Why Kevin Hogan should be on Dolphins draft board

The Miami Dolphins may not be looking for a quarterback in this months draft, but Kevin Hogan may be someone the team should consider.

To be a successful NFL quarterback you don’t necessarily have to be the most athletic person on the planet; you don’t even have to have a rifle for an arm or be the biggest guy in the huddle. What you do need, however, is experience, accuracy, and most of all, intelligence.

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Stanford’s Kevin Hogan possesses all three of these traits to be a good quarterback at the next level—his resume speaks for itself.

I’ve had a crush on Kevin Hogan since he got to Stanford. With his size, athleticism, and delivery of the football, he reminds me a lot of former Stanford star Andrew Luck. You may have heard of him. And like Luck, Hogan was successful in Stanford’s pro-style offense.

In the middle of his freshman year at Stanford, Hogan got the chance to play due to starting quarterback Josh Nunes going down due to injury. Hogan capitalized on this opportunity and the rest was history.

After replacing Nunes, Hogan led the Cardinal to three-straight victories over ranked opponents—including an upset victory over No. 2 Oregon—and later became the MVP of the PAC 12 championship game, which Stanford won over UCLA 27-24. More impressively, Hogan led Stanford to three PAC 12 championships in four seasons.

For three-and-a-half seasons, Hogan gained experience crucial for his development at the next level. He didn’t have the luxury of playing powder-puff’s either. No, instead, he faced top-level talent in one of NCAA’s best conferences. That’s hard to turn a blind eye to.

From an accuracy standpoint, Kevin Hogan is everything that you want out of a quarterback. Despite a slight hiccup in 2013 (completing 61 percent of his throws), Hogan was impressive posting completion percentages of 71, 65.9, and 67.8.

Hogan is accurate. He performs well out of play-action and has the ability to throw receivers open. Known for his tremendous touch on the ball—specifically on deep passes—Hogan provides playmaking ability. More attractively, Hogan was apart of a pro-style offense at Stanford where he excelled and grew accustomed to throws he’ll be asked to make at the next level.

Of course, you can only go so far on pure athletic ability. A quarterback is nothing without a brain. Luckily for Hogan, he checks out on this category, as well. Getting into Stanford, also known as the Ivy-League of the West, is no walk-in-the-park. With an annual acceptance rate of fewer than 5 percent, Hogan proves to have the most valuable asset for a quarterback: intelligence.

Bright, Hogan often read defenses pre-snap, audibles at the line of scrimmage, and went through his progressions at Stanford. If he shows he can do this in the NFL, he has the potential to have a good career.

Undoubtedly, in all of his four years at Stanford, Hogan benefited from a fortress of an offensive line. If selected by the Dolphins in the draft, he won’t have the same fortune. But as he showed, Hogan is extremely agile for his size (6-4 220).

As of today, it’s certain that Tannehill is the starting quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. There’s no way around it. For the sake of the Dolphins and their fans, hopefully he is the quarterback of the future, as well. But with so much uncertainty, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a chance at a talented quarterback in the later rounds of the draft.

Hogan is currently projected to go anywhere from the third to the seventh round. Hopefully for the Dolphins, Hogan can fall into their laps on the third day of the draft.

Of course, the Dolphins have plenty of urgent holes to fill on their roster and will look to fill them via the draft. But like it or not, the jury is still out on Ryan Tannehill. Plus, it’s always good to have a backup plan, isn’t it?

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