College: Cornell

Ht: 6'3"

Wt: 224

Video, per You Tube

Positives

Arm Strength: Incredible. Jeff Mathews has the ability to drive the ball down the field with the best of them. Where he might struggle with long-range accuracy, the Cornell quarterback can make every single throw on the football field. He consistently hits the out to the left sideline from the right hash, which is one of the hardest throws to make on the football field. Mathews isn't limited by scheme, which should up his draft value during the postseason scouting process. 

Pocket Accuracy: Mathews is deadly with accuracy when he is in the pocket and protection holds up in front of him. His accuracy is especially magnified when he throws seems between the hashes. He rarely misses on those and will be able to help an offense that focuses a great deal on utilizing tight ends and slot receivers. 

Reads: The Cornell quarterback is able to get past his primary read a vast majority of the time. He does a great job looking defenders off and making an instant decision to throw elsewhere on the field. Where most rookie quarterbacks struggle in this aspect of the game, Mathews shouldn't have much of an issue. 

Negatives

Pocket Awareness: Mathews tends to feel pressure that isn't there. He will step up into said pressure, which can be cause for alarm from the scouting community. One of my biggest knocks on Mathews is his inability to step away from the pressure when it is presented in front of his face. He tends to shrink in the pocket. 

Turnover Prone: If the pocket is settled, Mathews has absolutely no issues here. It's when he is flushed from the pocket and is forced to throw on the run. More often than not in these situations, he tends to throw the ball through tight windows. While this might not be an issue in the Ivy League, it surely will be in the NFL. 

Down Field Accuracy: Mathews tends to struggle with ball placement down the field. While he built a solid relationship with Luke Tasker at Cornell, he tends to look in his direction too much. This causes major accuracy issues due to the fact that his receivers are normally covered down the field. He needs to do a better job recognizing when the big play isn't there. He also needs to do better as it relates to ball placement on routes that travel 20-plus yards. 

NFL Player Comparison

Philip Rivers, San Diego Chargers: I have heard this comparison a few times, and Mathews' tape more than reminds me of Rivers. His arm and accuracy on intermediate routes are what sold me here. Despite being a tad more athletic than Rivers, it does appear that this is his best pro comparison as of right. now. 

Draft Outlook

Mathews could easily sneak into the top-five quarterback conversation with a solid week of practice at The Senior Bowl and impressive performances both at Cornell's Pro Day and the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. As of right now, I have a third-round grade on Mathews. His ceiling seems to be the middle of the second round, mainly due to a lack of competition in college. 

Best Fits

As I mentioned before, Mathews' skill set isn't scheme specific. He seems to be able to run both the West Coast offense as well as other offenses that focuse more on the down-field throw. With that being said, Mathews' best fit has to be considered the Oakland Raiders at this point. 

With the likes of Denarius Moore able to stretch the field, Oakland would be able to utilize Mathews' arm strength a great deal. In addition, young tight end Mychal Rivera would beneift a great deal from Mathews' presence.