QB Wonderlic scores

Discussion in 'NFL Draft' started by TorontoTitanFan, Mar 17, 2011.

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  1. JCBRAVE

    JCBRAVE goTitans 2019 Survivor Champion

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    Timed tests do not assess ability, they simply assess how fast you can or cannot compute facts. Reducing someone’s intellectual capability to how quickly they can do times tables is at best foolish.

    What's truly important? Knowing how to get the answer or how fast you can get the answer?
     
  2. JCBRAVE

    JCBRAVE goTitans 2019 Survivor Champion

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  3. TorontoTitanFan

    TorontoTitanFan Pro Bowler

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    Clearly time is a huge factor in assessing someone's intelligence. The ability to make correct decisions quickly has a direct impact not only on the football field, but in many professions. There are different measures of intelligence and speed of processing is a very important (and valid) one.

    If you think it's somehow wrong or flawed to place a time limit on tests, then you are simply wrong.

    On the contrary, it's a great way of testing exactly what NFL scouts want to know about QBs. Can they make correct decisions quickly.
     
  4. JCBRAVE

    JCBRAVE goTitans 2019 Survivor Champion

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    I don't mind timed tests. What I don't like is how this particular test labels you an idiot or a scholar. Score well and you can be a chemist, score poorly and you're working in a warehouse. It's just not accurate. Ryan Fitzpatrick scores exceptionally high, but he sucks. Vince Young score exceptionally low, but wins games. Do you see where I'm going?

    That's ALL it does. The Wonderlic does that, and ONLY that. It doesn't tell us who is smart and who is not.
     
  5. TorontoTitanFan

    TorontoTitanFan Pro Bowler

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    No one is saying the Wonderlic is a completely accurate predictor of success as a QB and no one is saying it measures every aspect of intelligence (nothing can do that). It measures one aspect of mental ability (a very important one) and it does an more-than-adequate job at it. If you are inferring that the Wonderlic is supposed to be some kind of supreme intelligence test, then the problem lies with you and not the test.
     
  6. JCBRAVE

    JCBRAVE goTitans 2019 Survivor Champion

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    Stop trying to make this me vs. the Wonderlic test. This test is overrated, the end.
     
  7. TorontoTitanFan

    TorontoTitanFan Pro Bowler

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    Fair enough. You criticized the test's validity and I countered. If you are going to argue that it's overrated, then we can agree on that.
     
  8. Soxcat

    Soxcat Pro Bowler

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    I'm not sure the test is overated. Here is the thing.
    When trying to predict how well a QB will do in the NFL there are many factors:
    arm strength
    accuracy
    footwork
    ability move and find passing lanes
    leadership
    work ethic
    intelligence (able to process information, learn new concepts)
    and so forth

    So I just mentioned 7 areas where an athlete gets evaluated and we could add a few more. Now it doesn't take a brian surgeon to figure out that someone smart enough to be a brain surgeon based, on that factor alone, isn't going to be a good QB. If he can't throw a football more than 20 yards his intellect doesn'tmatter. So any player falling short in any of the key requirements is basically either disqualified or significantly going to be down graded. But one of the factors IS intelligence. And without an adequate level of intelligence a person is simply going to be less effective. You can only dumb down the offense so far. That is why they give the test. Because being able to grasp things at a reasonable intellectual level IS a requirement.

    So we can argue at what score an individual is going to be limited as a QB. Is it 25? Is it 15? At present time the test is a part of the evaluation process and any prospect who doesn't take the test seriously enough to prepare or try to get a good score knows it can, just like not training for their pro day workout, reduce their draft position. Now if Locker and Newton actually prepared for the test and still didn't do any better that shows me they aren't real bright. If either took the test with zero preperation that shows me they didn't care enough to put some effort into it. Eitehr way, the test is pretty easy and a 20 score isn't all that hard to get. Companies use this test or similar test now all the time to evaluate potential hires so even if it is "overrated" or not as effective as it might be it does tell us something.
     
  9. JCBRAVE

    JCBRAVE goTitans 2019 Survivor Champion

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    Right, but it shouldn't be the reason for drafting a guy. People make a good or bad Wonderlic out to be a great or terrible thing. It means very little. Nothing that takes place in March should be why we draft a guy. We should go off what that player is about during their most recent games. Don't draft a guy because his 40 looks nice on paper, see Darrius Heyward-Bey. Watch them play, and go off that. The only time you should use their measurables is when you're on the fence about a player. If we were interested in Jake Locker before the Wonderlic scores were known, and now we aren't because his wasn't the highest, that's beyond stupid. That's my whole point.
     
  10. TorontoTitanFan

    TorontoTitanFan Pro Bowler

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    I don't think the quality of intelligence is overrated, I just think people tend to overrate the Wonderlic as it pertains to measuring intelligence. I think it's safe to say that teams do plenty of investigation into how intelligent a prospect is beyond looking at Wonderlic scores.

    As I said earlier in the thread, I think the Wonderlic is useful for weeding out very low intelligence players. At the middle and upper ends of the scale, I think you'd get better information by actually talking to a player and verbally testing him.

    As far as this year's scores go, no one scored under 20 so there is no player I would take off my board for intelligence reasons. A score of 20+ isn't anything to be overly concerned about. It's the sub-10 scores that matter in that case.
     
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