Why Oklahoma’s QB lineage suggests Spencer Rattler could be talk of 2023 NFL Combine
Editor’s note: The State’s Ben Portnoy is at the NFL Scouting Combine this week.
The NFL’s league-wide quarterback room has been spotted Sooner red in recent years.
Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield and Jalen Hurts make up a trio of professional football’s up-and-coming stars. That comes, at least in part, from their development at Oklahoma under former head coach Lincoln Riley.
South Carolina signal-caller Spencer Rattler was supposed to be next in line for that vacant throne in Norman. Instead, he finds himself in Columbia looking for a career reboot.
Rattler might not win a Heisman Trophy or even be a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. But the bits and pieces picked up at OU on the heels of his predecessors suggest he can thrust himself into the larger NFL Scouting Combine discussion a year from now.
“I think it starts with Lincoln (Riley),” Arizona Cardinals general manager Steve Keim said as to why OU quarterbacks have had recent NFL success. “I think he did a great job developing and working with those guys, as well as just their natural talent.”
To compare Rattler directly to any of Mayfield, Murray or Hurts isn’t necessarily fair. Each of those quarterbacks had differing skill sets and abilities.
Mayfield was a one-time walk-on who found his footing as a fiery gunslinger coming out of OU. Murray had his flare for the dramatics and an electrifying ability to extend plays with his video game-like speed. Hurts, too, basically majored in winning between his spells at OU and Alabama.
Rattler isn’t quite the prolific winner of a Hurts, nor the awe-inspiring athlete Murray is. Mayfield is perhaps the best comparison, given their similar stature at 6-foot-1 and just over 200 pounds. But even Mayfield is a bit more of a capable scrambler than USC’s new signal-caller.
“All those guys (Mayfield, Murray and Hurts), they’re unique in terms of their skill set, but I think they were comfortable in their own skin, knew who they were and ultimately use their strengths to produce at the NFL level,” said Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry, who worked in player personnel for the team when it selected Mayfield in 2018. “I think that’s actually a pretty good example that quarterbacks come in all different shapes and sizes. They have different skill sets. It’s not a cookie-cutter approach.”
What makes Rattler go is his arm. It’s what carried him to an Arizona high school record 11,083 passing yards. It’s why he was rated the consensus No. 1 quarterback recruit in the 2019 class. It’s how he climbed to the top of NFL Draft boards heading into the 2021 season.
Getting benched in favor of Caleb Williams this past fall has soured some on Rattler. The NFL Draft Bible’s most recent 2023 big board has Rattler rated the No. 17 player in the class and No. 3 quarterback behind Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young.
There are still those who remain high on the former Sooner and anticipate him learning from his experiences in Norman. Count Rattler’s longtime private quarterback coach Mike Giovando among them.
“Being around a guy like Jalen Hurts, seeing how he responded to things and the way he would take notes — I think Spencer has really grown in that aspect of becoming a student of the game,” Giovando told The State in December.
That Hurts, Mayfield and Murray have all gone on to be top-end NFL prospects isn’t a slam-dunk indicator Rattler will be a star. But if South Carolina’s new signal-caller matches his 2020 form, he’ll draw plenty of NFL eyeballs.
The COVID-shortened 2020 campaign limited Rattler to just 11 games during his one full season as a the Sooners’ starter. He finished the season completing 67.5% of his passes for 3,031 yards, 28 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Those numbers are made more impressive considering Hurts (14), Mayfield (13) and Murray (14) each played at least two more games during their final seasons as QB1 in Norman.
If Rattler’s 2020 numbers are extrapolated over a 14-game season, he projects to have completed 272 completions, second only to Mayfield’s 285 in 2017 during OU’s recent run of quarterbacks. Rattler’s 3,856 yards passing in a hypothetical full season would also slot him for the third-best season of any OU passer between 2015 and 2020.
Those projections, though, are just that.
Oklahoma’s 2021 quarterback situation was well-documented. Rattler came into the year as a Heisman Trophy hopeful and potential No. 1 pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Supplanted by Williams against Texas on Oct. 9, he was largely left to mop-up duty over the final seven weeks of the season.
That hasn’t changed his new head coach’s tune as far as what Gamecocks fans can expect this fall.
“All I know is what I saw during my time with him in Oklahoma,” head coach Shane Beamer said in January. “And I saw a guy that wants to win, that is immensely talented (and) comes from a great family.”
Sooners signal-callers already rank among the NFL’s most lauded players at the sport’s most crucial position. Rattler never quite lived up to his preemptive coronation in Norman.
If he can swing a strong season in Columbia, NFL executives, scouts and coaches will have another former Oklahoma quarterback to salivate over at this time next year.
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 5:57 PM.
