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With all of the hype surrounding Aaron Donald and even Devin Street, Pitt's forgotten man in the draft is Tom Savage. He had an above average year for the Panthers (21 touchdowns, nine interceptions, 2,958 yards, and a completion percentage of 61.2%), but not a dominant one. Still, his arm is a capable one and one scout reportedly even said it may be the best in the entire NFL Draft:
The buzz around Pittsburgh quarterback Tom Savage continues to grow, with one scout telling NFL.com that he might have the strongest arm in the draft.
His size and arm strength are outweighed somewhat by the decision-making we saw last year. Nine interceptions is a manageable number but as I've mentioned several times, that number could have easily been higher based on drops by defenders. There were several occasions where defenders dropped what should have been interceptions and it's fair to say he caught some breaks. Things generally even out, but the point is that Savage definitely made some mistakes throwing the ball despite the strong arm.
The thing I really like about him is that he can be really accurate when given the time. Just as he made some poor decisions under pressure, he made some good ones when given time. The big advantage he has in addition to the arm strength is his ability to throw a quality deep ball. With Devin Street and Tyler Boyd, he definitely had two incredible weapons, but it takes someone to get the ball to them. I've defended former Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri on any number of occasions, but the one thing he really struggled with was establishing a viable deep passing threat as part of the offense, despite having stars Devin Street and current NFL wideout Jon Baldwin at his disposal.
That NFL.com article mentions Savage as a potential late-round pick and that's about where I see it. His case is an interesting one and if someone used a mid-round pick on him, I'm not sure it would utterly surprise me. NFL Network's Mike Mayock recently said he was a Wild Card and all it takes is one team to show enough interest. He would be given a look if he goes undrafted, but I don't think it will come to that. His arm is too strong and he showed a good amount of toughness last year that should mean he gets selected.
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