Best/Worst Ever #1 Overall QBs

[The Gipper]

Here is the list of all QBs in history who have been selected with the #1 overall pick in the draft....including the AFL drafts:

1944 Angelo Bertelli

1946 Bobby Dancewicz

1948 Harry Gilmer

1952 Billy Wade

1954 Bobby Garrett

1955 George Shaw

1958 King Hill

1959 Randy Duncan

1962 AFL Roman Gabriel

1963 Terry Baker

1964 AFL Jack Concannon

1965 AFL Joe Namath

1970 Terry Bradshaw

1971 Jim Plunkett

1975 Steve Bartkowski

1983 John Elway

1987 Vinny Testaverde

1989 Troy Aikman

1990 Jeff George

1993 Drew Bledsoe

1998 Peyton Manning

1999 Tim Couch

2001 Michael Vick

2002 David Carr

2003 Carson Palmer

2004 Eli Manning

2005 Alex Smith

2007 Jamarcus Russell

2009 Matt Stafford

2010 Sam Bradford

2011 Cam Newton

2012 Andrew Luck

2015 Jameis Winston

2016 Jared Goff

Rank like your 5 best and then say your 5 worst

[The Gipper]

Notes on this:

A. The NFL draft started in 1936. A QB was not drafted #1 overall until the 8th year...1944.

B. In the first 20 years of the draft, only 6 QBs were taken with the #1 pick

C. In the last 20 years, 14 QBs were taken #1 overall

D. The first #1 overall QB pick to make the HOF did not come until the 29th year of the draft: 1965..(Namath).and that was the AFL draft...it was not until the 34th year of the NFL draft that a QB taken #1 overall eventually made the HOF (Bradshaw)

[bbedward]

5 best:

Peyon Manning

John Elway

Terry Bradshaw

Troy Aikman

Andrew Luck

5 worst:

Jamarcus Russell

David Carr

Terry Baker

Randy Duncan

Tim Couch

[The Gipper]

Here are my Top 5:

Peyton

Elway

Bradshaw

Aikman

Namath

And my bottom 5:

Garrett

Baker

Russell

Duncan

Dancewisz

Russell may be the worst...as the others all went back to the 50s (or 1962 in Baker's case) Scouting has supposed to have improved tremendously since then.

A number are far to soon to tell: Luck, Newton, Winston, even Stafford etc.

[bbedward]

00-09 - 7 QBs taken with the #1 overall

Next closest decade: the current one, 5 QBs taken with #1 overall since 2010

Every other decade has had 4 or less with the exception of the 50s. I thought the list was longer than that.

[The Gipper]

@bbedward said:

5 best:

Peyon Manning

John Elway

Terry Bradshaw

Troy Aikman

Andrew Luck

5 worst:

Jamarcus Russell

David Carr

Terry Baker

Randy Duncan

Tim Couch

Couch's career cut short by injury. Carr's by just a shit team.

I would probably take either of them over Bradford or a Jeff George.

[bbedward]

@the-gipper said:

Couch's career cut short by injury. Carr's by just a shit team.

I would probably take either of them over Bradford or a Jeff George.

I thought about subbing Bradford for Couch, but idk much about Jeff George - so I didn't pick him

[The Gipper]

@bbedward said:

00-09 - 7 QBs taken with the #1 overall

Next closest decade: the current one, 5 QBs taken with #1 overall since 2010

Every other decade has had 4 or less with the exception of the 50s. I thought the list was longer than that.

Well, as I have been saying...it is the premium set on QBs recently. I do not think that trend will discontinue.

[The Gipper]

And then How about this. Here is the list of QBs taken with the #2 overall pick since 1936. A shorter list:

1939 Sid Luckman

1949 John Rauch

1950 Adrian Burke

1951 Bob Williams

1954 Lamar McHan

1956 Earl Morrall

1960 George Izo

1961 Norm Snead

1962 Roman Gabriel

1964 Pete Beatherd AFL

1966 Rick Norton AFL

1971 Archie Manning

1973 Bert Jones

1993 Rick Mirer

1998 Ryan Leaf

1999 Donovan McNabb

2012 Robert Griffin

2015 Marcus Mariota

2016 Carson Wentz

Only HOF was the first guy taken.

Of the 19 so far, only 7 can be said to have solid careers: Luckman, Morrall, Snead, Gabriel, Archie, Jones, McNabb.

Griffin looks a bust. Too soon on Mariota/Wentz

Moral of the story: get your QB at #1 rather than #2 if you can.

[The Gipper]

Next: here are the QBs taken at #3 overall:

1948 Bobby Layne HOF

1953 Jack Scarbath

1957 John Brodie

1967 Steve Spurrier

1970 Mike Phipps

1971 Dan Pastorini

1979 Jack Thompson

1986 Jim Everett

1994 Heath Shuler

1995 Steve McNair

1999 Akili Smith

2002 Joey Harrington

2006 Vince Young

2008 Matt Ryan

2014 Blake Bortles

Only about a third of these guys have had solid careers: Layne, Brodie, Pastorini Everett, McNair, Ryan. Too soon on Bortles to say.

[Zombo]

1944 Angelo Bertelli

1946 Bobby Dancewicz

1948 Harry Gilmer

1952 Billy Wade

1954 Bobby Garrett

1955 George Shaw

1958 King Hill

1959 Randy Duncan

1962 AFL Roman Gabriel

1963 Terry Baker

1964 AFL Jack Concannon

1965 AFL Joe Namath

1970 Terry Bradshaw

1971 Jim Plunkett

1975 Steve Bartkowski

1983 John Elway

1987 Vinny Testaverde

1989 Troy Aikman

1990 Jeff George

1993 Drew Bledsoe

1998 Peyton Manning

1999 Tim Couch

2001 Michael Vick

2002 David Carr

2003 Carson Palmer

2004 Eli Manning

2005 Alex Smith

2007 Jamarcus Russell

2009 Matt Stafford

2010 Sam Bradford

2011 Cam Newton

2012 Andrew Luck

2015 Jameis Winston

2016 Jared Goff

Best

Manning

Elway

Aikman

Bradshaw

Namath

Worst

Russell

Duncan

Hill

Garrett

Dancewicz

[The Gipper]

Maybe it is unfair to take the list from the time of the beginning of the draft. Lets say we limit it to just "since 1960"

The Top 5 of mine would not change:

Peyton

Elway

Bradshaw

Aikman

Namath

Bottom 5?:

Baker

Russell

Concannon

George

Carr

(again, I am giving Couch a pass due to injury)

[Tour2ma]

Easy....

Best: P. Manning

Worst: Russell

[The Gipper]

@tour2ma said:

Easy....

Best: P. Manning

Worst: Russell

Not that easy.....as much as I would like to kick his teeth in I may still take Elway.

Even just going back to 1960....Baker was an equal or bigger bust than Russell.

So, there IS some argument.

[Tour2ma]

@the-gipper said:

So, there IS always some argument.

FIFY