For our next installment, we take a look at Nic Shimonek’s draft profile. But before we get into that, here’s who we looked at last week and the schedule for the future
| NFL Draft Preview | ||||
| March 29th – The Combine Snubs | April 5th – Nic Shimonek | April 12th – Dylan Cantrell | April 19th – Keke Coutee | April 26 – 2018 NFL Draft Open Thread |
Now on to Nic. The three star quarterback out of Corsicana Mildred, which was just a Class 2A school at the time, had just two offers according to 247sports out of high school. Iowa and Lamar were the only two schools to extend an offer. That’s less than everyone’s favorite quarterback Baker Mayfield.
He only spent a season at Iowa and transferred due to the lack of transition to the pro-style of offense. Then he decided to come to Texas to attend Texas Tech University. However, when he arrived, he had to sit out a year, was near the bottom of the depth chart and didn’t have a scholarship.
Shimonek did what everybody lower on the depth chart needs to do; he worked at it. In 2015, he was behind Patrick Mahomes and Davis Webb, then only behind Mahomes in 2016. Finally, in his senior campaign, he was named the starter, and was so for 12 out of 13 games.
In his career, Nic completed 66.5% of his passes for 4,445 yards and 39 touchdowns. He had eight yards per attempt, threw 11 interceptions and had a passer efficiency rating of 153.2.
His best two games were against Arizona State (543 yards, six TDs) and Eastern Washington (383 yards, three TDs). His worst were against Iowa State (207 yards, INT) and TCU (137 yards, INT).
I know some of y’all didn’t really care for Shimonek last year and don’t know why he’s being look at. I’ll admit, I thought he was fairly average and maybe the worst starter since I’ve been at Tech. However, he did put up stats and the scouts see a guy that they can groom and be a valuable backup.
Back then, quarterbacks could put up big numbers for Texas Tech and were just “system guys”. Kingsbury and Harrell comes to mind as two record breakers that were drafted in the sixth round and undrafted.
Now Shimonek, who hasn’t put up numbers like those guys, could go higher than both of them. Mahomes went No. 10. Webb was drafted in the third round. Even Mayfield, if want to consider him, will be first round pick. That system label is slowly starting to shed.
Here’s how he did at the 2018 NFL Combine a little more than a month ago:
| Height / Weight | Arms/ Hands | 40 yard dash | Vertical Jump | Broad Jump | 3 Cone | 20 Yard Shuttle |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6’3″ / 22 lbs | 30.75″ / 9.25″ | 4.88 (10th) | 28.5 (13th) | 101″ (16th) | 7.28 (13th) | 4.32 (5th) |
What favors Shimonek: One thing that may favor Shimonek is the fact that he was the example quarterback in the combine. It shows that the coaches trust him to run the drills and execute them properly. It also can show leadership.
Nic has arm strength and appears to be able to throw deep passes effectively against man coverage. When he’s patient in the pocket he’ll go through the reads. Nic has confidence in himself, which can instill confidence in his teammates. NFL.com says he’s has various arm angles, which may allow him to mimic the opposing quarterback in practices.
What hurts Shimonek: There was times last year where Shimonek disappeared. I know some fans had their frustrations with him in 2017. He struggles to read zones sometimes and fails to find the open man as well.
Something I noticed was that he rolled out of the pocket and little too much. And more times often than not, it didn’t up well. NFL.com says that he release is a little slow and doesn’t anticipate open targets at time. Not only that, but his one year as a starter doesn’t help his case.
Best / Worst Case Scenario: I see the best result for Nic is getting drafted in the fifth round. I doubt it happens, but with the large amount of yards he put up at Texas Tech, possibly some team may draft him early thinking he could be a productive back-up.
However, there is a good possibility that Shimonek won’t be drafted. He’s projected right now to go in the seventh round, but not a lot of quarterbacks get taken in the seventh round. And when they do, they typically don’t have a great shot to make a roster.
Right now he has a draft grade of 4.98, which gives him a 50/50 shot to make an NFL roster.
Teams that may pick him: It’s hard to predict non-starting quarterbacks because you aren’t quite sure what a team may want as a back-up. So we have to look at what team has a lot of late round picks who need a back-up or third string quarterback.
The Green Bay Packers have the most picks, including two in the seventh round. Their back-up Hundley is on the last year of his contract and they may want an insurance as a back-up.
The Bengals are my best bet, with three picks in the last seven picks. They lost their back-up in AJ McCarron and may need a quarterback or two to provide depth behind Andy Dalton.
Other bets are Arizona Cardinals, to provide some competition with Carson Palmer gone, and Washington Redskins, with an older quarterback at the helm.