Don’t be a Loser; Pass on Round 1 Quarterbacks
We’re officially 50 days away from the NFL draft and once again – quarterbacks are the big talking point of this class. As of now, it looks like Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders are the two guys projected to go off the board in round 1.
It’s pretty obvious that a decent quarterback is needed to hoist the Lombardi, which is why teams use their best draft capital on these talented college quarterbacks.
While fans should be excited for a new leader of their teams, I don’t buy in on the round 1 QB hype. While there have been some who have panned out over the past years, not a single first-round QB selected since 2010 other than Patrick Mahomes has won the game that matters – the Super Bowl.
Let’s take a look into the past 15 years worth of NFL drafts and see how using a round 1 pick on quarterbacks has worked out for those teams.
2010: Sam Bradford & Tim Tebow
Combined Record: 42-54
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 0
The biggest thing to come out of this class was Tim Tebow becoming a TV star. Bradford won rookie of the year, but never got the job done for the team.
2011: Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert & Christian Ponder
Combined Record: 112-138
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 3
The combined record would be a lot worse if Cam hadn’t had those good seasons in Carolina. While he and the Panthers did make it to a Super Bowl, they got shit on when it mattered the most. Another big batch of 1st round QB’s with no rings.
2012: Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill & Brandon Weeden
Combined Record: 156-148
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 6
The what if class. Giving Luck his flowers here, the guy was a beast and it sucks his career ended short. Overall a decent class but absolutely injury plagued. At the end of the day, just another big group of first round QB’s with no rings.
2013: EJ Manuel
Record: 6-12
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 0
No recap, dogshit player.
2014: Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater
Combined Record: 59-87
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 1
Were NFL GM’s giving out bids to join their fraternities or drafting QB’s that they wanted to lead their team to greatness in this class? Great group of guys to hit the bars with though.
2015: Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota
Combined Record: 70-91
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 1
I still have a love/hate relationship with Jameis as a Bucs fan. If bipolar disorder was a quarterback, it would be Jameis Winston. As for Mariota, he threw a touchdown to himself by mistake once – that’s all I’ll remember out of his career.
2016: Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Paxton Lynch
Combined Record: 129-101
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 5
Not crediting Wentz with the Super Bowl win, that belongs to Foles (3rd round pick by the way). Goff will forever be an elite roster merchant, but still can’t get the job done.
2017: Mitchell Trubisky, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson
Combined Record: 157-84
Super Bowl Wins: 3
Pro Bowl Appearances: 10
FINALLY, the only first round quarterback in the last 15 years who can actually win games that matter – took long enough. Bears deserve all the misery for taking Mitch Trubisky over the baby goat, and congratulations to the Texans for wasting their first round pick on Bill Cosby.
2018: Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen, Lamar Jackson
Combined Record: 234-162
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 10
This was honestly a fun class filled with regular season beasts. Unfortunately no one remembers teams that won in week 16, first round QB’s are drafted in hopes of winning Super Bowls.
2019: Kyler Murray, Daniel Jones, Dwayne Haskins
Combined Record: 63-99
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 2
Terrible class. Daniel Jones and Aaron Rodgers should be registered as a terrorist organization in NYC.
2020: Justin Herbert, Tua Tagovailoa, Joe Burrow, Jordan Love
Combined Record: 135-107
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 4
Rare to see a class that’s this good as a whole. Unfortunately, none have won the games that matter outside of Burrow who still came up short. Still have a lot of time in these guys careers (maybe not so much for Tua), so we’ll see if they can switch up the trends.
2021: Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, Mac Jones
Combined Record: 70-121
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 2
Worst QB class ever. 5 busts in round 1 good lord send help to the fans of these teams.
2022: Kenny Pickett
Record: 15-10
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 0
Not giving credit to this bum even though he technically threw a pass in the Super Bowl. Won’t sniff a starting role again in his career.
2023: Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson
Combined Record: 33-42
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 1
Too early to tell but Anthony Richardson is ass.
2024: Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, Michael Penix, JJ McCarthy, Bo Nix
Combined Record: 31-35
Super Bowl Wins: 0
Pro Bowl Appearances: 2
Too early to tell.
As you can see, 1st round quarterbacks are losers (other than Mahomes; not too often you come across that talent). Sure, you can find a guy who can give fans excitement, but no one is gonna remember regular season wins, or that one time that “franchise QB” won a divisional round game. I’m putting the combined records, Super Bowl wins, and pro bowl appearances of all the first round quarterbacks drafted since 2010 OTHER than Mahomes below to give you all something to think about.
First Round QB’s Since 2010 (49 total)
Combined Record: 1223-1268
Total Super Bowl Wins: 0
First round quarterbacks generate buzz and bring teams back to life sometimes, but the track record shows that taking that top QB won’t get your team what they really aspire to achieve.
This is a pro-Jaxson Dart article. When he is selected in round 2, I give an early congratulations to the team who selected him – as they have just started the next great dynasty.