Bowling Green State University Athletics
Jacobs Set to Find Out Draft Fate
May 01, 2006 | Football
April 28, 2006
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - He's done all he can do to impress the scouts, general managers, coaches and draft coordinators in the National Football League.
Now Omar Jacobs is at his Florida home, waiting for his name to be announced this weekend at the NFL draft. The seven-round draft starts at noon Saturday and concludes Sunday.
The former standout quarterback for the Bowling Green Falcons bypassed his final season of college eligibility to enter the draft.
He says he is experiencing mixed emotions this week.
"I'm excited and then kind of nervous every once in a while," Jacobs said in a telephone interview earlier this week. "I'm trying to play it cool right now and not even worry about it. When you worry about it, you stress yourself out.
"I feel I did well in what I've participated in," Jacobs added about his workouts at the NFL combine, a pro day at BGSU and with the Miami Dolphins.
Playing less than two full seasons as a starter for the Falcons, Jacobs is the school's all-time career leader in touchdown passes (71) and is third in career passing yards (6,938).
Jacobs is rated in the second-tier of quarterbacks for the draft. He's listed at 6-feet-3 7/8 and 232 pounds with a 4.84 time in the 40-yard dash.
USC's Matt Leinart, Texas' Vince Young and Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler are the top three quarterback prospects.
Jacobs is in the next group which also includes Alabama's Brodie Croyle, Clemson's Charlie Whitehurst and Oregon's Kellen Clemens.
Various draft gurus and Web sites have Jacobs rated as high as the fifth-best quarterback available.
"I would not be surprised that if you took the top seven or eight names at quarterback you would have dozens of different lists," said Jacobs' agent, Joby Branion from Athletes First, during a telephone interview. "We're very optimistic about his future.
"He can't control NFL front offices and what they think about him. He can't go back and replay his junior year. He can't go back and replay the Boise (State) game or change the fact that he hurt his shoulder."
While Jacobs is resting this week, Branion said the phones are still ringing.
"We'll talk to literally every team this week and some teams will be very forthcoming with information and other teams will be very coy which is typically the way this is done," Branion said. "Right now it's a little bit like reading tea leaves, regardless of who you are in this business."
Jacobs said he has heard from numerous teams, but playing for the Dolphins would be an ideal situation.
"I know from all the feedback I've heard, he did very well at the combine. He did very well with his pro day and he worked out with the Miami Dolphins," Branion said. "We used to represent Jason Garrett who is now the (Miami) quarterbacks coach. He was pretty forthcoming with feedback on Omar's workout."
Garrett told Branion that Jacobs made all of the throws requested and his unusual delivery is not that much of a concern.
"The one message that we told him is that he plays this unique position that can either help you or hurt you on draft day," Branion said. "There are teams out there with a need and a desire to draft a quarterback and they may be drafting in exactly the right spot and think highly enough of Omar that he is going to get drafted higher than maybe all the other teams thought he would.
"On the flip side, there may be teams out there who like him, who don't plan on drafting a quarterback any time soon. Therefore even though he's available when they would like to draft him, they don't need to draft him and they're not going to draft him.
"The questions in teams' minds is: Is this the guy that's going to develop into what we believe will be a starting quarterback in the NFL?"
Branion's firm has represented such NFL quarterbacks as Carson Palmer, Joey Harrington and Matt Hasselbeck.
"We told him we've had guys who were drafted very high and didn't work out and we've had guys who weren't drafted as high who have become exceptional quarterbacks," Branion said. "We're pretty confident he's going to be a very successful quarterback.
"At this time next week he's going to be the property of an NFL team and getting ready to go to mini-camp."
