From a PA newspaper...
Cardinals to begin the Morelli experiment
04/30/2008
There’s not much left to say about the wildly inconsistent, largely disappointing career of Anthony Morelli other than that it was wildly inconsistent and largely disappointing.
That’s what made him such an interesting figure over the past weekend. Fellow Penn State seniors like Dan Connor and Justin King waited for a phone call during the draft. Morelli waited for one afterward.
He got one and, shortly after Mr. Irrelevant’s name was called, the wildly inconsistent, largely disappointing quarterback signed a free-agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals because he’s also something else: freakishly gifted.
In today’s NFL, that’s what it takes to get a job, and Morelli got one fairly easily, thank you very much.
Now, the experiment begins.
The Anthony Morelli who couldn’t get Penn State over the 9-4 hump, who played point man on an offense that stalled regularly at key times and looked too meek too often against the upper-echelon teams in the Big Ten is the same Anthony Morelli who also has a cadre of impressive weapons that had NFL scouts intrigued.
Strong throwing arm. Stature in the pocket. Ideal size. He has it all.
No question, the Cardinals will try to pitch Morelli to their fans as the quarterback with the arm, the stature and the size who can be built into something worthwile. In fact, they’ve already started.
In an article published on AzRedReport.com — a site dedicated to the Cardinals and run by Scout.com — you find a few different phrases to describe Morelli than the ones that circulated around Pennsylvania during his senior season. Like, “fierce competitor,” and “as much ability as anyone in the draft.”
Quoted in the story was Tom Marino, a former professional scout who has been around the NFL for three decades. He raved about Morelli’s tools — which a lot of scouts did leading up to the draft. He said he had “all the tools” — which is what got him in trouble with Penn State fans anyway.
But Marino was also quoted as describing Morelli in these two ways: “Acutely under coached” and “unprepared for the job of being a professional QB.”
That’s not a knock on Anthony Morelli. That’s a knock — and a pretty severe one — on the Penn State system and quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno.
Hey, everyone has an opinion on the job JayPa has done, and most of those aren’t flattering to the head coach’s son. Mine has always been that he has gotten at the very best a hasty evaluation.
The inconsistent, disappointing quarterback can expedite one.
If Morelli can do what his skills say he can do, open some eyes in the desert, beat out a very capable veteran third-stringer named Brian St. Pierre for a roster spot and show that all his freakish skills needed was some nurturing from better coaching, that would be quite an indictment on his college quarterbacks coach.
If Morelli shows more of what he did during his time in Happy Valley — the maddening throws into double coverage, the high passes to the wide open receivers, the mistakes at the absolute wrong time — then it’s time to get off Jay Paterno’s back.
Just remember, all quarterback-friendly systems have one thing in common: a consistent, successful quarterback to run it.