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Head of the Class
Who were the most successful quarterbacks for the teams that drafted them?
Since the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement that capped rookie salaries, a good quarterback on a 4-year rookie contract has become the best value in pro sports.
That’s why five quarterbacks are projected to go in the first round of the NFL draft, and depending on which teams might trade up, they could potentially be the first five picks for the first time ever.
I’ve written about quarterbacks who were the first overall pick in the NFL draft, and the first quarterbacks taken in other years who weren’t first overall.
Altogether, these 51 quarterbacks have accounted for 22 conference titles and 12 Super Bowl victories. Ten of them barely got onto the field at all, and six others had no success of any kind with the team that drafted them. Only five have led their team to a Super Bowl title, and that’s the main thing to hope for when selecting the “best quarterback in the draft.”
The second thing one hopes for when drafting the first quarterback, is that quarterbacks drafted later won’t turn out to be better. I went through each year of the draft since 1970 and list the first and second quarterbacks taken, as well as any other notable qb draft picks, if any, and select in bold the most successful while with the team that drafted him…
