Very well said sir.
You kind of touched upon how I feel. If Kelly wants to take Mauk early and then either shut down the QB position for the year or (likely) hurt his chances in getting Kiel, I'm okay with that. Because like you said, Mauk will be a project and in my mind I think we can afford to NOT pick up a QB this cycle, but I don't have a big problem with taking a flyer with Mauk and seeing how he develops three years down the road.
I'd also like to add that I don't think Mauk even sniffs the top 10 at his position let alone staying at his current #5 spot on Scout. His size alone (he looks 6'0" to me) will drop him...just ask Everett Golson. And when I see that Golson was a 3/4 star guy who wasn't considered "elite" at his position, I don't think there's anyway whatsoever that Mauk will be.
Id also say that I think Kiel is more athletic. Kiel has experience running the spread option and is pretty good at it. Mauk doesn't even know how to hand off to a running back! At the very least, these two guys are similar in their athleticism, but with Kiel being so much bigger he is more impressive. I mean if you're 6'0" and supposed to be athletic I am waiting to see you amaze me and I just don't see that with Mauk. Kiel isn't amazing in that sense either, but he's a big kid so it's more enticing.
Also, does Mauk really fit our system better? I would think he's going to have tons of work on his footwork, pocket presence, possibly his throwing motion, and just basic stuff like handing the ball off that he doesn't work on at his high school. So his team throws the ball a lot and probably runs some of the same screens...I'm not seeing a ton of similarities to our system, and none more so than what Kiel does in high school.
