The Whole, Stupid, Nontroversy That Is RG3 V. Andrew Luck

OK, the whole, stupid, dumb, useless, time-sucking, nontroversy that is "RG3 IS BETTER THAN ANDREW LUCK RAAAWWWWWWWRRRRR!" needs to stop.

Like, it needs to stop now.

I'm all for pumping up the prospects of Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck. What I hate is controversy just for the sake of it. It dumbs down the discourse, appeals to far too many idiots, and basically descends the topic down to a level that, frankly, disgusts me.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who is getting annoyed with this stupid story:

Feels like NFL is conspiring to create a Luck/RG3 nontroversy in an effort to pump up the draft. Had Cam Newton last year, create 1 this yr!

— Jason McIntyre (@TheBigLead) March 28, 2012

This is a pretty magical moment here, folks. Rarely, if ever, do Jason McIntyre and I agree on anything! Here, he is 100% right. This isn't a story. Even the bull that Jim Irsay touted to USA Today, telling them that the team is "still deciding" on the two, is a total smokescreen.

The Colts have already decided on Andrew Luck. Anyone saying otherwise, regardless of whether their name is Jim Irsay or Joe Schmo, is either lying or blowing smoke (which, I might add, is a euphemism for "lying").

Heck, Irsay isn't even on the same page with his new general manager, Ryan Grigson, when it comes to feeding us B.S. On Monday, Grigson said the Colts would not open negotiations with the presumptive No. 1 pick early. That same day, the USA Today story with Irsay quoted the Colts owner as saying they might negotiate early with Luck or RG3.

Please know that I very much like how Irsay and Grigson have steered this ship during the offseason. The Colts are finally trending in the right direction. However, I know B.S. when it's being served to me, and both Irsay, Grigson, and the NFL in general are slapping it on our plates in HUGE portions.

I don't want to get into yet another article or discussion about who is better because, quite frankly, everyone who knows football rates Luck higher over Griffin. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reinforced this today with an article on Luck v. Griffin:

Still, of eight NFL coaches and executives who were polled at league meetings Tuesday, all of them said they believed Luck would and should be the top pick. As it was in January, when 14 of 15 other coaches and executives said the same thing in an informal survey, the issue that people came back to again and again was simply a matter of playing the odds.

"Luck is just a safer pick," one AFC executive said. "They are both productive, high-quality kids from great families. You can’t go wrong with either one. But if you’re asking me about whom to take, I have to go with Luck, especially if you’re Indianapolis after what they just had with [Peyton] Manning and the awful season they went through.

NFL executives and scouts all agree Luck is better while former Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge of ESPN, Mike Mayock of NFL Network, and Greg Cosell of NFL Films have all said recently they believe RG3 is the superior prospect. Two months ago on NBC's Football night in America, former Colts head coach Tony Dungy also said head would draft Griffin over Luck.

Scouts and executives v. dudes in the media. Take your pick.

Keep in mind, I don't dismiss the opinions of Dungy or Mayock, but I think they are basing those opinions on watching videos of Griffin run around in shorts, tossing pretty passes to receivers in a controlled, scripted environment. Naturally, when people like Mayock see RG3 run a 4.41 40, or toss several excellent deep balls during a Pro Day, their eyes open wide.

However, as NFP's Dan Pompei wrote about this past Sunday, it is typical this time of year for analysts like Mayock to fall in love with players based on Pro Day performances:

The buzz about Robert Griffin being chosen ahead of Andrew Luck doesn’t fly with a lot of astute NFL front office men.

It’s common for a player who has been No. 1 for a long time to start getting knocked close to the draft, however, why do a good portion of talent evaluators like Luck more? He has performed at a high level for four years compared to one for RGIII and is further along.

The argument for RGII is that he has better arm strength and might have a higher ceiling. But many NFL men think Luck remains the surest bet in the draft, and that matters when the player goes No. 1 overall.

Cole's article had sources who came to a similar conclusion:

"It has to do with the time of the year and that’s something we all have to caution ourselves against when putting together the draft board," the coach said. "This is the time when you start talking about potential, potential, potential. … We see a guy who runs faster or jumps higher and we move him to the top of the board in our heads. You imagine, ‘Oh man, think about what I could do with him?’

What it all comes back to is risk v. reward. That's really what it boils down to. With Luck, you are getting a big, strong, athletic, intelligent guy who is both "NFL ready" and "NFL smart." With Griffin, you are getting a big-armed, fast, dynamic, "NFL ready" guy who has an injury history and never played in a pro-style offense in college. Plus, there are concerns as to whether he can take the beating that comes with playing pro football, as Yahoo! Sports Mike Silver wrote about recently in an article comparing Griffin to Carolina's Cam Newton:

"They’re totally different animals," another general manager says. "One guy [Newton] is huge – like 6-6 and [almost] 260. The other guy will be lucky to get to 6-2 and 220 when they measure him. As good a runner as [Griffin] is, you worry about whether a guy like that can take the punishment."

"You don’t really realize how big Luck is until you see him in person," says a personnel executive for an NFC team. "He’s a man. And he can move. Newton’s just a beast – you’d see guys on tape who’d come up to hit him and go limp, like they wanted no part of him. Well, I think Luck has some of that in him, too."

As I have stated repeatedly, Griffin is going to be a great pro quarterback. However, Luck is the better overall prospect, and it's actually not as close as everything suggests it is. Diminishing Luck just to pump up Griffin in the hopes of generating some kind of faux controversy is a waste of everyone's time.

Oh, and remember no matter what you hear or read, even it is from the lips of Jim Irsay himself, the Colts will draft Andrew Luck No. 1 overall. Hell, we already have the jerseys being made.