Iowa football: Nate Stanley receives high praise from top draft analysts

The draft stock of Iowa football player Nate Stanley has been all over the board, but Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks are on the Stanley train.

I’ve said it a lot in my articles, but projections of Iowa football player Nate Stanley are all over the board. Seemingly every day there is a new mock draft, draft board, or quarterback ranking and Stanley is one of the most volatile figures on the list. I’ve seen Stanley be ranked a top-5 quarterback heading into his senior year, and I’ve seen sites like Pro Football Focus rank him as the 51st best quarterback in the nation.

However, when respected NFL Draft analysts speak, I listen, and on the most recent episode of Move the Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks, the praise for Stanley was high.

As some of you may know, Stanley was offered the opportunity to attend the Manning Passing Academy, and it sounds like in a short time, he made quite an impression.

Here’s a quick tidbit from the day:

"Peyton Manning is running his group of quarterbacks out there, and they are working on some drops. Every time through, Peyton is complimenting Nate Stanley’s drop. Really fast feet, really purposeful drop, and he approached the workout like I remember seeing Peyton approach the workout."

Which was followed up by this opinion that came directly from the mouth of an actual NFL scout:

"I put Stanley right up there behind Herbert and Tua. Has the size and arm talent that you want. I was at practice last year and saw him rip a seam and came away thinking this is a legit NFL guy."

If you aren’t a Nate Stanley believer, that’s okay and understandable. His lack of aggressiveness in the Iowa football team’s offense and his inability to always deliver a well-placed ball can be frustrating and worst of all, the mental mistakes can be torturous. But there is a lot to love about Stanley.

He has a great size that makes talent evaluators drool. He’s just an inch shorter and the same weight as Pittsburgh Steeler’s starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, and we’ve seen him play like a mini-Big Ben in games like versus Indiana last season where they could just not bring him down. After shaking off multiple tacklers, he still managed to deliver a rocket to Nick Easley for a touchdown.

He’s got the natural arm strength as the scout alluded to above. I mean, the guy threw 90 miles per hour in high school baseball after all.

And it sounds like he has the work ethic to go along with the natural abilities. Peyton Manning isn’t an overly complimentary person, and he was quite possibly the hardest working player in the NFL when he played for the Colts and the Broncos. Real recognizes real and hard work recognizes hard work. To be recognized by a legend like Manning is just as big of a deal as it seems for the Iowa football team’s third-year starting quarterback.

By no means is Stanley perfect, but having the natural tools and the work ethic to boot will help him go far, and hopefully, it will help him lead the Iowa football team to big things this season.