he really believes that he's better than 11 other NFL QB's who are starting at the moment, he's got a lot more confidence than the average person does. He's done a fine job at being our backup and erased any questions that may have dropped his stock. The main problem is that he has yet to really show the rest of the NFL any sense of decent play in his limited opportunities.
I'm seeing a total of THREE current NFL teams that could possibly view Mallett as upgrades, but we'll include FOUR just to give you the benefit of the doubt since Sam Bradford went down for the year to injury. 3/4 are in the AFC (NYJ, HOU, CLE), and all of them either have just used high picks (NYJ), have a shot at their choice of any QB they want in the spring draft (HOU), (CLE), or already have a journeyman QB who has looked good before getting injured (CLE again). The 4th team would be just giving you the benefit of the doubt in the STL Rams, since Sam Bradford went down to injury, although Kellen Clemens looks mediocre enough to ride his good defense to a handful of wins for the rest of the season.
Either way, I don't see how Mallett should feel as though he's better than 1/3 of the current NFL QB's. Again, he must have a ton of confidence for a guy who has done absolutely nothing in the NFL to date...and I like the pick. In all honesty, I started a thread prior to the draft of 2011 during that week suggesting that we spend a pick at a QB in the 3rd or 4th round, and everyone laughed at me due to their perceived expert need at the position of DE--which we didn't choose at all. I like Mallett, and if it were a perfect world we may try to keep him and continue to develop him for another 4 yr term---but we all know that will never happen due to multiple reasons from both player and team perspective.
I still believe that if Cleveland had been smart enough to trade us that high 2nd round draft pick for Mallet the year they drafted Weeden, both franchises would have been better off. Cleveland would have had a better QB, and we probably would have more DL depth, with the draft pick. Plus Bryan Hoyer would still be with us.
To bad Lombardi wasn't the GM then. It probably would have happened.
I'm not sure why CLE would have spent a high 2nd round pick at QB when they would have just chosen a 1st round pick with Weeden that year? (if you're speaking of the year prior to Lombardi taking over)
If you want to take it one step further, why would they have given up a 2nd round pick just a year later after we chose him with a 3rd? What would Mallett have shown in his first year to warrant giving up a higher pick then where he was selected? And even better, if they would've wanted to bad enough, why would they have passed on Mallett in the first place, allowing him to drop to the third round?
