Wonderlic Ain’t Worth a Lick

Uh oh…Tim Tebow isn’t Mr. Universe after all. He scored below average for a quarterback on the Wonderlic Test. That’s worse than Jimmy Clausen (23) and Colt McCoy (25). Well, who cares, right? The guy isn’t going to play quarterb… “He’s a quarterback. That’s all he’s going to do.”

Well, thank you Josh McDaniels. That first round pick is looking dumber by the day. Speaking of dumb, let’s take a closer look at this Wonderlic thing. If you don’t know by now, the test has become well-known for its use as one of the many tools in assessing players that are about to be drafted. The timed test is considered a measure of intelligence. A perfect score is a 50, and the average for a quarterback is 24.

Here’s how every QB taken in the first round of the NFL Draft since 2000 has scored…

Chad Pennington- 25

Michael Vick- 20

David Carr- 24

Joey Harrington- 32

Patrick Ramsey- 32

Carson Palmer- 26

Byron Leftwich- 25

Kyle Boller- 27

Rex Grossman- 29

Eli Manning- 39

Philip Rivers- 30

Ben Roethlisberger- 25

J.P. Losman- 31

Alex Smith- 40

Aaron Rodgers- 35

Jason Campbell- 23

Vince Young- 15 (6 first time)

Matt Leinart- 35

Jay Cutler- 26

JaMarcus Russell- 24

Brady Quinn- 29

Matt Ryan- 32

Joe Flacco- 27

Matthew Stafford- 38

Mark Sanchez- 28

Josh Freeman- 27

Sam Bradford- 36

Tim Tebow- 22

Look at all the guys who scored at least 30. Now look at their NFL careers. Basically half of them have been successful. In other words, the test results are a total toss up, and a total waste of time.

This isn’t even considering the fact that players of all positions take the test. A running back, for example, can be as dumb as a post, and it won’t matter. Who cares what he scores? A quarterback, on the other hand, has to have some smarts. After all, he is the signal-caller who runs the offense. Wouldn’t a really low score be a huge red flag for a potential pro QB? Well, Vince Young scored a 6 on his first try. It doesn’t get much worse than that. Still, you would probably rather have him running your team than Alex Smith and his impressive total of 40. There goes that theory.

Who do you think of when you think “smartest quarterback”? Tom Brady? He scored a 33. Peyton Manning reportedly scored a 28- eleven less than his brother. Oh yeah, Harvard grad and seasoned backup Ryan Fitzpatrick scored a 48. Maybe the guy deserves a little more playing time.

  1. anthony tropiano says:

    “He couldn’t spell cat if you spotted him the c and the a.” -Hollywood Henderson said this about HOF QB Terry Bradshaw, who scored a 15 on the ‘aint worth a lic’ test

Comment

Theme by Theodore Taylor