The History of QBs taken 1st overall in the NFL
Posted: January 2, 2012 Filed under: Colts, NFL Drafts, Research & Data | Tags: #1 draft QB, Alex Smith, Cam Newton, Carson Palmer, Colts, David Carr, Drew Bledsoe, Eli Manning, JaMarcus Russell, Jeff George, Jim Plunkett, John Elway, Matthew Stafford, Michael Vick, Peyton Manning, Sam Bradford, Steve Bartkowski, Tim Couch, Troy Aikman, Vinny Testaverde 2 Comments »by BlueMark18
Whether you were rooting for them to win or lose – yes, some “fans” were actually pulling for their team to lose the game- against the Jags, the Colts finally secured the 1st overall pick in the 2012 draft.
For this draft, we have the best QB prospect since Peyton Manning himself: Andrew Luck from Stanford.
Draft experts said he was going to be the 1st overall pick in 2012 and his season confirmed that. Heck, he was supposed to be taken 1st overall had he entered the 2011 draft.
Problem is, the team with the 1st pick already has its franchise QB. And he’s a pretty good one.
Past/Present and Future?
The speculation about the Colts taking Luck in the draft started from Week 1, when we found out Peyton would most probably miss the entire season.
Many experts have said that Luck is a safe bet, and that he would give the Colts 10-15 years of great success. Several stories saying the Colts should move on from Manning started to pop up from the media, that Jim Irsay should start thinking about the future and say goodbye to the 35-year-old Manning who’s also battling a really serious neck injury.
Apparently, for those experts, the safe thing to do is take a rookie (who’s supposed to be the next big thing) over one of the greatest QBs of all time. If Peyton Manning is healthy, does that make any sense? Not to me, but that’s a different story.
Guys like Bob Kravitz are obsessed with Andrew Luck. He’s SO confident that Luck will bring 10-15 years of greatness to the lucky team that takes him. How does he know that? Beats me.
For a moment, let’s assume the Colts actually decide to take Luck. Is he a safe bet? That’s IMPOSSIBLE to know. He could very well be the next big thing or the biggest bust of all time.
We can only look to the past and see how well QBs taken 1st overall have done and see if things look good for Andrew or not.
This piece will only consider QBs taken during the Super Bowl era. Of course the hype with all them was tremendous. They were all supposed to be franchise QB and destined to win multiple SBs.
1970 – Terry Bradshaw (PIT):
Won 4 SBs: ’74, ’75, ’78, ‘79
Played with Pittsburgh from 1970 to 1983.
3× Pro Bowl selection (1975, 1978, 1979)
1978 NFL MVP