I know Raiders fans get all in their feels but people gotta realize this is the truth lol. You shouldn’t be downvoted here, it’s not hate just realism.
I also appreciate the heart he plays with but he blows coverages basically every time he’s in zone, isn’t big enough to contest tall pass-catchers in man coverage, and doesn’t do other things at a high enough level to make up for that. He’s just not a starting level player, and a good defense probably has better players on their bench.
Obviously college is pretty high variance and I haven’t watched much of these top QBs this year, so maybe I caught him at a bad time - but Penix looked awful this past weekend against a pretty mediocre team in the Cougars. He didn’t look particularly fluid, quick, athletic, or even just elusive in the pocket. His throwing motion hurt my eyes and my shoulder to watch. His accuracy was, generously, mediocre. Combine that with being one of the older QBs in the draft and an injury history most NFL QBs won’t even rack up in an entire career, yeah I would put him very low on my list.