Oklahoma prodigy Caleb Williams is undeniably one of the hottest prospects to come out of college football this year. The QB won the Heisman Trophy in 2022 while having a record-breaking season of 52 TDs in a single school season. With a total of 120 TDs and throws for 10,000 + yards in his college career, safe to say, that Caleb Williams will be the most coveted pick for the NFL teams come this draft.
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But with great expectations comes great pressure. From Johnny Manziel to Mark Sanchez, there have been multiple instances of college wonderkids failing to live up to their expectations in the NFL. From the pressure of the expectations to a higher pace of play in the NFL, there are a host of reasons why rookie season is as tough as it gets. Former NY Jets QB Mark Sanchez in his latest media appearance delved into this further.
Sanchez with his unfortunate experience of failing from expectations gave a pinpoint reasoning behind this common phenomenon. As per the QB, the biggest problem for college players comes in the form of adapting to an NFL locker room. While a college locker room consists of fellow students talking about extremely overlapping values and topics, an NFL locker room environment is completely different.
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The first challenge for rookies is adapting to the diversity. In a locker room, a rookie might encounter everyone. From his idol to a battered veteran on the verge of retirement, a rookie is suddenly expected to have the maturity to understand the real-life problems of his teammates. More often than not, it’s extremely overwhelming for rookies causing them to lose their composure and affect their performances.
“In a professional room, nobody is talking about tests, writing an essay, and who you are gonna take to the spring formal dance and stuff like that. I mean these guys are talking about I just got divorced, my daughter has leukemia, you know like there’s bigger life things going on in these conversations. And you are expected to be the guy. And all of a sudden, overnight, you are supposed to have the discernment of a 65-70-year-old Supreme Court Justice; and you’ve literally just rolled out of a college dorm room.”
This is very valuable advice for the upcoming young guns as no one has seen the trials and tribulations of making a premature jump from college to the NFL like Mark Sanchez has.
Mark Sanchez – One Of The Biggest What-If Talents in NFL History
Mark Sanchez is remembered by many to be the first footballer after Todd Marinovich to leave school early and sign up for the NFL drafts. While his USC HC Pete Carroll publicly condemned his decision, it was hard to argue against Sanchez’s performances leading till then. The QB back in high school was the brightest prospect in America with many publications calling him the football player of the year in 2006. He continued his rich vein of form in his college career as well by scoring the second most TDs (34) in a single season for the USC.
After a breakout season, many expected the QB to stay one more year before leaving for the draft. However sensing that the other NFL quality QBs from his peer group weren’t opting for the draft, Sanchez decided to take a leap and participate in the draft a year earlier. This unfortunately wasn’t the right decision. Picked up by the Jets in the draft, the QB started his NFL career brilliantly winning rookie of the week thrice consecutively.
He soon became the starter for the Jets and put in decent performances for them. However, injury issues and inconsistency in performances became his friend as he continued his NFL career. This led to him getting released and going on a journeyman-like career joining the Eagles, Broncos, Cowboys, Bears, and the Redskins. He was let go from each team in a year due to massive injury issues. Moreover, whenever he wasn’t injured, his performances lacked continuity and often blew hot and cold.
At the end of his career, teams started picking him for mentoring rookie QBs rather than as a difference-maker on the pitch. While some believe that his body would have been sturdier if he had experienced the final year of college and gotten more consistency, others feel he is just unlucky. Will Caleb Williams suffer the same fate or is the QB prepared to thwart whatever trouble comes his way?
