With so many teams near the top of the draft lacking a long-term answer at the quarterback position, it seemed as if we might see a run on signal-callers early in the evening on May 8, with Johnny Manziel, Blake Bortles, and Teddy Bridgewater all coming off the board within the first few picks.
In recent weeks though, the perception of this year’s quarterback class has shifted, with the general consensus now suggesting there are significant question marks about every QB in the class. Some players, like Pitt’s Tom Savage, have seen their stocks rise, but the players at or near the top of the board, like Manziel and Bridgewater, are no longer viewed as locks to be selected in the top 10, or – in Bridgewater’s case – even the top 25.
A piece from Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com this week suggested that Bortles is considered the quarterback most likely to come off the board first. The UCF product may not have the upside of others in the draft, but he’s considered a safer pick than most of his fellow signal-callers. In a league where the job security of coaches and general managers is often directly tied to the performance of first-round quarterbacks, opting for the choice with the least risk could look awfully appealing on draft night.
Still, with the draft a little over two weeks away, we still have no idea where those big three will land, and guys like Savage, Derek Carr, A.J. McCarron, Jimmy Garoppolo, and Zach Mettenberger are wild cards as well. What do you think? Which of these guys would you draft if all of them were still on the board and you needed a quarterback? Which QB should be drafted first?