Malik Cunningham 2023 NFL Draft Profile
Dirt poor Lamar Jackson. Is that what we’re calling him? We may as well at this point. Yes, Louisville has another draftable quarterback and this time it’s Malik Cunningham. Let’s just jump right into it because this quarterback profile won’t be sunshine and rainbows either. Here is your Malik Cunningham 2023 NFL Draft profile.
For starters, I have Cunningham as undraftable. I don’t even need to save that part for the end because I’m pretty sure the league agrees with me. When I say league, I mean USFL. Yes, that’s right. In case you missed it, Cunningham was actually drafted in the USFL. The Louisville product says he has no interest in playing in the league. However, he may not have a choice by this time next year. It’s just a reality of the situation.
Think Lamar except way less athletic and somehow more inaccurate. Smaller too (6-foot, 192). Cunningham did post better completion percentage marks than Lamar in college but still not close to NFL standard. During his five year career, Cunningham completed 62.4% of his throws. Like Lamar, the easy ones are not always easy. We saw a fair share of them at the Combine. I thought he was awful at the Senior Bowl too.
In fairness, I do think Scott Satterfield is a terrible college football head coach. However, we’re still talking about a quarterback that posted an 8-5 TD to INT ratio last year in a down ACC at the age of 24. I don’t care who you are. That’s not good enough to make me take you seriously as a real NFL quarterback prospect.
Cunningham is a former three star recruit that just never took a step forward. His best year was actually his redshirt freshman year. The 40 time of 4.53 gives you hope that he can develop into one of these mobile modern day passers. It’s just hard to really look past the flaws in his passing game. Cunningham completed 31% of his deep passing attempts a year ago and has no ability to read progressions. Outside of hoping he can be the next Tyler Huntley in Baltimore, I just don’t see it.
I will be surprised if Cunningham gets picked. He might end up making a preseason roster but the USFL shouldn’t lose hope they will get him to commit at some point.
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