In 1999, the first round of the NFL draft saw five quarterbacks drafted: Tim Couch to the Browns, Donovan McNabb to the Eagles, Akili Smith to the Bengals, Daunte Culpepper to the Vikings and Cade McNown to the Bears. Since then, the first round of the draft has never seen more than four quarterbacks drafted.
But this year there could be five quarterbacks off the board by the end of Thursday night.
In PFT’s simulated draft, the Rams take Cal’s Jared Goff, the Eagles take North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz, the 49ers take Memphis’s Paxton Lynch, the Cardinals take Penn state’s Christian Hackenberg and the Broncos take Michigan State’s Connor Cook.
If that’s the way it works out, it would be one of the most quarterback-heavy first rounds in NFL history. The only other time more than four quarterbacks went in the first round was in 1983, when a six-quarterback first-round class was headlined by Hall of Famers John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino (along with Todd Blackledge, Tony Eason and Ken O’Brien).
What remains to be seen is how many of the quarterbacks in this draft class will prove worthy of a first-round pick. History tells us that picking a top quarterback is a crap shoot, and for every John Elway there’s a Tim Couch.
