SI’s Peter King fears Jake Locker will be a bust

By Brady Henderson

When Redskins coach Mike Shanahan was asked at the NFL scouting combine in February about Jake Locker, he said the ex-Husky reminds him of former Pro Bowl quarterback Jake Plummer.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, who joined Brock & Salk on Tuesday, offered a less flattering comparison.

“I’m worried that he’s Kyle Boller,” King said.

Boller was the 19th overall pick in 2003 despite completing just 47.8 percent of his passes in four years at Cal. He’s played for three NFL teams in nine seasons and has a career 56.7 percent completion rate.

King lauded Locker’s willingness to play through broken ribs last season but said similar accuracy concerns are too great to ignore.

“I have great respect for a guy who understands that the only chance his team has to win is by him playing even though he’s in pain and he’s hurting himself and he’s hurting his pro future by doing it,” King said, “which obviously he did this year by playing with broken ribs.

“But on the other hand, the stats are the stats. The guy in four years of college football completed 54 percent of his passes. That stinks. And if I’m a team looking at him, I’ve got to say, ‘It’s not just because he played a few games with broken ribs. He’s just not an accurate enough passer.'”

You can listen to Brock & Salk’s conversation with Peter King here.

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