Tuesday, January 22, 2013
How many first-round QBs?
By Tim Kavanagh
The 2012 crop of rookie QBs may wind up being an historically productive one when they finish their careers. Russell Wilson, Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck all led their team into the playoffs, and Ryan Tannehill offered some stability to a franchise that has been seeking an answer at the QB position for over a decade. Brandon Weeden... well, he was Brandon Weeden. Four out of five ain't bad.
For months, we've been reading that this year's crop of QBs doesn't have the same kind of potential, but one analyst isn't buying that line of thinking.
"It's early in this entire process," NFL Network analyst Mike Mayock noted during the network's Senior Bowl coverage, via NFL.com. "Everyone says there's no Andrew Luck, there's no Robert Griffin III. ... I guarantee you by the time we get to April, there will be three to four quarterbacks taken in the first round, and most of them are coming out of this game."
The QBs participating at the Senior Bowl this year (the pool from which Mayock believes some of these first-round QBs will be taken) includes Miami of Ohio's Zac Dysert, NC State's Mike Glennon, Syracuse's Ryan Nassib, Oklahoma's Landry Jones, Arkansas' Tyler Wilson and FSU's E.J. Manuel.
Mel Kiper Jr. ha zero QBs taken in his initial mock draft of the first round, but at a quick glance there are six teams in the top half of the draft order that could be interested in an upgrade at the position.
