So You’re Thinking of Drafting a Round 1 Quarterback

When there are that many first-rounders, finding a throughline that connects all of them is impossible. But we can look for trends and takeaways from first-round quarterbacks. So below, I’m looking at every first-round quarterback selected since the turn of the century and looking for what we can learn and how we can apply that to Mendoza, Simpson and any other first-round quarterbacks we might see.

(Also, for everything that follows, I’m treating things as though the Giants drafted Eli Manning in 2004 and the Chargers drafted Philip Rivers, even if technically it was the other way around and the trade for one another was consummated after the draft. ) First-Round Quarterbacks Since 2000 The Tally Since 2000, 29 teams have selected a first-round quarterback, with a total of 77 quarterbacks going in the first. Only the Cowboys, Seahawks and Saints have totally passed on first-round QBs.

Team # QBs Team # QBs WAS 5 TB 2 CHI 4 LAC 2 DEN 4 IND 2 CLV 4 MIA 2 JAC 4 DET 2 NYJ 4 GB 2 TEN 4 CAR 2 BUF 3 NE 2 ARI 3 LAR 2 ATL 3 PIT 2 NYG 3 KC 1 BAL 3 PHI 1 HOU 3 LV 1 MIN 3 DAL 0 SF 2 SEA 0 CIN 2 NO 0 The quickest turnaround, famously, was the Cardinals going from Josh Rosen in 2018 to Kyler Murray in 2019. When Do They Take Over? Some first-round quarterbacks are the starters from Day One.

Others are brought in as developmental options or are stuck behind existing starters. If you consider a player a starter in his year if he starts at least half the games, then 49 of our 77 first-rounders were rookie starters. On the flip side, nine first-round quarterbacks this century haven’t started a single game: Chad Pennington, Carson Palmer, Philip Rivers, J.